PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2008 ID-20838
.
After nearly 60 years of having a constitution which promises a dream where caste-based discrimination belongs to a distant past, we still witness the most gruesome and barbaric incidents of atrocities on dalits. In 2006, an entire dalit family in Khairlanji was murdered and the women raped. This incident shockingly took place in full public view, with the connivance of hundreds of onlookers. Their only crime was that they had dared to be educated and break the shackles of an exploitative caste order. Two years later, 6 people have been sentenced to death, and two with life imprisonment. The caste dimension of this incident was always clearly evident, and yet the guilty were charged under the IPC, and not under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. This attempt to sanitize the brutality of its casteist intent belies any claim of honestly in dealing with the entrenched casteism in society. .
Khairlanji is most unfortunately not an aberration or an isolated incident. Caste-based discrimination and caste atrocities are a chilling reality in every part of the country. Just to remember some of the cases reported in 2008 alone: In a bizarre New Year Eve honour killing, an Indian father set fire to his daughters home in the USA killing his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and their three year old son, because he could not bear the fact that she had married a lower caste immigrant. In January, the eye of a dalit youth in Maharashtras Nanded district. was gouged out and acid from a car battery poured into it, simply for eloping with a minor girl belonging to the upper caste Marathas. In Jan, a brahmin priest in Kanpur abused and beat up a dalit and his three friends on Tuesday when the latter tried to enter the famous Mahadev temple to offer prayers. In Feb, the owner of a sweets shop pushed his dalit employee into a large pot of boilinIg oil, resulting in his death, after the man refused to work for him in Uttar Pradeshs Etawah district. In Oct, a dalit woman committed suicide in front of the Betul district Collectorate, when no action was taken the sarpanchs son, who had raped her twice. These are just some of the incidents of caste brutalities. .
Even in UP, where Mayawatis victory sharpened the aspirations of dalits for democracy and empowerment, dalits continue to bear the brunt of casteist assaults and atrocities. We have not forgotten how a young dalit student, Chakrasen was murdered in Pratapgarh after he got admission into an engineering college. .
He is fulfilling his jatigat kartavya (caste obligation). thats what the President of the BSP Pratapgarh Unit said when asked about the local Brahmin BSP MLA who had harboured (in his own home) the killer of Chakrasen (reported in Tehelka, 25 August 2007) .
Educational institutions also reveal this entrenched casteist mentality. We have seen how SC students in AIIMS are subjected to segregation, caste abuse and victimization. In our own campus, we have seen how casteism is prevalent, abetted not just by some sections of the student community but also by the JNU administration. The recent incident of caste abuse in Periyar hostel is an eye-opener for those who live under the illusion that casteism is no longer a threat that needs to be addressed. .
In this incident, an objection was raised when a dalit student wanted to put up a picture of Dr. Ambedkar in his room. The manner in which the hostel administration dealt with this situation reveals the open reluctance to strongly oppose a casteist mentality. By his own admission, the Chief warden treated this incident as a simple case of a mild difference of opinion of two roommates over something innocuous. The chief warden openly states that he does not see a caste dimension in this incident! .
Education is supposed to be about learning and internalizing new values. It is the responsibility of a campus to inculcate democratic values in students. In the Periyar hostel case, ideally, the Chief warden should have explained to the roommate of the dalit student that any opposition to the picture of Dr. Ambedkar reveals a casteist bias. Intolerance to a symbol of dalit assertion is the first step towards segregation. Such an attitude is plainly unconstitutional, and should not be entertained at any cost. .
Instead, the Chief warden chose to ignore the entrenched casteist mindset that this incident revealed. In his own words, he tried to negotiate, and mediate between the students, by asking the complainant to remove Dr. Ambedkar's portrait,a suggestion which the warden thinks has "no problem". .
Dr. Ambedkar had warned that simply instituting laws is not enough to tackle a centuries old exploitative Brahminical caste order. .
Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organization.
[the formal framework of democracy] involves
an attitude of mind, and attitude of respect and equality towards their fellows. .
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2008 ID-20838
.
After nearly 60 years of having a constitution which promises a dream where caste-based discrimination belongs to a distant past, we still witness the most gruesome and barbaric incidents of atrocities on dalits. In 2006, an entire dalit family in Khairlanji was murdered and the women raped. This incident shockingly took place in full public view, with the connivance of hundreds of onlookers. Their only crime was that they had dared to be educated and break the shackles of an exploitative caste order. Two years later, 6 people have been sentenced to death, and two with life imprisonment. The caste dimension of this incident was always clearly evident, and yet the guilty were charged under the IPC, and not under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. This attempt to sanitize the brutality of its casteist intent belies any claim of honestly in dealing with the entrenched casteism in society. .
Khairlanji is most unfortunately not an aberration or an isolated incident. Caste-based discrimination and caste atrocities are a chilling reality in every part of the country. Just to remember some of the cases reported in 2008 alone: In a bizarre New Year Eve honour killing, an Indian father set fire to his daughters home in the USA killing his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and their three year old son, because he could not bear the fact that she had married a lower caste immigrant. In January, the eye of a dalit youth in Maharashtras Nanded district. was gouged out and acid from a car battery poured into it, simply for eloping with a minor girl belonging to the upper caste Marathas. In Jan, a brahmin priest in Kanpur abused and beat up a dalit and his three friends on Tuesday when the latter tried to enter the famous Mahadev temple to offer prayers. In Feb, the owner of a sweets shop pushed his dalit employee into a large pot of boilinIg oil, resulting in his death, after the man refused to work for him in Uttar Pradeshs Etawah district. In Oct, a dalit woman committed suicide in front of the Betul district Collectorate, when no action was taken the sarpanchs son, who had raped her twice. These are just some of the incidents of caste brutalities. .
Even in UP, where Mayawatis victory sharpened the aspirations of dalits for democracy and empowerment, dalits continue to bear the brunt of casteist assaults and atrocities. We have not forgotten how a young dalit student, Chakrasen was murdered in Pratapgarh after he got admission into an engineering college. .
He is fulfilling his jatigat kartavya (caste obligation). thats what the President of the BSP Pratapgarh Unit said when asked about the local Brahmin BSP MLA who had harboured (in his own home) the killer of Chakrasen (reported in Tehelka, 25 August 2007) .
Educational institutions also reveal this entrenched casteist mentality. We have seen how SC students in AIIMS are subjected to segregation, caste abuse and victimization. In our own campus, we have seen how casteism is prevalent, abetted not just by some sections of the student community but also by the JNU administration. The recent incident of caste abuse in Periyar hostel is an eye-opener for those who live under the illusion that casteism is no longer a threat that needs to be addressed. .
In this incident, an objection was raised when a dalit student wanted to put up a picture of Dr. Ambedkar in his room. The manner in which the hostel administration dealt with this situation reveals the open reluctance to strongly oppose a casteist mentality. By his own admission, the Chief warden treated this incident as a simple case of a mild difference of opinion of two roommates over something innocuous. The chief warden openly states that he does not see a caste dimension in this incident! .
Education is supposed to be about learning and internalizing new values. It is the responsibility of a campus to inculcate democratic values in students. In the Periyar hostel case, ideally, the Chief warden should have explained to the roommate of the dalit student that any opposition to the picture of Dr. Ambedkar reveals a casteist bias. Intolerance to a symbol of dalit assertion is the first step towards segregation. Such an attitude is plainly unconstitutional, and should not be entertained at any cost. .
Instead, the Chief warden chose to ignore the entrenched casteist mindset that this incident revealed. In his own words, he tried to negotiate, and mediate between the students, by asking the complainant to remove Dr. Ambedkar's portrait,a suggestion which the warden thinks has "no problem". .
Dr. Ambedkar had warned that simply instituting laws is not enough to tackle a centuries old exploitative Brahminical caste order. .
Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organization.
[the formal framework of democracy] involves
an attitude of mind, and attitude of respect and equality towards their fellows. .
.