What Do Increasing Atrocities Against Dalits Indicate?
Does belonging to ‘upper caste’ give one a licence to kill Dalits without being questioned?
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Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
What has happened to us? Why are we becoming so evil? In the 21st Century’s 18th year why are we killing people just because they belong to a 'lower caste', because they are Dalits?
The number of atrocities against Dalits is rising at an alarming rate throughout the country.
Recently, a gruesome, disgusting, merciless and frightening video from Gujarat’s Rajkot came to the fore where a Dalit man, tied with a rope, could be seen being beaten up. He could be seen begging for mercy, for the ‘upper caste’ people to spare his life but to no benefit. He ended up losing his life. The man was allegedly accused of theft but who are you to punish him? Are you the police? Are you the law? Has your ‘upper caste’ given you the licence to kill anyone with the assurance that nothing will happen to you?
This is not just one incident. In Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarpur, a Dalit youth was shot dead. Reason? He fell in love with an ‘upper caste’ girl. In Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, a Dalit wedding procession was attacked. Reason? The groom sat on a horse. Are only ‘upper caste’ people allowed to sit on horses?
Who decided this hierarchy and these rights? In UP’s Baghpat, atrocities against Dalits by Gujjars have forced many Dalits to leave their houses.
From Karnataka to Maharashtra to Punjab, Haryana and Bihar, Dalits are being targeted. They are at the receiving end of abuses and bullets.
And what are our leaders doing? Eating food at Dalit households and making false claims and promises to Dalits during elections, but when it comes to speaking up against the atrocities committed against them, they are silent.
Isn’t silence also a form of support and/or approval?
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Swaraj is a meaningless term, if we desire to keep a fifth of India under perpetual subjection, and deliberately deny to them the fruits of national culture”.
However, these people, who claim to be nationalists, do not seem to be following Gandhi’s teachings.
Translation: Anmol Saini
(This story was first published on Quint Hindi.)
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