On this episode's show, we feature a documentary about India's Caste System and a recording of a discussion at the South Asian Women's Centre in Montreal reflecting on violence.
In India, people are divided and known according to the castes they belong to. Caste is ancient system of social stratification followed by Hindus for centuries and still intact in its premitive form. From admission to schools and colleges to employment or electionioneering everything depends on castes. The lowest strata in the caste system are outcastes – means they don’t belong to any caste- and primarily lives to do jobs that nobody else would touch. One of the jobs they are assigned for centuries is scavenging. However educated you are, as seen here in the state of Gujarat, you are destined to clean up roads and public toilets generations after generations. Identified under different names, the members of this particular community is more than one million in India. They are part of the untouchables. They cannot enter temples, homes, restaurants and so much so that utensils for them are destroyed after they use it once for the fear of not contracting the lower caste phobia. In this documentary from Free Speech Radio News, Indian journalist Binu Alex traveled across western Indian state of Gujarat to see their condition and reports why they cannot come out this stigma.
Montreal's South Asian Women's Centre organized a discussion about violence in rememberance of the Montreal Massacre that happend 17 years ago. The discussion was facilitated by Playback Theatre, an original form of improvisational theatre and community ritual, in which audience members are invited to tell stories from their lives and watch them played back, on the spot.
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS is a daily half-hour progressive radio newscast. You can listen to their reports on-line at www.fsrn.org.
SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY NEWS is a bi-monthly 1 hour radio program produced by members of the south asian community in Montreal, Canada, for community radio CKUT 90.3FM. It is a forum about local and global issues affecting south asians. We are supporters of social justice and will strive to bring you voices from the community.
To send your comments, get involved, or get in touch with the south asian community news collective, email: southasia @ ckut . ca
Please feel free to re-broadcast this program on your Community Radio Station.
Archives: #001: Conflict in Sri Lanka - Part I [http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAsianCommunityNews_CKUT_180906]
#002: Conflict in Sri Lanka - Part II [http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAsianCommunityNews_CKUT_021006]
#003: Gujarat Genocide: 4 years later [http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAsianCommunityNews_CKUT_161006]
#004: Discussion with members of No One Is Illegal-Vancouver [http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/15755.php]
#005: Interviews with Amita Handa (author of 'Of Silk Saris and Mini Skirts') and Biju Mathew (organizer with the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate) [http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20593]
#006: India's Caste System and Reflecting on Violence with Playback Theatre [http://www.archive.org/details/SouthAsianCommunityNews_CKUT_041206]
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