The beauty of Kalash and Rajasthan (doc)

Discover the Kalash people | Beautiful women and shocking traditions of this isolated tribe

(WeGeo) June 22, 2024: 👀 Watch playlist with all videos about various countries: • Countries Images provided by ‪@rustamsheraz‬

• Archaeologists uncover 12th century hidden gem of a statue in Buddhist Cambodia

Rajasthan, the Lost Land of the Maharajas

(Best Documentary) Feb. 8, 2024: RAJASTHAN This land rich in history embodies all the magic of India. Located in the northwest of India, it is the ancestral land of the maharajas "great kings" and Rajputs (rajaputras) or "sons of kings." Let's meet inhabitants and travelers of this isolated state between plains and mountains in the most inhabited desert in the world. Director: Laurent Cadoret. Original title: "Somewhere on Earth: Rajasthan"

Should female SEX offenders be punished?

Marshall Project, 9/17/17; I. Rony, Jen Bradford, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bobby, wanna get in the hot tub?

(Stevie Emerson) Premiered Aug. 23, 2023. Starring Ariana Gavrillis as Wanton Hussy, Alex Varonos as Bashful Simp, and Stevie Emerson as Sweet Stevie. Written, directed, and edited by Stevie Emerson and Wyatt Gallitz. TAGS: funny, Bobby get in the goddamn hot tub you wuss, wanna, want some, homie, homie's girlfriend, dream come true, beer, underage drinking.

• DISCLAIMER: No actual children were harmed in the making of this almost-blooper reel.

Vili Fualaau, the child student of rapist Mary Kay Letourneau, married her, had two daughters with her, and gave her ‘24-hour care’ after their divorce, having been married for 14 years (the-sun.com)

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American sex offender Mary Kay

How do these woman-on-child sexual assaults happen? What is wrong with the old criminal crones of today, wearing bikinis, preying on our young innocent boy-children, plastering them with brew, and taking advantage of their sweet angelic innocence? Think of "evil" hebephiliac "American sex offender" Mary Kay Letourneau (née Schmitz then Fualaau, when she married the boy and stayed married to him for 14 years) -- a mother, wife, and trusted elementary school teacher, raised in a strict Catholic family -- forcing that innocent Samoan child, Vili Fualaau, 12, in her classroom to fall in love with her and put out in her car, getting pregnant, going to jail, still seeing him, going to jail again, and bringing ignominy upon her family and community (plus titillating a lusty double-standard nation) until her untimely death. When will the madness stop?

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Shawna: A Life on the Sex Offender Registry

(The Marshall Project) When former Public Defender and Director David Feige (Untouchable) heard Shawna’s story, “it became immediately clear that she was far from the kind of person we imagine when we think about sexual predators [because she's female, young, attractive, and white],” he writes.

We have to protect my kid at all costs!

“Shawna isn't some serial rapist or violent pedophile, but a young [white] woman who happened to hook up with [jailbait] the wrong guy when she was 19 and he, it turned out, was 14.”

Fifteen years later, condemned to life on the sex offender registry as a child molester, she still pays the price for that mistake every day.

[Many males are forced onto this list for public urination, which is counted as a sex crime of exposing one's genitals in public even if no one sees them. Don't drink beer and pee outside, guys and gals.]

Child groom Vili, rapist Mary, and two daughters

Her story raises important questions about who gets labeled a “sexual predator” [preying on our innocent young boys at parties where alcohol is illegally served to minors] and the penalties we impose on them.

Untouchable, Director David Feige's documentary feature about sex offender laws, won the Best New Documentary Director prize at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

• Learn more: themarshallproject.org
• Award Screening: Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director: Untouchable | 2016 Tribeca Festival | Tribeca (tribecafilm.com)
• Tanner Scale for SMR (sexual maturity ratings)

The great Czech monk: Ven. Dhammadipa

Ven. Dhammadipa, Buddhistdoor Global, March 16, 2016; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ven. Dhammadipa on the Buddhist Education Project in Sakarwadi, India

(BDG: Buddhistdoor Global) Born in the Czech Republic, for many years Venerable Dhammadipa traveled the world, ordaining in Chinese Mahayana then in Burmese Theravada at the world-renown Pa Auk Forest Monastery, where he trained with Pa Auk Sayadaw, attaining distinction in knowledge and vision.

• Ven. Dhammadipa (Xing-Kong) AUDIO (BAUS)
• Mahayana, Theravada? There is only ONE Buddhism
• Czech Ven. Dhammadipa | Loving Kindness in CT

Yogi: Ven. Dhammadipa (mahalaya-nepal.com)

He then continued his travels, giving teachings on serenity and insight meditation and Buddhist Studies. In this interview with Buddhistdoor Global, he discusses his landmark Buddhist Education Project in Sakarwadi, India, which is designed to educate the local Buddhist community (mostly composed of Dalits, formerly "Untouchables," who practice but know little about Buddhism) on bettering their poverty-stricken lives.

Be inspired by more Buddhist content at the Buddhistdoor website: buddhistdoor.net

Racist Japan? Japanese against Japanese

Evan Hadfield (Rare Earth, Aug. 15, 2017); CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How to destroy people: Make them "untouchable"

Hey, f*ck, this happened to me in the USA!

Japan's Burakumin ("village people") are a people within a people. For hundreds of years they experienced direct persecution that has kept them from being fully functional members of society.

Even though they were released from their low caste in the 1800's, the stigma attached to them remains to this day.

The one thing this look is missing that the maker wishes he'd added, is the historic discrimination against Koreans and how it is interwoven into the village folk (and modern-day Yakuza). It is worth looking into for anyone itching to learn and understand more.

• Instagram: instagram.com/rareearthseries
• Francesco: instagram.com/frapetitti

The music for this video was graciously provided by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com. It is Creative Commons, and he is no doubt unaware it is being used and is great for letting it happen.

In the beginning...some meditated (sutra)

Maurice O'C. Walshe (trans.), Agganna Sutra (DN 27) from The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Pubs; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly PART 3/3

"A BUDDHIST GENESIS" continued

In the beginning...

"...They made leaf huts in forest places and meditated in them. With the smoking fire gone out, with pestle cast aside, gathering alms for their evening and morning meals, they went away to a village, town, or royal city to seek their food, and then they returned to their leaf huts to meditate.

"People saw this and noted how they meditated. 'They Meditate' is the meaning of Jhayaka, which is the second regular title to be introduced.

Compile sacred books, venerable sir.

23. "However, some of those beings, not being able to meditate in leaf huts, settled around towns and villages and compiled books.

"People saw them doing this and not meditating. 'Now These Do Not Meditate' is the meaning of Ajjhayaka, which is the third regular title to be introduced.

"At that time it was regarded as a low designation, but now it is the higher. This, then, Vasettha, is the origin of the class of Brahmins in accordance with the ancient titles that were introduced for them [95].
 

"Their origin was from among these very same beings, like themselves, no different, and in accordance with Dharma, not otherwise. 

Dharma is the best thing for people

In this life and the next as well.

 

Farming and labor are good livelihood (Bugphai)

24. "And then, Vasettha, some of those beings, having paired off, adopted various trades, and this 'Various' is the meaning of Vessa, which came to be the regular title for such people.

"This, then, is the origin of the class of Vessas, in accordance with the ancient titles that were introduced for them. Their origin was from among these very same beings. ...

 

25. "And then, Vasettha, those beings that remained went in for hunting. 'They Are Base Who Live By The Chase,' and that is the meaning of Sudda, which came to be the regular title for such people.

If you must hunt, hunt Snarks.

"This, then, is the origin of the class of Suddas [outcasts, low-casts, menials, deplorables, untouchables] in accordance with the ancient titles that were introduced for them. Their origin was from among these very same beings. ...

 

US Theravada Buddhist nuns today, California

26. "And then, Vasettha, it came about that some Khattiya, dissatisfied with their own dharma [as distinct from Dharma means set of social obligations, duties, position in society], went forth from the household life into the left-home life [by ordaining as monastics], thinking: 'I will become a wandering ascetic.'
 

"And a Brahmin did likewise, a Vessa did [96] likewise, and so did a Sudda.

 

"And from these four classes [traditional caste distinctions] the class of wandering ascetics came into existence. Their origin was from among these very same beings, like themselves, no different, and in accordance with Dharma, not otherwise.

Dharma is the best thing for people

In this life and the next as well.

  

[Rebirth]

31 Planes of Existence (Egerton C. Baptist)

27. "And, Vasettha, a Khattiya who has led an unskillful life in body, speech, and thought, and who has wrong view will, in consequence of such wrong views and deeds, at the breaking up of the body after death, be reborn in a state of loss, an ill fate [unfortunate], the downfall, or hellish-state(s). So, too, will a Brahmin, a Vessa, or a Sudda.

 

28. "Likewise, a Khattiya who has led a skillful life in body, speech, and thought, and who has right view will, in consequence of such right view and deeds, at the breaking up of the body after death, be reborn in a fortunate destiny, in a heavenly-state(s). So, too, will a Brahmin, a Vessa, or a Sudda.

 

29. "And a Khattiya who has performed deeds of both kinds [profitable and unprofitable, wholesome and unwholesome, skillful and unskillful, good and bad] in body, speech, and thought, and whose view is mixed will, in consequence of such mixed views and deeds, at the breaking up of the body after death, experience both pleasure and pain. So, too, will a Brahmin, [97] a Vessa, or a Sudda.

 

30. "And a Khattiya who is restrained in body, speech, and thought, and who has developed the seven requisites of enlightenment, will attain to full nirvana (parinibbana) in this very life. So, too, will a Brahmin, a Vessa, or a Sudda.

 

Samsara with Yama (Judge) and Mara (Death)

31. "And, Vasettha, whoever of these four castes, as a monastic [wandering ascetic], becomes a fully enlightened being (arhat, arahant) who has destroyed the corruptions, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, attained to the highest goal, completely destroyed the fetter of becoming [continued wandering on through samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death, incessant rebirth], and  become liberated by the highest insight, such a person is declared to be chief among them in accordance with Dharma, and not otherwise.

Dharma is the best thing for people

In this life and the next as well.

 

32. "Vasettha, it was Brahma Sanankamara who spoke this verse:

'The Khattiya's best among those who value clan;

One with knowledge and [corresponding] conduct is best of devas and humans.'

"This verse was rightly sung, not wrongly, rightly spoken, not wrongly, connected with profit, not unconnected. I too say, Vasettha: [98]

'The Khattiya's best among those who value clan;

One with knowledge and [corresponding] conduct is best of devas and humans."'

 

Thus the Buddha spoke, and Vasettha and Bharadvaja were delighted and rejoiced at his words. [So ends the Agganna Sutra.]

Snow Monkey caste system, Japan (video)

CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Nature (PBS), Documentary Galaxy

Hold on. Primate electronics are fun!

"Hell's Valley" (Jigokudani Monkey Park) may not be a familiar name, but one thing about it is very popular -- a place in Nagano where one can see "snow monkeys," Japanese macaques, taking an onsen, a hot mineral bath.

Hell's Valley is easy to pass while driving on the way up to Shiga Kogen. Jigokudani Yaen Koen Park opened in 1964, and since then many thousands of people from around the world have visited to observe the lifestyle of the Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, a species of monkey native to northern Japan's "Alps."

It is the most northern-living non-human primate, surviving winter temperatures of below -15 °C. They have brown-gray fur, red faces, hands, and bottoms, and short tails and often seem remarkably human. It arranges itself by heredity with each social position handed down (like India's old Vedic caste system) from the mother. But every rigid system has to eventually give way to an individual, in this case -- as in the case of the Buddha -- a little prince.


 

Human sex trafficking (SCPR.org)

(PBS/Independent Lens) "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women" Urmi Basu, the founder of New Light, explains to America Ferrera the caste system in India and how women end up in prostitution. This landmark transmedia project featuring a four-hour PBS primetime national and international broadcast event, a Facebook-hosted social action game, mobile games, two interactive websites, educational video modules with companion text, and an impact assessment plan all inspired by Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the widely acclaimed book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

The series follows Kristof, WuDunn, and six celebrity activists including Diane Lane, America Ferrera, Olivia Wilde, and Nicole Kidman as they travel to nine countries and meet inspiring, courageous individuals. Across the globe oppression is being confronted, and real meaningful solutions are being fashioned through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls. Embedded in the linked problems of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality -- which still needlessly claims one woman every 90 seconds -- is the single most vital opportunity of our time. And all over the world, women are seizing it.

• Half the Sky movement: HalfTheSkyMovement.org
• Women and Girls Lead: womenandgirlslead.org 
• Independent Lens: pbs.org/independentlens

O, the hells (naraka, niraya)!

In the wild they spend most of their time in forests and feed on seeds, buds, fruit, invertebrates, berries, leaves, and bark. The monkeys have a body length ranging from 80 to 95 cm. The males weigh around 10-14, kg while the females are usually half that at around 5.5 kg.

The park is located in the Yokoyu River Valley, which flows down from Shiga Kogen, the Japanese Highlands. At an elevation of 850 meters, the area is called "Hell's Valley" due to the steep cliffs and hot water steaming out from the Earth.

 

It is also a fairly harsh environment in winter with snow on the ground for a third of the year. But it is a natural paradise for 200 or so monkeys living there. Humans are lucky, too, because we can enter their world and watch them enjoying themselves.

Watching monkeys play, take a leisurely onsen or a swim is a lot of fun. The monkeys generally ignore their human counterparts and just get on with whatever it is they want to be doing.

Race and Caste - Ambedkar vs. Gandhi
(Arundhati Roy) "The Doctor and the Saint" on the Annihilation of India's Caste System. Maybe the "great soul" Mahatma Gandhi was not who we think he was. Rather than a poor saint who saved a country, he may have been a very rich and privileged, Western-educated political leader who presented himself as a "holy man" (sadhu). Columbia University Teachers' College, 2014. Should "untouchables" (dalits) quit Hinduism and adopt any other religion free of corrupting casteism? B.R. Ambedkar says yes!

• The Buddha on RACISM (casteism) in India
• Chimps do not have rhythm like humans 
• Community Cinema: "American Denial" explores the power of unconscious biases and how the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice still impact notions of race and class today.  
• California Native Plant Society

Four Mysteries

(elfwood.com)

So a priest, a rabbi, an imam, and a monk walk into a bar...to convert Atheists. Coming soon to Turkish TV.

Religion in the Middle East is not exciting enough, so the television station Kanal T in Istanbul, Turkey, is preparing a reality game show for September release: Ten certified Atheists try to resist conversion by a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim imam, and a Buddhist monk. The exact rules have not been disclosed, but the "winning" convert will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the "holy land" of the most persuasive religion (the Vatican, Jerusalem, Mecca, or Tibet). According to a July 2009 Reuters' report, Turkey's Islamic Religious Affairs Directorate has, not surprisingly, vowed never to co-operate.

Scientist: "Finger" was neither human nor animal (AP)
BRIELLE, New Jersey–Authorities say a human finger wasn't dropped on a deck at the Jersey shore after all. A forensic anthropologist has determined the object, which resembled a decaying finger with an acrylic french-manicured nail, is neither human nor animal. Full Story»

Free radios to perk up India's "Uuntouchables" (Reuters)
PATNA, India–Authorities in eastern India are distributing free radio sets to lower-caste villagers so that they can listen to music and news after a hard day's work and improve their awareness, officials said Wednesday. Full Story»

Love potions wear away saints' tomb (Reuters)
NICOSIA, Cyprus–Unhappy lovers in Cyprus have been taking so much stone from the tomb of Saint Agapitikos to use in love potions that soon there won't be anything left. Full Story»

Protesters back woman in trousers case (Reuters)
KHARTOUM, Sudan–Police used teargas to disperse protesters rallying in support of a Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public Tuesday, a case that has become a public test of Sudan's indecency laws. Full Story»

Algeria: Hindu Conversions to Buddhism; Ugly American: CIA Rape Scandal

(AP/ABC News) Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

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Buddhist converts STORY BELOW (Algeria.com)

CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes (1/28/09)

"Ugly American"? Spy Boss Allegedly Drugged Muslim Women, Made Secret Sex Videos
Brian Ross, Kate McCarthy, and Angela M. Hill (ABC World News)

The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

• "Rape" in Islam: Unfortunately, under Sharia law, female victims are guilty of "adultery."

• Watch "World News with Charles Gibson" tonight for full report

The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials. The U.S. State Department referred questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.

Obama family move through the eye of a needle (UK Fine Arts)

Low caste Indians set to Convert (Hinduism to Buddhism)

Zubair Ahmed BBC News, Mumbai at Algeria.com (5/27/07)

Thousands of tribal and Dalit Hindus in India are to embrace the Buddhism at a huge gathering in Mumbai (Bombay). The ceremony, which may be presided over by Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, is billed as the largest religious conversion in modern India.

The converts hope to escape the rigid caste system in which their status is the lowest. Right-wing Hindus have often opposed conversion, pushing some Indian states to restrict legal changes of faith. The organizers say the number of people to convert in Sunday's ceremony could go up to 100,000 -- easily the biggest mass conversion in India's recent history.

Conversion controversies

The Dalits, once known as "Untouchables," hope the conversion will give them dignity and equal rights. Commentators say that despite the reservation of jobs for the Dalit and tribal communities, their social status and economic conditions have not greatly improved. They say that Dalits still face widespread prejudice and discrimination.

Conversion is a controversial subject in India, especially if it involves Hindus converting to Christianity or Islam. Two weeks ago two Catholic priests were publicly beaten after being accused of trying to bring a group of local people into the Catholic faith.

But converting to Buddhism does not evoke much adverse reaction, as most hardline Hindu leaders believe Buddhism is an extension of Hinduism. Even so, several Indian states, especially the ones governed by the right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), have made laws severely restricting conversion.

Untouchability: Buddhism in India

The Buddha accepting a request for ordination from Sunita, an Untouchable (Image: Buddhism in Pictures, the Buddhist Information Center, Sri Lanka).

Lifting the Curse of Untouchability

Ken and Visakha Kawasaki

Poverty is not news in India. The crush of people, the crush of destitute people, is numbing. Nearly 260 million of India's more than 1 billion people live below the poverty line. India is the world's largest democracy, but more than half a century after independence from British colonial rule, its entrenched caste system aggravates persistent economic troubles and makes a travesty of the ideals of justice and equality.

"Discrimination suffered by women, the lower castes, and tribal groups is a crying denial of the democracy that is enshrined in our constitution," President K. R. Narayanan said recently.

What are the origins of the caste system? Nearly a thousand years before Buddha’s birth, nomads speaking an early form of Sanskrit entered the Indian subcontinent from the north-west, probably through what is now Afghanistan, slowly spreading down through the Punjab into north-central India. They settled into villages and merged with the local population

In this caste-bound society, there were some homeless dropouts called samanas [Sanskrit Shramanas, "wandering ascetics"] who played little or no part in the economy as either producers or consumers. They devoted themselves to the search for religious truth, but they did not follow the prevailing religious orthodoxy, the Brahminical religion based on the Vedas. They were highly individualistic and engaged in a variety of practices. Most samanas were celibate wanderers, without families or other social ties. They could travel freely even from kingdom to kingdom. Being respected by all levels of society, they were given food and hospitality.

Some were teachers -- arguing their philosophies of materialism, nihilism, determinism, and eternalism. Listening to such debates was actually a popular form of entertainment. Many samanas sought to develop psychic powers. Some were naked and unbathed, others wore loin clothes and bathed three times daily. Some followed bizarre rules and practices.

From these forest wanderers came new strains of mysticism as well as the organized religions of Buddhism and Jainism. The culture wars of the 1st millennium B.C.E. set the Brahminical tradition against the Samanic one. The Samanic faiths were almost as pluralistic as today, but what they had in common was their refusal to accept the authority of the Vedas and the brahmins. More>>

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Poster of the Buddha and Dr. Ambedkar, displayed in many homes of new Buddhists in India (brelief)

Even in flood, India's "untouchables" last rescued

Gavin Rabinowitz (AP)

TRIVENIGANJ, India -- In the two weeks since a monsoon-swollen river burst its banks, ancient prejudices have run just as deep as the floodwaters. India's "untouchables" are the last to be rescued — if at all — from a deluge that has killed dozens and made 1.2 million homeless.

• VIDEO

Dalits, the social outcasts at the bottom of the Hindu caste ladder, have borne the brunt of the devastation as the rampaging Kosi River swamped hundreds of square miles in northern India after it overflowed and shifted its course dozens of miles to the east.

On Sunday, one Dalit, Mohan Parwan ran up and down a half destroyed bridge that has become the headquarters for rescue operations in this town near the border with Nepal, desperately scanning arriving boats for signs of his family.

Dozens came in but each time he was disappointed.

Parwan, 43, is from a Dalit village just 2 miles away but completely cut off by a deep lake created by the swirling waters. As the village headman, he was put on the first rescue boat that came and was promised his wife, four children and the rest of the community would follow.

• "Boats seized" VIDEO

"It's been six days and since then no boat has come from the village," he said, tears welling in is eyes.

Dalits have long been shunned, holding a status so low they are considered outside the complex caste system that is all pervasive in India, dividing people into hundreds of groups defined by livelihood, class and ethnicity.

Even India's emergence as a global force — fueled by it's economic growth and high-tech hubs — has failed to break down the barriers and stigmas that hold them down.

When it comes to rescue operations, it appears Dalits are at the bottom, too.

In Triveniganj, Dalits huddled together in a small group at the end of the bridge away from everyone else. They said rescuers were saving the upper castes and the rich first, leaving their people to suffer without food and clean water.

"We are 200 people on a roof for days. Two children fell in and drowned. No one is coming to help us," said Kishore Ram, 22, who got out on one of the few boats to visit his village.

"The officials don't listen to us little people. We can't offer bribes and influence, I'm just a poor student," Ram said.

Hearing about the flood, Prithvi Chand Baswan, a 38-year-old Dalit, rushed home from the neighboring state of Punjab where he works as a farm laborer, searching for his wife and six children, ages 3 to 12. Four miles from home, he was stopped by flooding.

"People from the village say they are sheltering in the temple, but I can't get to them and they won't send a boat for a Dalit village," he said, holding his head in despair.

Ravindra Prasad Singh, a state government official coordinating rescue work in Triveniganj, about 875 miles east of New Delhi, the capital, denied that Dalits were being ignored.

"It's ridiculous. They are lying," he said, but he could not explain why only a single boat of Dalits had come in during all of Sunday afternoon even though they make up more than half the region's people.

On Monday, other government officials acknowledged there was a serious problem with Dalits being ignored, but said they were working to fix it.

"We are aware of these complaints," said Prataya Amrit, a top disaster management official in Bihar state, the scene of the flooding.

Amrit said greater resources were being sent to Dalit majority areas like Triveniganj and army and navy officers were now handling rescues to ensure less abuses.

The military "presence will instill a lot of confidence," he said. "In an operation of this magnitude you can't distinguish between rich and poor."

Officials also commandeered private boats in an effort to prevent richer and higher castes from monopolizing the vessels.

India's treatment of Dalits is a long and bitter history of good intentions and little progress.

Caste discrimination has been outlawed for more than a half century, and a quota system was established with the aim of giving Dalits a fair share of government jobs and places in schools. But their plight remains dire.

Most Dalits, like Parwan, live in destitute villages of rickety mud and thatch huts with no electricity or running water, kept down by ancient prejudice and caste-based politics.

In much of rural India, people from lower castes are barred from using upper-caste drinking wells, kept out of temples and denied spots in village. Ignoring the prohibitions is often met with violence.

In times of calamity, their situation is no better.

"Caste hierarchy is a source of deep emotions in India. In the face of these emotions it is difficult for the law or the army to do anything," said Chandrabhan Prasad, a New Delhi-based caste expert. "The rescuers have their caste loyalty and will try rescue their own first."

Faced with indifference and even hostility from many officials, one group of Dalits gave up waiting for help and waded into the neck-deep water in search of their kin.

"What can we do?" Parwan said, after being angrily shooed away by Singh for again asking to be given a boat to help his village.

"I'm just a Harijan," Parwan added, using a euphemism for Dalits coined by Indian pacifist icon Mohandas K. Gandhi. It means "child of God."