India’s Caste System 11-21-2018

21 November 2018                              India’s Caste System

The New York Times published the gruesome story of a low cast Dalit bludgeoned by upper-caste hoodlums who then held him down and made deep cuts in his scalp. The Dalit, Sardar Singh Jatav, suffered severe injuries ended up in a government hospital in Gwalior. His crime? Wearing a turban.

Dalits are considered to be outcastes or untouchables. 

Much like Donald Trump, Narendra Modi and the RSS have unleashed the worst excesses of caste politics.

What is even more appalling is the “laissez-faire” attitude of the diaspora and population at large who have chosen to remain in mute silence. According to the latest crime statistics, the assaults on low caste Indians are dramatically on the rise. They are humiliated tortured, disfigured and murdered in alarming numbers.  A few recent examples:

A 14-year-old Dalit Girl was beheaded by an upper-caste man in deference to his wife’s wishes.

A Dalit scavenger was gagged, bound and fatally whipped. Another Dalit was killed for riding a horse. 

Dalits are so reviled that they must drop their gaze when passing higher castes and are confined to drinking from separate drinking taps much like the Jim Crow American south.

The violence is intended to deliver a strong message that despite India’s notable progress and growing affluence, its social order remains deeply entrenched. This is a failure of law enforcement to uphold the Indian Constitution which bans caste discrimination.

A few brave voices are speaking out. Ayatthi Ramaiah, a sociology professor in Mumbai admitted that “we have a mental illness”. India may be a rising global power, but has fossilized into a spiritual God Centered midget. Surely God doesn’t condone such savagery”.  If such behavior violates God’s laws, why is such behavior, tolerated?

Dalits can expect no justice from the authorities who are usually from a higher caste. I urge readers to denounce the cancer of caste-ism in Indian society.