DALIT, SOCIAL ATROCITIES AND MASS COMMUNICATION.

The primitiveness of the society formation is time immemorial. The humanity within human being differentiates them from the wild animal. Living together of the human being proves the cohesion and well built social structure.

Socialization process might have started basing on their interdependency but the emergence of “might is right” philosophy would have given birth to hatredness and supremacy of one group of people over another. Indian society has been divided in to different sub group like Brahmin, Kshyatriya, Baishya and Sudra after the invasion of Aryan. This division specified the hierarchy in the society and created extreme dislike to the fellow human being instead of love and affection.
Sudra the so called lower caste people are latter identified as Ati-sudra , Panchama or untouchables and given lowest status in the society .They were debarred from accessing the public resources. The concept of equality propagated by lord Budha was defied by so called higher caste people from the ancient period before Christ. The caste factor become so deepened and turned into tradition that the so called upper caste people tried to earn advantage out of that. On the other hand the dalits (so called lower caste) are socially agonized in different forms and thousands of social atrocities against them gradually increasing day by day in each moment in India. Media being the 4th pillar of the constitution get the responsibility to be a mouthpiece of common mass through bringing out all the happenings and bare facts of the society to create awareness and educate the people.

Journalism and presentation of facts.

Media plays an important role for collecting information and day to day happenings, documenting in an unbiased way and disseminating it to the mass. It is the mirror of the society through which one can see the entire system like judiciary, executive, parliament or any sufferings of an individual. It has a great impact over the everyday life of the people. It can create revolution, love, hatred ness, destruction, harmony, Unity and so on. Of course it depends on the way how an event is presented for which an example can be quoted from Mahabharata, a great religious scripture of the India.

“Nare ba gunjare Aswasthama rane hata”

Here the entire facts has been presented clearly but the way of presentation was such that it could not speak out the actual event for which it was meant and it could be able to divert the mind of the listener diluting the original fact. It is needless to say that hiding of social facts leads to the destruction of the society.
In the ancient Aryan period the learned Brahmins had told dalits that they have given birth from the feet of the lord Brahma and they are destined to serve the other three group people those who have born from mouth, arm, and thigh of the later. This manipulations and hiding of facts encouraged very few opportunists of so called upper caste of the present day and placed them high in the society, putting all other large masses in to a dark tunnel. Even dalits were not allowed to read and write, as a result inequality ruled over within whole Aryabrat and the society could not progress to the desire extend. Deprivation of information and mass communication not only checked the mental growth but economic progress and social change of the dalit mass hampered to the infinity height. Dalit community have been suffering for generations as they were kept in dark as Aswasthama word was used by the great honest/truthful man like Yudhistira of Mahabharata which a true journalist should not follow .

Tradition and use of mass media by dalit
Use of media by dalits (tribes and caste) is a tradition of their own community. Especially in western Orissa, Southern Orissa, the Domb, Gana community they were using their musical instrument as a media for communication.
Ganabaja comprising of Dhol, Naishan, Mahuri and Tasa is a part of tradition and culture of the community. Death news being the emergency one and needs immediate attention of community people, they have been using Nishan instrument for the purpose.
Here one person goes to the top of the house with a Nishan. He beats a particular type of rhythm called “Marha Nishan”. They believe that this rhythm being produced from the leather goes to far distance, nearby villages and communicate the own community people. Soon after hearing this particular type of rhythm which indicates the news of death of the community people of other villages, even engaged in different important activity, are gathered within a short span of time without making any delay. The Nishan is of course no more in rampant use though it was mandatory to drum in the occasion. Now a days Marha Nishan has been replaced by mobile phone and other modern popular electronics and print media.
In the similar way dalits were using the traditional method for giving information of marriage. A particular type of rope made up of forest shrubs called “Gandhuaa rashi” was in use for the purpose. When both bride and groom party fix a date for the marriage, the groom party give the information of the date through knots of this Gandhuaa rope. The number of knots will specify and speak about the days of marriage and accordingly they get prepared. This process they might have invented because of their access denied to general education. There is nos. of traditional form of communication which was helpful for the dalit community in the past.

History and dalit community.
Dalits have been neglected from the every sector. Intellectuality is a sustainable property through which a progressive path can be shown to the community. Thousand years together intellectuality was in the hands of few brahmins and it has not yet been completely disseminated to the mass. Brahnins were utilizing this intellectuality as per their sweet will. They had documented these facts in different forms for the welfare of their community without taking others in to consideration.
No where in Purana or Veda, social status and economic condition of dalits has been written rather a love story, war, eulogize of king ,even the gambling(Pasa khela in Mahabharata) has been meticulously, in a very clear form and style mentioned but the mass is missing. In the brahminical thought process and caste discrimination, the culture and tradition of dalits has been deliberately ignored. The main problem of the dalits has become therefore is the identity crisis. As dalits were intellectually discriminated, they suffered from insulted identity through out and generations to gathers.
Dr.Bhim Rao Ambedkar has not relied on the brahminical religious text. He has clearly defined the origin of dalits in his “Who are sudras”. Here he has mentioned that once the present dalits were called as Daasa, Dashyu, Chandaal, Ashura, Rakshyaasha, etc. An example can be cited from the religious text like Ramayana and Mahabharata which will justify the argument on Dr. Ambedkar. In Ramayana it has been mentioned that Ravana and Bibhisan were two brothers. In Ramayana TV serial which was running in the doordarshan for a pretty long period and well accepted by the crore of viewers of India, the Director of the serial Mr. Ramanandasagar has projected Ravana as notorious in characters. His physical structure was very unpleasant where as Bibhishana being the own brother of Ravana from the same womb of a mother was simple and a man of noble character. Not necessarily that the brothers from the same mother will be having the same characters but here it might have so happen because of the quarrel between Ravana and Ramachandra where Bibhishan being the brother of Ravana become treacherous to his brother and helped Ramachandra to unveil the secrecy of his brother which ultimately leads to winning of war by the later. This favour of Bibhishan obliged the Brahmin religious text writer to project him as a simple and true man.
The same thing might have happened in the case of Hiranyakashyap and Prahallad. Prahallad being the son of Hiranyakashyap has been projected as a normal and simple boy as he took the side of lord Vishnu where as Hiranyakashyap was in a Rakshyasa form as he protested the lordship of Vishnu. Perhaps this kind of interpretation must have put Ambedkar in embarrassing situation and would have instigated him to explore the dalit identity in his “Who are Sudras”

Social atrocities and present mass media
Social atrocities are increasing day by day as the communal forces are in their galloping stage. The root causes of those atrocities are casteism and religious dogma prevailing in the society. Fundamental rights though provided in article-15 of Constitution is :-
Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.—(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.

(2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to—
(a) access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or
(b) the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

Abiding of this constitutional provision becomes very difficult because of caste and religious weakness is always smeared over inside the mind of the caste based Indian society. The atrocities which are happening in each moment is not documented and presented to the mass properly.

If we look at the history of the mass communication, Orissa came to the news paper map of India in 1862. Since then there is tremendous progress in this sector. There are 140 numbers of stat level accredited journalists in Orissa out of which 97 no. are from print media and 9 no. are from electronic media and rest 33 no of journalists are working as freelance journalists.(Orissa reference annual-2006,I & PR Dept, Orissa).Among the long list of the journalists accredited by the I & PR Dept., Govt. of Orissa no one from the dalit community add to the number. Nothing to be surprised that, the tribal and dalit dominated two districts i.e. Nuapada and Malkangiri don’t have even Sub-Divisional level accredited journalists
There are 44 no. of approved daily news paper coming out in Orissa. There is one biweekly,18 no. of weekly, 3 no. of fortnightly, one quarterly and 9 no. of monthly periodicals are being published as approved by the I& PR Dept of Orissa (Orissa reference annual-2006,I & PR Dept, Orissa).Apart from these accredited / approved list there are so many journals,fortnightly,weekly even daily are being published from different corner of the state but it is seen that no owner of a reputed news paper/ fortnightly/ weekly /monthly hails from dalit community.
Once the great social reformer of India, Mahatma Jotirao Govindrao Phule has told, “the man having injury can only realize the pain but others can never.”
As an insider, it comes to my mind that in the caste based society where Brahminism is dominating the whole system along with all aspects of life; it will be foolish to belief that the so called upper caste journalists could present the facts of atrocities against dalit in a true manner. Whenever and wherever there is a choice of justice arises between dalit and non-dalit, the later is always victimized.
Law is always there inside the close cover of the books but there is huge gape between practice and theory. Many people from dalit community, even the educated one doesn’t know what atrocity act are? It has been mentioned in the Article-17 of the Constitution that,
“Untouchability’’ is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of “Untouchability’’ shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
In spite of the provision of law there are so many examples of dalits who have been tortured by upper caste. In the recent past there was an incidence in Jhajjar, Hariyana where two dalits were collecting beef from a dead cow. The upper caste people killed those two people at the cost of a dead cow as cow is celebrated as mother in Hindu religion. Is it humanity or brutality in the name of religion?

Untouchability being an offence, there is stringent law against this crime. If a dalits files a case against any non dalits for atrocities, the higher caste police officer does not record the case and they try to settle at their level. This kind of attitude speaks about the biasness and favour towards their own caste and community people. Some of the examples are quoted here from the reputed news paper of Orissa published as head lines in different point of time which will strengthen the above statement.
• Atrocities against a harijan woman, Police favours the accused.
(Dharitri. Dt-06.05.2008)
• Woman is beaten naked and again tortured in Police station.
(Aamari Katha, Dt-14.02.2008)
• Dalits threaten to call for strike against the biasness of Police
(Pragatibadee, Dt-04.06.2007)
• After lapse of a week, Police is not able to trace out the culprit who attacked the harijan.
(Anupam Bharat, Dt.-17.03.2008)
(Harija word has been used as it was in the news paper)

Many media clips against attitude of the Police officers are seen. Most of the news papers are visualizing the day to day happening and facts about the atrocities for which definitely they are praiseworthy. The Jagannath Temple entry at Keredagarh of Kendrapada by dalits was focus news in the media for some time back This heinous news could unveil the nakedness of casteism in the well-informed society and brought it to the notice of those people who belief in globalization or controlled by e-governance and Internet.
The same thing happened in case of Miss Mamatam Naik, a college going girl of Narasingh Pur village which is located in the out skirt of the capital city, Bhubaneswar. When Mamata took admission in a college, she has to pass through a nearby village named Naput gaon to attend her regular classes. But because of caste discrimination, the traditional conservative people of so called higher caste of the village did not resist a dalit girl to move on a bicycle with chappal in her feet in front of them which her forefather did not have dare to do the same from generations.
The Orissa media has covered and presented the matter in a proper way and made the people known about the facts of casteism. Only for the media, Mamata, an innocent girl could able to get the justice but it is also fact that thousands of Mamatas are suffering in the village condition which are not coming in to picture.
Here are some of the examples of entire social structure, discrimination, caste hierarchy, which one can find with the morning tea. This news in an assembled form will be sufficient enough to asses the intensity of the social atrocities and degradation of Indian society.
• Some untouchables enter to a hotel for their normal Tiffin. The touchables earlier sitting in the hotel protested their entry and quarrel started at Kuhudi, Khurda.
The Paryabekhyaka, Dt.-10.08.2007

• An incidence occurred in the saloon when an untouchable boy requested to cut his hair .The barber denied to perform the same .Argument lead to a severe condition. Even Collector, Superintendent of Police, Police and other officials could not able to solve the problem and they went back.
The Paryabekhyaka, Dt.-20.08.2007

• Landless harijan families of Jarapada Police Station cultivating the land since 40 years was handed over to Jindal Company
The Sambad, Dt-11.01.2007

• An untouchable Sri Dukhishyam Bhoi who was seriously attacked and injured by the touchables has been admitted in to Capital Hospital. This incidence occurred under Pipili Police Station, in the Mangal pur village.
The Janabanee, Dt- 28.05.2007

• Dalit boy was beaten brutally by Police. OIC admitted the fact and agree to bear the cost of treatment.
The Samaj, Dt- 10.10.2007

• Quarrel between touchables and untouchables in Anugul, 14 injured.
The Orissa Bhaskar, Dt- 27.10.2007

• 6189 untouchables have been tortured within 6 years. No accuse has been punished till now.
The Arambha, Dt-15-21, August, 2007

• Clash between touchables and untouchables, 4 person severely injured in Gopalpur Gram Panchayat of Bolgarh.
The Samaj, Dt-03.06.08

• Communal clash started when a boy of untouchable Pana caste touched the beetle shopkeeper of touchable telugu community. In the incidence 3 got injured severely in Patapur.
The Anupam Bharat , Dt-16.04.08

• Untouchables have been prohibited to enter the village and village market. Touchable villagers have been instructed in a village meeting, not to talk and exchange any things with untouchables.
The Dharitri, Dt-16.9.2007

• Harijan children are discriminated during mid day meal in the school at Balianta Block.
The Sambad, Dt- 07.08.2007

• Sri Artabandhu Sethi, a harijan Head Master was severely attacked by upper caste people under Bant Police Station of Bhadrak.
The Anupam Bharat, Dt- 22.03.2007

• A harijan Head Master was protested by the upper caste people while joining in the Badasunalo High school of Kamakshya nagar block.
The Pragatibadee, Dt- 22.07.2007

• All the dalits of Sadhupalli village near Sohela, Bargarh were driven out from their own village due to casteism. Upper caste people destroyed the houses, weaving machine, and other house hold materials of dalits.
The Satabdee, Dt-15th August-2004

Atrocities against dalit community in the village, shop, temple, festive occasion, river bank, pond, school, agriculture field have been reported by different news papers. Women, girl child, school student, head master of a school, daily labourers, Govt. servant all are victimized due to the caste discrimination. It is not limited to village but rampant, even in town like capital city of the state. Very few cases which become acute in nature only come to the picture of general public through media. Had there been proper representation of dalit in mass media the number of reported cases would have come in to picture. For the shake of reporting it can’t satisfy the purpose of media and can’t change the attitude of the caste based society. All most in all instances proper follow up of the reported cases are not carried over as a result it does not intensify the gravity of the situation. This slackness is often seen due to the reason that the reporters belongs to so called higher caste and thereby the unpunished person become encouraged to commit the same fault again and again. To overcome the social atrocities, an honest reporting and follow up of the cases are important by which awareness on casteism and atrocities can be made.

Capitalism, dalit and mass media
It is seen that capitalist play a vital role in media sector. In the era of globalization and privatization, commodity act as a key role in the mind set of the people. Man having more purchasing power in the present day is respected in the society. Evaluating the mental status of the people and to increase the no. of buyer for their product, the capitalist and the multinational company (MNC) prepare their strategy accordingly. They bring the attention of the people to words their marketable commodity through electronic and print media.
Some times it is seen that the entire first page of the news paper will be covered with advertisement from different companies. After the liberalization process, capitalists are exploiting the parents and making their profitable business through opening private educational Institution .There is no control over fee amount and examination system which facilitates the dull student from the rich family to get absorbed and the talented students from the poor family is deprived up from availing higher education. To attract the parent /guardian/student they purchase the whole page out of the money collected from the students and glorify their institute through advertisement. In the exploitation process of MNCs and big company/firm, media also cooperate with them by accepting their advertisement, providing evidence themselves as a part of the capitalist leads to social atrocities.
In the fashion loving society, MNCs advertise their product through a star person either from film or from sports so that it becomes impressive to the viewer. Million of supporter of these stars without exercising their brain go for the product which is being used by their much loved stars. Here the MNCs pay very less amount to the stars for promotion of the product but earn multiple millions through selling the product to their million of supporter. An example of soft drink can be sufficient enough to understand the fact. Stars like Amitabh Bacchan, Amir Khan, Tendulkar, Shaharukh Khan use to advertise the soft drinks like Coca cola / Pepsi etc. Now, in each small shop in a remote village; one can get this soft drink. This has happened because of the National Doordarshan channel which has promoted this product through advertisement. But the reality behind the soft drink is not presented to the mass. On Friday, Aug 29, 2003 in The Hindu, there was a report “Blue Pepsi contains highest content of residues: report”
“According to the report, the level of pesticide residues in Blue Pepsi was 5.2 times higher than the maximum permissible under the European Union norms. It was followed by Mirinda lemon (4.2 times higher than the E.U. standards), Coca Cola (4 times), Mirinda orange (3.4 times), and Sprite (3.2 times). In Thumbs-Up and Mountain Dew the level was two times higher than the E.U. norms, in Fanta 1.7 times and in 7Up 1.6 times. In Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Limca, pesticide contents were found, but below the E.U. norm.
The CSE(Centre for Science and Environment) in its report had stated that pesticide content was maximum in Mirinda lemon (70 times higher than the E.U. norms), followed by Coca Cola (45 times), Fanta (45 times), Mirinda orange (39 times), Pepsi (37 times), 7Up (33 times), Limca (30 times), Blue Pepsi (29 times), Mountain Dew (28 times), Thums Up (22 times), Diet Pepsi (14 times) and Sprite (11 times).”
It is our misfortune that the creative stars like Bacchan, Amir Khan, Tendulkar, Shaharukh Khan etc. do not able to understand the inner meaning of the MNCs and perform the harmful activity and this fact is being presented to the innocent people of the society in a popular media like Doordarshan along with other popular TV channels. In the same way, once there was an advertisement in Doordarshan on Crack cream where the dialogue was “Face is like princess but the heel is like made-servant” (Muhu raj rani, paer naukarani). Without being proper censor of the very statement, it is permitted to telecast in the National media which humiliates the people of working class.
In the news paper there is nos. of advertisements on “Oil to enlarge penis”, “Cream to increase the size of breast”, foreign liquor, etc. These materials are presented in such an attractive and exploitative form that the simple, innocent people don’t control themselves to purchase the same. To what extend these materials are useful to the civil society is a matter of discussion.
Once all the media covered the story of marriage of Aiswarya Rai and Abhishekh Bacchan. After some days there was a great discussion on their visit to Tirupati Temple. When there are more than 47% of people are under BPL in India, Bachhan family under the leadership of great big “B” Abhishek with Aishwarya Rai in a special prayers made a donation of Rs.5.1 million each to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).How a creative man becomes so dogmatic? How the media, being the fourth pillar of the constitution glorify these events and presented to the crore of people, in fact which has absolutely no use to the society. On the other hand, the suffering of crore of depressed class people in many times are not given due attention.
Cricket is another curse to the Indian society. MNCs sponsored game continues for a week long and all the office bearer, student, household completely occupied in the game, forgetting every thing. All the print media write good no. of pages and electronic media broadcast entire day leaving aside various events of the state. Game and entertainment occupy almost 50% of the space in media which helps the development in various field steps backward of the society.
In all the News papers it is seen that astrology is one of the most important chapter though it is purely a nonscientific things completely based on imagination and presumption. During the course of rapid development and advance of the science, it has been proved that there are more than nine planets. It has also already been proved that moon is not a planet rather a satellite (upagraha). Similarly sun is unfortunately considered as a planet in Astrology which is not true but a star as it illuminates light. Although we have sufficient scientific prove to condemn the Nabagraha theory the present media always give emphasis on it and carefully take it to the people. Even in the electronic media like TV they have opened special channels on Astrology which starts diverting the mindset of the people from the beginning of the day and demoralizes for any kind of new activity, as a result the development is checked. Therefore media and mass communication should understand and analyze the things whether it is beneficial to the mass or not before incorporating such unscientific matter in it.
In this situation the role of the educated mass is not visible .Especially educated Dalit must pay back to their society but mostly it is seen that they keep themselves in an isolated area from the social issues as it is done by the so called upper caste. They neither write any thing nor react in a form of their choice. The inactive attitude of dalit not only discourages the people of their community but also demoralize others to speak about their rights. So many dalits are writing poetry, short story, novels etc for different journals and magazine but many of them don’t write on dalit issues otherwise it could have been a better answer to the people those who intellectually discriminate the oppressed class.
Women are considered as the second sex in the brahminical society. They are equally tortured like dalit in various forms. This can be well observed in the day to day advertisement media. The capitalist and MNCs utilize different body part of women as their tool through which they advertise their product to the market to accelerate their business transaction. House wife those who are not expose to this type of conspiracy do not able to understand the hidden agenda inside it and some times they become envious and instigate their husband to purchase the unnecessary materials without calculating the earning / pay structure of the male and as a result sometimes it leads to unstable situation of the family. Many women organizations are working for the cause of the up-liftment of the second sex but mostly it is seen that they don’t focus on such issues to protect the identity and independence of the women. Media persons indeed has a great role, either he may be an editor, a publisher, a reporter or owners being the male should not ignore women and should be unbiased enough while dealing with the gender issues.
An example of dalit and non-dalit writings and the very attitude of the facts can be better explained in the following manner. In most of the print as well as electronics media, we often see the news on conversion and recon version. In a short span of time the Orissa people have witness three major communal riots i.e. Kandha –Pana(1994) riot in Phulbanee District, Adivashi-Dalit Christian in Gajapatee Districts(1998) and recently again there is communal riot between Hindus and Dalit Christians in Phulbanee (December-2007 and August-2008). All these three riots are broadly based on religion, caste and conversion. Some non-dalit organization has named the reconversion as “Griha Pratyaabartan” or return to own religion. If some body thinks this conversion and re-conversion seriously then so many questions arise in mind as
• Whey there is a need of conversion?
• Whether social atrocities like casteism has got role in conversion or not?
• Is there any conversion between Buddhist to Islam or vice versa and Islam to Christian?
• Conversion is mostly seen in Hinduism, Why?
• Is it fact that Buddhist and Christianity is little more liberal than Islam therefore Hindus prefers to convert themselves in to Buddhist and Christianity?
• When the converted people from other religion return to their home or back to their previous religion, in which ‘Barna’ (In the Chaturbarna system) they are accommodated?
• Is there any example of reconverted people from other religion to Hinduism who has been placed in the caste Brahmin?
So many questions arise in mind when there is a question of conversion and recon version. These questions are not at all answered by the non-dalit intellectuals, anywhere in media which a dalit writer can explain in a better way to present the facts of the incidence.
Some of the journals and periodicals like Janabanee, Dalit Baarta, Dernaa, Times of Mulnivashi, Adhikaar, Charchaa ,Panchamastamba, etc are being published under the ownership of dalits .The circulation of these journals and periodicals are very limited and mostly they are confined to their own (dalit)community, therefore the inner thoughts and ideas are not properly disseminated to the main stream. However the dalit community peoples are being ignited and try to understand the meaning of the Brahminism through these journals and periodicals. The role played by these journals can’t be ignored rather the educated dalits should contribute their time, talent and treasury to support the sustainability of the journals so that a new generation of journalist would come forward to fill the gape in media sector

At the end
Media plays a vital role in building the society. It has the power to make the ordinary great and great to an ordinary. Being the fourth pillar of the constitution it should be impartial and fair enough while dealing with the matter. Mass media should keep them above from caste, creed, religion, poor, rich, educated and uneducated etc. Persons involve with mass media communication should be of open mind and liberal enough to accept the others. The so called higher caste journalist should go in to the matter genuinely and analyze the situation of the socially deprived class. They should change their mind set should not write for the shake of writing but they should have deep social commitment to uplift the oppressed.
The owner of the Journals /Periodicals should be open enough to accept the people from oppressed class so that it will help to understand the problems of dalits in a better form and can be presented in an empathetic way. As the oppressed class people are less exposed and do not know the importance of mass media to the desirable extend they should be encouraged to join in this sector more and more. Untouchability being the great social crime, there should be regular advertisement in each paper to abolish it mentally instead of “Oil to enlarge penis”. “Cream to increase the size of breast”,
Writer from dalit/ non-dalit community should come forward to write on the social issues and media should facilitate for the debate to create awareness in the society. It should be meticulous enough while Publishing/Telecasting/Broadcasting advertisement of MNC and other capitalists so that it is not remained away from the ethics of the media. Being the mouth piece of the millions of the society it should always speak well of all so that the society will run in a right direction.


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