11, October 2015 Caste Apartheid
A group of high energy Dalit
activists from India and their US supporters organized a special meeting at
Stanford University last Thursday to direct attention on caste apartheid that
still exists throughout India.
Who are the Dalits? The Varna and caste system has been
in existence in Indian society for thousands of years. India is the only country in
the world where such a system still exists. The Varna and caste system was sanctified by the Hindu religion
and by Vedic scriptures. Because it has been blessed and condoned by
generations of high caste Brahmins, its validity has rarely been challenged
except by the founder of the Sikh Faith, Guru Nanak, who fiercely condemned the
caste system for its inequities and social injustices. During this period, many
low caste Hindus converted to Sikhism, Buddhism or Christianity to escape the
tyranny of caste.
Unfortunately, Hinduism has successfully deflected these external
influences and cast discrimination has survived and continues to flourish to
the present day.
The Manusmriti text codified the then
prevailing social norms and consigned the shudras, atishudras and women to an
unequal and sub-human existence. The distinctiveness of the caste system is its
hereditary, compulsory and endogamous nature. Once born in a caste straight
jacket, there is no escape and for the vast majority of Dalits this stigma is
like a passport to hell. The worst affected by the caste system and its social
oppression have been the Dalits, or atishudras, or scheduled castes. Albeit in
a different way, the Adivasi’s or scheduled tribes in India have also faced
social oppression over the ages. The stories of Shambuka in the Ramayana and of
Ekalavya in the Mahabharata are classic testimonies of the non-egalitarian
nature of Hindu society in ancient and indeed modern India.
Along with the curse of untouchability, the Dalits, with few
exceptions, are denied property rights. Most have to survive on extremely low
wages and the ‘lucky ones’ eat the leftovers thrown away by the higher Varna;
they are not allowed to draw water from the common well reserved for their
higher caste bretheren; they enter and exit homes by a back door and rarely
ever have physical contact even with their most enlightened benefactors.
A staggering 200 million Dalits
are forced to endure appalling oppression, repression, physical and sexual
violence and murder. Their oppressors are rarely held accountable in a culture
that affords them complete impunity. They are denied entry to temples, given
restricted access to water and forced to work for higher caste employers. A
number of the delegates who came from different Indian states spoke of
encountering arrogance, disdain and outright hostility from police and other
officials. A FIR (First Information Report) documenting complaints are rarely
filed to ensure no one will ever be held accountable. Previously called
Untouchables, the Dalits are forbidden to make physical contact with a member
of a higher caste. If this occurs, the unfortunate Dalit receives a torrent of
abuse for “desecrating” the ‘low life’ recipient who subsequently undergoes
multiple cleansing to wash off the encounter. This is often followed by
firebombing Dalit homes, and attacks on Dalit men and molestation and sexual
violence on Dalit women.
The Dalits are now mounting a
nationwide effort to force officials to address their grievances and protection
from high caste oppression.
They have modeled their strategy
on the Gulabi Gang that has been operating a highly successful campaign in
Uttar Pradesh since 2006. They adopt a ‘no nonsense - in your face’ approach to
shame officials and family members guilty of abusing women.
Using social media. Modern day
Dalits are coalescing into a strong vibrant movement and are reaching out to
NGO’s like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights
Commission for support. A country should be judged, not only on its GDP and its
economic growth but how well its serves the poorest of the poor. Using the
latter as a matrix, India gets a failing grade.
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