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Poster showing ten Dalits killed during Rambai massacre
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, October 17 (IslamOnline)- Five Dalits (low-caste Hindus) were
beaten to death and two of them burnt later outside a police post less
than two hours drive away from the national capital Wednesday, October
16.
The
Dalits, all in their 20s, were skinning a dead cow. For hundreds of
generations the Dalits have been skinning dead cattle, and what they
Did Wednesday was nothing unusual, except that some Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) volunteers spread the rumor that the Dalits had
“killed” a cow.
High
caste Hindus treat cows as a sacred animal. They drink their urine in
the belief that it cures a large number of diseases and ritually
cleanses the human soul. Even cow dung is sacred. Skinning a cow which
died naturally has generally been tolerated, but not killing one.
Within
a couple of hours of the rumor spreading, 2,000 people descended on
the spot shrieking hysterically “Gow mata ki jai” (Hail mother
cow). The frightened Dalits ran into a police post at Dulena (in
Jhajhar district of Haryana state).
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Dalit leader Udit Raj leads a group during conversion to Buddhism as a way to escape the Hindu caste system |
The
hysterical mob came to the police post, grabbed the Dalits and beat
them to death as 50 policemen watched. Besides the policemen who chose
to remain passive spectators, there was a city magistrate, the
sub-divisional police chief and other government officials watching
the show calmly. Two of the dead were later burnt by the mob.
Local
temple priest Mahendra Permanand was reported as justifying the
lynching. He was reported to have said that lynching of the Dalits was
only “natural” as “they have killed our mother [the cow].”
The
district magistrate reached the spot late claiming that he was caught
in a “traffic jam”. Nobody has been arrested, and the perpetrators
led by World Hindu Council (VHP) functionaries are unrepentant. The
VHP has, according to a report in Thursday’s Indian Express, dared
the police to take action if they can.
If
past record is any indication, the perpetrators don’t have much to
worry about.
As
the “Kumher carnage” of a decade ago shows, the law would look the
other way if Dalits are killed or their women raped. In that
particular case, 17 Dalits were burnt alive by a mob that included
government officials. The carnage occurred in Rajasthan, neighboring
Delhi.
In
the past three years alone Rajasthan has witnessed 15,072 cases of
crimes against Dalits and tribals, including an annual average of 46
killings, 143 rapes and 93 cases of grievous injury.
The
iniquitous caste system is strictly enforced despite a law prohibiting
it. Discrimination against Dalits is a fact of life for much of India.
According to Praful Bidwai, one of the best columnists of India, the
discrimination is “systemic, systematic, entrenched.”
In
a recent article in the Hindustan Times, Bidwai wrote, “From land
maldistribution and denial of basic services—the village barber
won’t even shave a Dalit—this extends to inequality in access to
water, common pastures and wasteland, employment and drought-relief
schemes and unequal wages.”
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Dalits at a tea-stall where they are made to use separate tumblers and have to wash them too |
In
the same vein, Bidwai continues, “A Dalit woman may not wear sandals
in the village. Dalit children may only sit at the back of classroom
and drink water from a separate pot…. The upper-caste landlord’s
right to deflower a Dalit bride-to-be is prevalent.”
The
law is on the side of the Dalits, but the law-keepers are not prepared
to implement it. As long as the law-keepers “continue to make a
travesty of it, the Dalits’ struggle for elementary human dignity
will face heavy odds,” says Bidwai. And carnages like those of
Kumher and Jhajjar will continue to take place in largest democracy in
the world.
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