India punishes charity battling caste-based bias
Les droits de l’homme reculent en Inde.
C’est malheureusement un phénomène récurrent : le gouvernement de Narendra Modi, premier ministre indien issu du courant nationaliste hindou, fait pression sur les ONG. Plus précisément, il s’en prend à celles qui gênent ses actions en leur interdisant des financements étrangers. La majorité des organisations est concernée. Le progrès social du pays est mis à mal…
KHETATIMBI, India — Dudhabhai Kalabhai knew the rules: He could stand outside the village temple and join his hands in a quick, whispered prayer. He was not to linger or attempt to climb the steps. As a Dalit, part of the lowest rung of Hinduism’s ancient caste system, his mere touch, to some, would render the shrine unclean.
2. But one morning in March 2015, two uppercaste villagers thought Dudhabhai ventured too close to the temple entrance. They thrashed the 70-year-old farmer with sticks, leaving him hospitalized with arm and leg injuries. Family members said police in the western Indian state of Gujarat at first refused to take the case seriously. It wasn’t until the human rights group Navsarjan deployed representatives and a lawyer that the assailants were arrested, tried and sentenced to two-year prison terms.
3. It was one of thousands of cases that Navsarjan has fought since 1988 on behalf of Dalits,
formerly known as “untouchables,” who continue to endure social stigma and economic marginalization 70 years after India’s Constitution outlawed caste-based discrimination. Now the nonprofit group finds itself under attack, accused by India’s government of harming the national interest.
POLITICALLY MOTIVATED?
4. In December, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs blocked Navsarjan from receiving funding from overseas, which accounts for almost all of its $400,000 annual budget. The group said it would have to lay off its 80 staff members and suspend its charitable work — including three schools educating 102 Dalit children — if the decision isn’t reversed.
5. The action is part of a widening Indian government crackdown against civil society organizations that critics say is politically motivated. Officials last month canceled the foreign funding licenses of at least two dozen nonprofit groups for alleged “anti-national” activities. There are few domestic funding sources for human rights organizations in India, where philanthropy outside the corporate sector is limited, meaning most rely on foreign donors. A law called the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, or FCRA, in effect gives the government control of nonprofit groups’ purse strings — and can be used to stifle dissent.
1. to whisper chuchoter, murmurer / prayer prière / to linger s'attarder / rung échelon, rang / mere simple, seul / shrine sanctuaire.
2. to venture s’aventurer / to thrash rosser, infliger une correction à / stick bâton / injury blessure / lawyer avocat / to try juger / term ici, peine.
3. on behalf of au nom de, pour le compte de /
formerly auparavant / stigma stigmatisation / to outlaw déclarer illégal / to harm nuire à.
4. home affairs affaires intérieures / overseas outre-mer, étranger / to lay, laid, laid off licencier / to reverse ici, annuler.
5. widening qui s'élargit / crackdown mesures répressives / official (haut) responsable (politique) / to cancel annuler / alleged prétendu, présumé / to rely on dépendre de / purse strings cordons de la bourse / to stifle étouffer / dissent contestation.
6. Navsarjan staff members believe their group was stripped of its FCRA license for organizing protests last summer after seven Dalits were publicly flogged in Una, a town in southern Gujarat, for skinning a cow that had been mauled to death by a lion. Handling cow carcasses is one of many lowly occupations assigned to Dalits by upper-caste Hindus, who regard the animal as sacred. The attackers were self-styled “cow vigilantes” who wrongly accused the Dalits of killing the animal.
7. The group also helped lead a campaign that forced investigators in August to reopen an inquiry into a 2012 police shooting that killed three young Dalit men. Four officers suspected in the case have not been charged. “Navsarjan put a lot of pressure, and the government didn’t like it very much,” Martin Macwan, a Gujarati-born Dalit who founded the organization, said in an interview. “They decided to hit us where it hurts.”
8. A Home Ministry spokesman, Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, said that “no cancellations of licenses (were) politically motivated” and that the decisions were made according to the law. On Dec. 15, the Home Ministry abruptly canceled the renewal, saying it had been granted “inadvertently.” In a letter, it accused Navsarjan of carrying out “activities detrimental to national interest” and aiming to upset religious and caste harmony. It offered no further explanation.
DEMOCRACY?
9. India bills itself as the world’s largest democracy, but it has long nursed a deep-seated distrust of civil society groups, particularly those backed by Western countries. The contributions law “is a sword dangling over the head of every (nongovernmental organization) who receives foreign funding,” said Indira Jaising, a former government solicitor whose legal aid group, Lawyers Collective, lost its license last year.
10. Jaising’s clients have included Teesta Setalvad, who has led the legal battle to have Modi convicted of complicity in deadly 2002 religious riots in Gujarat; a former police official who has offered testimony in the case; and a Greenpeace employee who was barred from traveling to Britain to speak out against India’s use of coalbased energy. Greenpeace’s license was revoked, too, until a court intervened last month and stopped the move.
6. to strip ici, priver / to flog flageller / to skin écorcher / to maul mutiler, mettre en pièces / to handle s’occuper de / lowly humble / self-styled autoproclamé / wrongly à tort.
7. inquiry enquête / charged inculpé.
8. spokesman porte-parole / cancellation annulation / to grant accorder / detrimental préjudiciable / to upset, set, set déstabiliser / further autre, supplémentaire.
9. to bill oneself as se présenter comme / to nurse ici, entretenir, nourrir / deep-seated profondément ancré / distrust méfiance /
to back soutenir / sword épée / to dangle ici, être suspendu / solicitor avocat.
10. to convict déclarer coupable / deadly meurtrier / riot émeute / to bar interdire / to speak, spoke, spoken out against dénoncer / coal charbon / move mesure, décision.