ASSOCIATION FOR INDIA’S DEVELOPMENT
(AID)
and
present
What Some "Criminals" Tell Me About My Country
A talk by
DILIP D’SOUZA
Talk Abstract:
I have spent
some time in the last two years or so meeting and writing about de-notified
tribes: our ex-criminal tribes. Most of these 20-25 million Indians live in
pretty desperate conditions: in miserable huts, surrounded by dirt, scrounging
for water, unable to find steady work and so on.
And yet, those are all
things that can be said of many other millions of Indian poor. Writing about
DNTs, I was conscious of this. It seemed to me that if I had to turn some
public attention towards them, it would have to be by finding and writing about
what was particular to them, to their situation. And it seems to me what is
particular to them is the deep prejudices the rest of society still has towards
them. Nearly half a century after these communities were de-notified, thus not
classified as criminal any more, they are still burdened by that stigma. This
is what marks them.
Partly because of my name
and because of the direction I see our country taking, prejudice is something
that interests, intrigues and depresses me a great deal. In this talk, I'd like
to tell you a little bit about my experiences with it, using DNTs as something
of a context, or a starting point if you prefer. I think this is important
because it says something about the kind of country we are, the kind of country
we are going to be.
ABOUT
THE SPEAKER:
Dilip D’Souza is an avid writer whose articles and opinion columns regularly
appear in many publications in India and abroad. His writing and commentary
focuses on political, social and human-rights issues, and offers a very human
perspective on these themes that goes beyond the mere facts and figures. The
broad spectrum of his writing has covered religious tensions in India, the
Kashmir issue, the Kargil war, the Orissa cyclone, the situation of tribals,
and the issues of poverty, health and education. His popular weekly column,
under the head Unconventional
Wisdom, appears on rediff.com
Amongst
the numerous awards that Dilip has received for his writing, has been the
National Foundation for India’s media fellowship in 1998-99 to research and
write about India’s de-notified tribes.
Apart
from his interests in writing, Dilip loves travel and has visited over 20
countries. He is also a part-time software writer. Dilip has a Masters in
Computer Science from Brown University, and a Bachelors degree in Electrical
and Electronics Engineering from BITS-Pilani. He lives with his wife, Vibha,
and son, Sahir, in Bombay.
This event is FREE and all are
WELCOME to attend.
REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED AFTER THE TALK
For
any questions you have, please contact Aniruddha Vaidya at asvaidya@netscape.net
Stanford India Association is
a group of Indian graduate students on the Stanford University campus who have
come together to accomplish the following twin aims:
Visit http://www.stanford.edu/group/sia/ for more
information.
Association
for India’s Development (AID) is
a 501 (3)-(c) non-profit, charitable, volunteer organization that supports a
wide variety of social service and development projects addressing such
problems as literacy, health care, rural credit, vocational training, women's
empowerment and children's welfare.
Visit:
http://www.aidindia.org/ for more information. AID has a
chapter in the Bay Area.