Highlighting injustice against the Dalits in India

[Abu Zolfiqar]

The Hindu : States / Other States :

Rekha was assaulted because her son allegedly eloped with a Maratha girl

Four days after she was beaten up, stripped and paraded in her own village, 42-year-old Dalit widow Rekha Arun Chavan wonders if she would have lived a life of more dignity had she been born in an upper caste. Rekha was assaulted because her son Amol allegedly eloped with a Maratha girl Anita Desai from Mulgaon village in Karad, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's hometown. Relatives of the girl confessed to The Hindu that they had indeed beaten her up.

Bai aahe ka kutri? Am I woman or a dog to be beaten up like that,” Rekha asked this correspondent while she lay in a bed on Friday afternoon in Karad's Krishna Hospital. “About 12 persons of the Desai family assaulted me for one and a half hours. They called me names and swore at me for being from a lower caste. Would they have tortured me the same [way] had I not been a Dalit,” she asked. She had no clue about her 22-year-old son Amol's relationship with 17-year-old Anita, their neighbour.

“What was wrong?”

Speaking to The Hindu in Mulgaon village, where the incident happened, Anita's cousin Bhimrao Desai said, “What is wrong? How would anyone else react if their daughter had run away with a lower caste man?”

So far, five persons from the Desai household have been arrested in the case, and are under police custody.

The Desais are Marathas. According to Rekha, the village always lives in fear of the Marathas. Nobody speaks against them. There are about 25 Dalit families, and 100 Maratha families, she said. “When I was being beaten up, everyone just watched. They want to live safely in the village,” she said, showing the black and blue marks on the thighs, back and hands. Rekha said she had been ostracised by the villagers, even from her community, on the orders of the Marathas. She owns a small provision store. She lost her husband 22 years ago.

Like every village in Maharashtra, Mulgaon also boasts a ‘Tanta Mukti Samiti' (committee to resolve disputes) under the much talked about Mahatma Gandhi Tanta Mukti Gaon Yojana (dispute-free village scheme). A dispute like this should have been identified and resolved at the village level. However, as Bhimrao Desai reveals, the head of the committee is also from the Desai community. “When things are going wrong in your own house, what can the committee do,” he asks.

Rekha's son left the house stating that he was going to Pune for a job. “He left on December 13. I haven't heard of him since,” she said. Anita went missing a day after. Since then, Rekha was threatened repeatedly. Her nephew Sharad and sister-in-law Surekha were also beaten up. While Sharad has lodged a police complaint, Surekha was too scared to take the step. It is also perhaps a sense of guilt that stopped her. “Amol had told me before leaving. He wanted me to give his mobile phone to Anita and help her hide her bag, I had conveyed the message to her,” Surekha said.

When attempts to get the information about her son from her relatives failed, the Desais targeted her, Rekha says. I kept begging them to leave me, and I repeatedly told them that I didn't know about his whereabouts. But nobody listened. Both the men and women were merciless,” she stated.

In Mulgaon, though, there is a sense of acceptance of the atrocity. “Such things [inter-caste marriages] can happen in cities, but even we don't feel good that it is happening in our own village,” Eknath Chavan, also a Dalit, said. “We know it is permitted by law but we cannot be OK with it,” he said.

Rekha's neighbour Samabai Chavan, who was one of the eyewitnesses, said: “I tried to stop them. She held on to my feet while they were beating her with sticks.” According to Samabai, Rekha went to the hospital alone after being assaulted. Nobody from the village has gone to visit Rekha in the hospital. “She is paying for what she has done. We have to do our own work,” Eknath Chavan says nonchalantly.

In the hospital, Rekha's 70-year-old mother Gayabai Sathe asks, “What has my daughter done? How will she go back and live in her house?”

Says Rekha: “I want to prove to them that I cannot be scared away. I will go back to my house in the village and live with dignity.”

 

[SinoChallenger]

^ But in the Bollywood movies, when a girl loves a boy from a lower caste, they convince everybody to accept their marriage, and there is much dancing and rejoicing. But in real life, they would be beaten up, stripped and paraded in their own village, and then forced to hang themselves?

 

[Omar1984]

Tracing the aftermath of a Dalit massacre


Anand Patwardhan's film probes caste atrocities, violence

Over more than 200 minutes, noted documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan opens for his audience a window into the gut-wrenchingly, unjust world of caste atrocities, violence and discrimination in 21st Century India.

Screened on Tuesday evening at the Mount Carmel College auditorium, Patwardhan's latest offering, Jai Bhim, Comrade, made over 14 long years, documents the brutal police firing that killed 10 Dalits in Ramabai Colony in the ‘City of Dreams', Mumbai, where a statue of B.R. Ambedkar was vandalised one night.

The massacre

The story, and Patwardhan's own journey into this complex issue, begins with this massacre and the suicide of Dalit poet, singer and Left activist Vilas Ghogre six days later. Ghogre, who died unable to bear the injustice and brutal reality of the tragedy, was closely associated with Patwardhan.

Interacting with the audience after the screening, Patwardhan pointed out that though the film was about Maharasthra, this was indeed true of many other States. The shocking statistics he provides in his film, before delving into stories of caste violence in rural pockets of the State, are testimony to this: “Every day, two Dalits are raped and three killed.”

Callous sound bytes

Asked of “cause and effect”, he said: “We all bear the burden of this shame… the caste system. There is no escaping that.” It is this shameful reality that the filmmaker tries to capture, be it in his interviews with victims or the callous sound bytes given by Mumbai's upper-class urbanites who articulate their “disgust” for the “lower castes” or their opinions on the reservation system. During the interaction, many among the young audience questioned the reservation system and raised the issue of meritocracy. Patwardhan responded: “We live in a system that is [unequal and creates] inequality. Reservation is only a minor sop to assuage our conscience. There is this popular argument of meritocracy, but [you] forget that we have not been a meritocracy for centuries… we've oppressed and suppressed all along!”

Political narrative

The film, through the stories of a few central characters and Ramabai Colony, provides a deeply nuanced view of the evolution of Dalit politics in the State, including significant events in the last decade such as the Khairlanji killings. Its narrative also includes a searing critique of Dalit politics, the organised Left [in its failure to take up the caste issue], and of appropriation of parts of the Dalit movements by right-wing political parties.

“The film is critical of how Dalit parties have evolved, and also of the Left parties and their [approach to] the caste problem… Ghogre [who joined the Left in the 1980s] was expelled by the party he gave his heart and soul to,” said Patwardhan.

Revealing posters

Revisiting Ramabai Colony in 2010, Patwardhan shows how those who had fought for Dalit rights 14 years ago are now helping the BJP and Shiv Sena (the parties in power when the killing took place) blatantly misleading people into believing that they represent their cause, even as revealing posters show these same parties promoting the concept of Brahmin or Maratha supremacy.

On this, Patwardhan explained that this had happened world over with radical movements. “Like the Black Panthers, for instance. Some the system killed, others were bought over. But there is hope. When I screened my film in slums in Mumbai, I realised that the rank and file are not going to go along with their leaders who are joining hands with the perpetrators.”


The Hindu : Arts / Cinema : Tracing the aftermath of a Dalit massacre

 

[Omar1984]

11 accused, who set Dalit houses on fire, acquitted


Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to prove its case in Gohana rioting incedent in which about 50 Dalit houses were set ablaze in Sonipat district on August 31, 2005.

CBI special judge, Haryana, AS Narang, acquitted 11 accused in the case on Monday, including son of former Sonipat MP Krishan Sangwan.There were 14 accused in the case but Master Karan Singh, Mahipal and Khushi Ram died during the trial. They were accused of rioting, being a part of unlawful assembly, giving provocative speeches, and while being armed with sticks and agricultural implements which could cause death they put houses of Balmikis on fire.

In September, 2005, the case was handed over to CBI and it registered it on September 9, 2005.

All the witnesses turned hostile in the court. No one identified any of the accused in the court. One of the prosecution witnesses head constable Jagbir Singh simply deposed that he was guarding the official vehicle of SHO and he had not seen any of the accused present in the court near Samta Chowk or in Balmiki Basti on August 31, 2005.

Balwan Singh, who was then Naib Tehsildar and had visited Satsang Bhawan of Gohana where a meeting of Jat leaders were going on, stated in the court that he could not say whether the accused were part of the crowd. Mahender Singh Kundu was also declared hostile as he denied his earlier statement given to CBI. Ram Phal has also not supported the case of prosecution. As per the judgment, Sub Inspector Sat Pal had simply registered the FIR and AGL Kaul, who was IO of the case of the CBI, had not deposed anything against the accused. When the houses were put on fire, the Dalits had already fled by that time so there was no witness among them.

The judgment also pointed out that the CBI case was only related to happenings of August 31, 2005. It read, “I have considered all the evidence on the record. I am of the considered view that there is no sufficient evidence to hold any of the accused guilty. Accordingly, all the accused are hereby acquitted of the charges for which they have been charged.”

After coming out of the court, Pradeep Sangwan told HT, “It was a politically motivated case. My father was a sitting Sonipat MP at that time that was why I was framed. I hope this judgment will give a boost to our political career.”

The case:

Baljit Siwach, a Jat and resident of Gharwal village of Gohana tehsil, was murdered on August 27, 2005. Lara, Shiv Kumar, Bhola and Viru-all Balmikis were booked in the case. As the police were failing to arrest the accused, there was massive discontent and hatred among the Jat community in and around Gohana town.

On August 28, 2005, the body of Baljit was brought and cremated the same day. A meeting of village elders took place on August 29, 2005 at Bari Chopal of Gharwal. A group of youngsters were agitated and they wanted to take revenge on Dalits. On August 30, 2005, Barha Panchayat (comprising 12 villages) assembled and the main speakers were Bhola Ram, Zile Singh ( now dead), Dalbir Singh, Master Karan Singh ( now dead), Nafe Singh and Pardeep Sangwan. In the meeting, everyone was angry and speaking against Balmikis.

Though elders wanted to adopt democratic means but there were some elements who wanted to take violent revenge. An announcement was made that 55 eminent persons would gather the next day at Satsang Bhawan, Gohana, to adopt future course of action. On August 31, 2005, provocative speeches were allegedly delivered at the Satsang Bhawan. Even Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda offered to meet Jat leader.

Zile Singh (now dead) allegedly gave the call to burn down the Balmiki Basti as a Jat boy was brutally murdered-“Phunk Do Is Basti Ko”. Soon after it, the young people there starting raising slogans. At around 12:30 pm at Samta Chowk a crowd started moving towards the Basti along with sticks and agriculture weapons. The crowd had swelled to 1500-1600. They entered the Dalits’ residential area from different sides. They used abusive language against Dalits too. They put on about 50 houses on fire and damaged them. Balmikis had already fled from the scene so there was no human casualty.

List of accused:

* Dalbir Singh
* Rajesh Kumar
* Radhey Shyam
* Rajender Singh
* Pardeep Sangwan
* Bhola Ram
* Lahna Singh
* Manoj Kumar
* Ramesh Kancha
* Balbir Singh
* Nafe Singh

11 accused, who set Dalit houses on fire, acquitted - Hindustan Times

 

[Dance]

Dalit women face three-fold discrimination from birth​

(WNN) Opinion Bhuj, India: There are two Indias, and Dalit women have learned to survive in both these worlds. Take a look at two related but opposing headlines in The Hindu last month.
January 5, 2012: Dalit woman sarpanch emerges as poster girl for gender issues
January 11, 2012: Dalit woman paraded naked in Chavan’s hometown
The former is a story of a community leader working to create a model village in Bikaner, Rajasthan by addressing gender inequalities. Her story is even more powerful due to the fact that she did not attain her seat as part of the reservation quota for Dalit women in the legislature. Under Tara Devi’s leadership, maternal and infant mortality has decreased significantly, there have been no cases of girls dropping out of school, and there are 1,014 girls to every 982 boys (this ratio can not be found even in the progressive state of Kerala).
The latter is a story of an upper class girl eloping with a Dalit boy. The mother of the boy was then stripped naked and beaten in her hometown by the girl’s powerful family. Cases like this one are all too common despite the 1989 passage of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Five people, including the girl’s parents, were arrested, but incidents of violence against Dalits continue to be commonplace.
Dalits, previously known as Untouchables, constitute one-fourth of the Indian population. They consist of many different castes with varying practices, beliefs, and languages. The government of India refers to Dalits as Scheduled Castes, and has ensured their rights within the Constitution. Yet the rights enshrined on a piece of paper are not an indication of facts on the ground.
This is especially true for Dalit women, who simply for being born as such, are discriminated three-fold by society. They face caste discrimination as they are outside the caste system altogether, they face gender discrimination in a country that already values the boy child over the girl, and they face class discrimination as they are at the bottom of the socio-economic spectrum.
The caste, gender, and class they are born into condemn these women to a lifetime of discrimination that is almost impossible to overcome. Combined, these factors increase the likelihood of having an unpaid or underpaid labor intensive job in the unorganized sector (outside the realm of government regulation). It increases the rate of sex selective abortions within the population. In fact, the sex ratio of women to men in India is a dismal 927/1000, but among Dalits it is even lower at 922/1000. Furthermore, Dalit women have a life expectancy of only 50 years due to inadequate access to health care.
But there is also another side to India and to Dalit women that I can attest to after living and working alongside them – one that says, “impossible is nothing.”
I lived with a Dalit family in Kutch, Gujarat, an arid region on the Northwest coast bordering Pakistan. I learned from them that living on less than 2 dollars a day does not necessarily make you unhappy. It just means you are forced to find a way to live your life with far fewer opportunities than others. I can see that this lack of opportunity is precisely what makes them so resilient, because they have had to create structures and opportunities for themselves.
There are some Rabari women (traditionally of the herding caste) in my village that still avoid touching Dalit women when they go to collect water together, or they wash the tap after it is touched by a Dalit. If a Rabari woman does touch a Dalit by mistake, she will immediately go home and wash herself so as not to let the contamination spread.
Now juxtapose this image with one where respect is shown in the Kutchi Dalit community by an elder when he or she touches a young girl’s hair with both hands extended (instead of by the young girl bowing down to touch the elder’s feet like you will see in almost every Bollywood movie).
Perhaps it is what Charles Tilly would call a hidden transcript – a silent defiance within the community for all that would refer to them as untouchable. Perhaps it has something to do with a young girl being told too many times that she needs to bow down to the rest of society, and this is that one miscreant act that declares otherwise. Perhaps it is a coincidence. Perhaps it is not.
Either way – I spent a year living and working alongside Dalit women in rural India. And all I know is I value that elder’s gentle touch on my head.
______________________________

Dalit women face three-fold discrimination from birth | Women News Network

 

[Omar1984]

9 months on, Dalits yet to return home

MADURAI: Nine months after 35 Dalit families fled from their native Vembathur village of Sivagangai district fearing for their lives after the murder of two persons, fear still stalks the community as they are yet to return home. Even a police post in the area has failed to instil confidence among the Dalits.

It all began on January 29 last year when S Muthukrishnan (28), a Dalit youth from Vembathur, was murdered in the same village. The alleged motive was revenge as two caste Hindus from the nearby V Pudukulam village had been arrested following a complaint from Muthukrishnan’s brother S Murugan.

Three months after Muthukrishnan’s murder, one of the accused, Karuppusamy, a caste Hindu from V Pudukulam, was murdered on May 4, for which 11 Dalits from Vembathur were arrested. Fearing retaliation, all 35 Dalit families of Vembathur deserted the village on May 4.

Despite two rounds of peace meetings held by revenue authorities, normality is yet to be restored.

The Dalit families are living scattered in various towns, including Sivaganga, Thirumancheri and Melur.

Deprived of their livelihood as small farmers and agricultural workers, members of the families are working as construction workers and daily wage workers in nearby towns and Madurai city. The schooling of about 20 children too has been affected.
The latest peace meeting held at Sivaganga on Saturday was inconclusive.

Those who represented the caste Hindus of V Pudukulam village said since the Dalits were divided into three groups after the local body elections, the other two groups should be taken on board.

They promised peace and requested the revenue administration to convince the other two groups to participate in a future peace meeting.

Durga Murthy, the Revenue Divisional Officer of Sivaganga, who presided over the peace meeting, told Express, “We will hold another peace meeting soon. Revenue officials visited the village. Police post is there.”

A team from Evidence, an NGO, visited the affected village and the people. A Kathir, director of the NGO, said:� “Chief Secretary and Director General of Police should ensure the security for the Dalit people of Vembathur. Those threatening the Dalits should be apprehended. And `3 lakh should be given as compensation to each family who were forced to desert their villages.”

9 months on, Dalits yet to return home - South India - Tamil Nadu - ibnlive

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

In heat wave, Dalit beaten to death for using water pump

Agence France-Presse | Updated: June 06, 2012 14:22 IST

Patna: Police in north India said Wednesday they were hunting for a village strongman accused of beating to death an "untouchable" neighbour who broke strict caste-based rules by using a local hand pump.

Mohan Paswan, in his late 40s, was lynched in Parhuti village in Bihar state last Thursday when he disobeyed an order by a local thug not to use the pump during a heat wave.

"Paswan was attacked and brutally thrashed by a village strongman Pramod Singh and his henchmen for taking water," local police official Saroj Kumar told AFP.


"Police have been trying hard to arrest the accused in the case but they are absconding."

Caste-based discrimination is illegal in India, but abuse is rife, particularly in remote rural areas where the rigid system that places "untouchables" at the bottom of the social order remains intact.

The low castes, also known as Dalits, traditionally do menial, dirty and often dangerous jobs and are seen as spiritually and physically dirty by the high castes who sometimes prevent them from drinking at the same wells.

A fortnight ago, there were tensions in the Arwal district of Bihar where Dalits were prevented from entering a Hindu temple where high castes were worshipping.

one reason (among thousands) to thank GOD for partition

 

[Bond]

are you a Dalit?

In heat wave, Dalit beaten to death for using water pump






one reason (among thousands) to thank GOD for partition

 

[Bond]

On the other hand why so much insecurity? ... you do not need to justify how much failed your country is... show this "compassion" to your ahmadi/ shia/ christian countryman...

 

[yyetttt]

If Indian don't care about their Dalits atleast Pakistani's should... Love for Dalits from Pk

 

[KRAIT]

Surprised to see so many Elite members are indulged in pathetic mud slinging......

 

[AnnoyingOrange]

If Indian don't care about their Dalits atleast Pakistani's should... Love for Dalits from Pk

Ek aadmi jiske khud ke bachee bhooke mar rahe hain...woh padosi ke bacho ka thekedaar bane main laga hai...

Meaning: A man whose kids are struggling to get food is trying to become godfather of neighbors kids.....

 

[skyknight]

Some Indian member told me it is lucky for those who was born as a dalit in India now

 

[yyetttt]

@AnnoyingOrange

yaha pakistan ki baat nahi kare hai hum...

 

[Bond]

tabhi to.. Pakistanionko pakistan ki nahi padi hai.. but unhe puri duniya ki chinta lagi rahti hai.. kashmiris, palestines, uighurs, chechans... tabhi to lagi padi hai..

@AnnoyingOrange

yaha pakistan ki baat nahi kare hai hum...