In TN buses, some still wait for a Rosa Parks
By G Babu Jayakumar
01st December 2012 12:00 AM
Dalits have to stand up, giving away their seat, when caste Hindus enter a government bus. No, this is no vignette harking back to a bygone dark era of blatant caste discrimination. It’s something allegedly happening even now in Tamil Nadu, as revealed by Latha Priyakumar, member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, earlier this week after a visit to Pacharapalayam village in Cuddalore district, where Dalit homes were burnt recently.The startling revelation, however, brought back memories of a 42-year-old Rosa Parks, an African-American seamstress who, on this day exactly 57 years ago, defied the orders of a driver of a Montgomery city bus to vacate her seat for a white man, thus becoming the symbol of modern civil rights movement in America.
Parks was on her way back home from work on December 1, 1955, on board the Cleveland Avenue bus that got filled up mid-way with several white commuters standing on the aisle. So driver, James F Blake, moved the sign segregating white and black passengers two rows ahead and asked four black passengers to vacate their seats. Three of them complied while Parks, who was in the first row designated for ‘coloured people’ put her foot down.
She was arrested for violating a local Jim Crow law, spurring the black community to raise as one man. On December 5 the local African-American community leaders gathered at a church and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and chose a 26-year-old Baptist minister to lead an agitation that came to be known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and went on for 382 days till the law requiring segregation on buses was lifted.
The Baptist minister, whose house was among the many properties of Blacks that were attacked during the boycott that saw African-Americans using other modes of transport or walking distances as long as 20 km for work, was Martin Luther King Jr, who will make history eight years later by delivering his ‘I have a dream’ speech at the ‘March to Washington’ rally.
Parks’ life too changed. First she faced trial and was found guilty of violating Chapter 6, section 11 of the Montgomery City code. She had to pay $10 as fine and $4 as court fee. Then she and her husband, Raymond Parks, lost their jobs and moved out to Hampton in Virginia and then to Detroit in Michigan.
But she was associated with the movement against racial discrimination. She even published her autobiography to inspire the youth and also a memoir titled ‘Quiet Strength’. She received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. She was named as one of the 20 most influential people of 20th century by Time magazine in 1999. When she died in 2005, her body was laid in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC — an honour given for only two non-official Americans and an only woman. It is indeed a put down to learn that in Tamil Nadu, a pioneering state in social justice, Dalits still have a long way to go.
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Comments(7)
All these are spineless stories. The rationalist dravidain parties and the so called Dalit organisations( who mint money using the dalits ) unitedly, never have the guts to go to villages and openly protest. When the hotel's name is written "Brahmanal"(Brahmins') they somehow go and shout slogans. Because of lack of sincereity the organisations fail to do the need of the hour. it is very easy to humiliate Brtahmins who have no numbers and do not come out open in the street, but it is almost impossibe against caste Hindus.We always fight shadows only by are damn afraid of the truth.
Posted by sundararajan at 12/01/2012 09:15 Reply to this Report abuse
This reminds me something:- I had a reserved seat in a Ist class coupe in Madras - Delhi GT xpress. Was too tired and badly needed some rest. After few hours TTE came told me to shift to a crowded coupe with 3 Adults and 3 children and lots luggage. I objected and TTE was annoyingly adamant. Meanwhile the train stopped in some station two gentlemen came in and seeing the commotion asked TTE who was still shouting at me what the problem is. The elderly of the two smiled at me and told TTE, not to bother me, it is OK for them. He was very jovial and singing poetry and we talked about so many things and asked my opinion about politics. Other gentleman seemed to more serious type. Mrs. Indira Gandhi was PM at that time. It was nice talking to them. Many people visited them at every stop and brought sweets & fruits which they happily shared with me. In the morning after they got down at Agra I got to know from the cabin attendant that those nice people MPs Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani.
Posted by Abraham Paul at 12/01/2012 10:05 Reply to this Report abuse
this is the very stuff of propaganda which brought down countless cultures. as ben okra , nobel laureate said "to kill a "culture poison their stories". blood libel against jews, communist propaganda about revisionists etc.are of the same kind. a culture which justified slavery, genocide, and ruth less exploitation of all the continents are finding champions in india.doris lessing about communist genocides-"then the language took over-henas, kulaks etc took over sending millions to death".language is a gift and in the minds of people who are vile a cures. kurup
Posted by s.kurp at 12/01/2012 14:32 Reply to this Report abuse
A simple lie to provoke Dalits against the so called caste Hindus with the ulterior motive of converting them. Why, New Indian Express wants to lose its credibility?
Posted by S K Nair at 12/01/2012 16:00 Reply to this Report abuse
Sir, What Babu Jayakumar will not tell is that Tamil Nadu is paying the price for the 'POISON' injected into into social fabric during the days of the Raj, by the colonial 'HARVESTERS OF SOULS' - aka - Christian Missionaries - like Bishop Robert Caldwel, G.U. Pope et al. The research treatise 'Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dalit and Dravidian Faultlines' clearly brings this aspect out. In fact, if one were to read the Gandhian, (late) Dharampal's - "The Beautiful Tree", one gets to read the report on the State of Education in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, commissioned by the then Governor of the Presidency - Thomas Munroe. What strikes one HARD and SQUARE is the absence of any 'MANDALISATION' of education. It is the RAJ aided and abetted by the HARVESTERS OF SOULS that destroyed the indigenous system of education . The Dalits were the hardest hit. Don't blame it on 'Brahminical Forces' !! Its dead and buried with the Caldwells !! Unworthy of an edit page 'OPINION'. rgds
Posted by H.Balakrishnan at 12/01/2012 19:25 Reply to this Report abuse