Childhoods Are at Stake as Caste War Spreads Its Talons

Being caste agnostic and apolitical are privileges of the unoppressed and some oppressors.

A still from the Marathi film Fandry, which revolves around a low caste 13-year-old boy.

As someone who has grown up in Mumbai, it is a matter of immense shame that my city has been experiencing shades of violence in the past few days. The roads have been blocked; there have been raasta-roko and rail-roko at different places. The city that has the reputation of never sleeping had to take a long forced slumber.

However, none of these irked me as much as the video of a young child in Mumbai with a stone in his hand, waiting for an opportunity to hit back at those who pelted stones at him and his family. Ravinder Ambekar, the founder of the news station Max Maharashtra, posted a video that would leave a chill down the spine.

In this video, the approximately 6/7-year-old child tells Ravinder that he was in Pune for Ambedkar’s event and that he had a stone in hand to hit back at those who threw stones at them. The anger in the child’s eyes speaks volumes about the consequences of such violence.

In any violence, the worst affected are always children. Painful memories of a violent childhood is what we tend to carry through our life. According to this Indian Express article that quotes a study published in the Salud Mental journal, children exposed to violence while growing up are three times more likely to suffer from mental health issues like depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We need to protect our children from exposure to such violence.

The natural response to the stimuli of violence is violence. You hit back when you are hit. Irrespective of which side of the debate you are in, we should be on the side of the the children.

There is enough social research to prove that the more socially ostracised you are, the more are the chances that are you subjected to violence and oppression.

This incident is a reminder that being caste agnostic is a privilege of the middle class and rich upper caste people. Mumbai is a land of opportunity and an island of privilege. We live in a world of our own and have a romanticised idea about caste, until there is an outburst of violence of this kind.

In many places, including in several homes in Mumbai, a Dalit person is reminded everyday of their caste when the upper caste guys close their doors, keep separate plates, or have a quick shower when touched by them. We are correct when we say “violence is not the answer for anything”, but we also only account for physical violence and not the emotional and social violence that Dalits have been subjected to through centuries.

Speaking about politics specifically, it is again a privilege to say “I am apolitical” or that “I don’t want to get into it”. Dalits will have to worry about who will lead them to positive change. History has been unkind to Dalits and they would want to be lifted up and not further oppressed.

While we shouldn’t be forcing everyone to have a political view on everything, we should also acknowledge that being caste agnostic and apolitical is a privilege of the unoppressed and some oppressors.

Dalit women especially, face oppression because of caste and then patriarchy in their homes. The effect on them thus is two-fold. Let’s take the example of Bhawri Devi, a Dalit woman who was raped by upper caste male employers and is still awaiting justice. The courts actually argued that she cannot be raped by upper caste men, because upper caste men wouldn't touch a lower caste woman. We still complain when they get reservations and think merit should be favoured over quotas. That’s a very superficial way of looking at things. The fact remains is that you may keep an open-to-all-without-bias sign at the door of employment. But the privileged walk two steps to reach the door, and the underprivileged walk through centuries of oppression.

The worst effect of patriarchy and casteism is the violence on children and the black hole of violence that they are sucked into. It ends with children mimicking the action of their attackers. For this cycle to stop, the oppression should stop.

(Harish Iyer is an equal rights activist working for the rights of the LGBT community, women, children and animals. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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