Word: lower
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Vienna echoed far and wide on Monday as sectarian violence once again erupted in India's Sikh-majority state of Punjab. At least two people have been killed and 14 injured since news reached Punjab yesterday via text messages and mobile phones that a Sikh preacher of a lower-caste sect, 57-year-old Sant Rama Nand, had been shot dead in a clash in a temple in Austria. Thousands of lower-caste Sikhs took to Punjab's streets armed with swords and batons, burning buses and blocking trains. A curfew was imposed in five Punjab towns, and military...
...Around the same time, the Ravidasias, a lower-caste community who are not considered Sikhs though the groups share some similarities, including worship in gurdwaras, swelled in numbers among Austria's Indian diaspora. Disgruntled lower-caste youths from an increasingly prosperous Punjab - where the landed castes have been reaping the benefits of the Green Revolution since the 1950s and 1960s - were making their way to Europe in droves. "What we see now is a result of rising Dalit assertion," says Vinayak. "The lower castes set up their own gurdwara, splitting the congregation and the [revenue from the] offerings...
...When news of the killing began to trickle into Punjab, state authorities went on alert. Although there is no specific history of Ravidasia-Sikh violence in Punjab, violence has taken place between followers of various sects across the state, mostly with support of lower castes among both the Sikhs and non-Sikhs. By Monday afternoon, large-scale rioting spread to six districts, leading Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, to issue a televised appeal. "Invoking the teachings of the Gurus, I appeal to all sections of people in Punjab to maintain peace," he said. The situation has spun...
...events in Punjab - and thousands of miles away in Austria - point to a broader problem: the dangerous mix of inequitable development and enduring caste-based resentment. The northern state has a higher than national average population of Scheduled Castes, an umbrella term for various lower castes, with 28.95% in Punjab against India's average of 16%. "Dalit Sikhs and Ravidasias, especially in the fertile Doaba belt which sends out a large number of immigrants, have seen immense prosperity lately, and with it, a rising Dalit consciousness and assertion," says Dr. Ronki Ram, reader in the Department of Political Science...
...Kudrin said that even a 5% budget deficit - lower than Medvedev's new prediction - would be enough to exhaust the government's $113 billion Reserve Fund, which is generated mostly through oil and gas export revenues. But he said that since the government is tightening spending and basing its budget on "conservative" oil price forecasts of $50 a barrel in 2010, $52 in 2011 and $53 in 2012, he believes the fund could begin replenishing itself as early as in 2011. Part of the reason for Russia's current predicament is earlier over-optimistic estimates for oil revenues, which make...