We have to know OUR land. We have to know our Culture and Traditions.
Untouchability has been banned in the constitution of India, which was drafted by a committee headed by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, himself an untouchable. It was his great ingenuity that he could tactfully make such a provision in the constitution of a country dominated by the Brahmans. However, there are plenty of evidences that the constitutional provision is honoured more by violation than by observance by millions of so-called high caste Hindus. Here are some:
"An attempt by a group of Harijans (untouchables) to enter an historic Hindu temple at the holy town of Nathdwara in Rajasthan state failed on Monday evening when high caste priests and others beat them back with sticks, injuring at least six. The attempt was organized by social reformers to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual founder of independent India, who named the Untouchables 'Harijans.' Reports from Nathdwara say, a large contingent of police, deployed by the state government to maintain peace, took no action to prevent the attack despite the high court ruling." (Financial Times, 6 October 1988)"In a village 100 miles from Delhi, villagers hanged and then threw on to a fire a girl and two boys; the boys had first been tortured, while their fathers made to watch, and one of them and the girl had still been alive when put in fire. They had managed to crawl out, but were thrown back. The girl, from the powerful Jat caste, had tried to elope with one of the boys, assisted by his friend; both were untouchables, a group so low they are not even on the bottom rung of the caste ladder. Not long before, in three villages in the state of Bihar, the huts of 400-odd families of untouchables were burnt down by gangs working for the local landowning caste, because they were demanding the legal minimum wage, 16 rupees (78 cents) a day." (The Economist, June 8th 1991).
"At school Harijans are often made to sit on the floor; in some villages they have to take off their shoes while walking past upper-caste houses, and are usually banned from drawing water from the village well for fear they will pollute it...A Brahmin on a packed bus cannot hop off and bathe six times each time he fears the shadow of an untouchable has fallen on him." (The Economist June 8th 1991).
"Twenty Harijans (untouchables) have been hacked to death in a village in southern India by high caste Hindus and their bodies thrown into a nearby canal, news papers reports said. The Statesman said the incident occurred on Tuesday at Tsundur village near Guntur town in Andhra Pradesh state. Other reports said a group of Harijans were attacked by deadly weapons while trying to flee across marshes. A police picked in the village remained passive to the gruesome murders, The Hindu newspaper said. The incident had its origins in an incident that occurred about a month back in a local cinema hall. A Harijan boy watching a movie stretched himself and his leg accidentally touched a high-caste boy sitting in the next seat. Soon there was an altercation between them. The Hindus took this as an affront on their authority. They summoned the teacher-father of the Harijan boy and held him hostage until they caught hold of the boy and beat him. After this, other minor incidents between the two groups snowballed and finally led to arson and mayhem. The southern Indian incident comes three weeks after two lower caste youths and a 15-year old upper caste girl were publicly hanged by their own fathers goaded by a vigilante mob in a north Indian village. They were punished for defying the Hindu social code barring inter-caste marriage." (Arab News, August l0, 1991).
"In 1989, the national government (of India) recorded 14,269 cases of atrocities committed against outcastes, including 479 murders and 759 rapes." (Arab News, March 31 1991).
"Jagjivan Ram (former Union Minister of India) with all power and wealth at his command was made to know that his social status was not even equal to the poorest and uneducated Brahmin of India. When he visited Varanasi on invitation and garlanded the statue of Sampurnanand (a Kayasth), the statue was washed with Gangajal (sacred water of the Ganges) and mantras were recited to make it 'pure' as the touch of a SC (untouchable) had desecrated the stone Statue." (Dalit Voice, Vol. 12, No. 21, p.17).
"In Kerala, Namboodiri Brahmins till very recently were compelling 'low caste' women not to wear blouses lest they should appear as high caste. The result was that these women had to go bare-breasted which was condemned by all civilized nations." (Dalit Voice, Vol. 12, No. 21, p. 17).
A recent example of caste-based atrocities was published by the Indian Express (June 24, 1995). A Scheduled Tribe woman, Prakash Kaur, was most painfully murdered in a village in Maharashtra province in May, 1995. Brutes from the Aryan Hindus (l) dragged her to the village temple; (2) shaved her head; (3) beat her with sticks, (4) inserted a stick into her private parts; (5) blackened her face; (6) put her on a donkey and paraded her in the market; and (7) continued to beat her till she died. When the dying woman asked for water, the killers poured hot water and kerosene in her mouth. Her only offence (?) was that her 12-year old son had entered the local Hindu temple. The place where the incident took place is very close to the local police station. The more painful aspect of the incident is that when the Home Minister of the state was contacted by the All India Democratic Women's Association, he refused to take any action in the matter saying that it was not a murder but a "reflection of mob anger."
Another recent example of caste-based atrocities was published by the Times of India in its issue of 18 January 1997. A 41-year old low-caste women was stripped and paraded naked through a village near Muradabad town (U.P.). Her only offence (?) was that her son had, allegedly, teased a girl who was a caste Hindu. The woman cried for help but none dared to come to her aid.
The racial atrocities meted out by the arrogant caste or Aryan Hindus to the underprivileged people of India have no parallel in modern world. The above instances are only few of such incidents presented to indicate how things are going on in a country claimed to be the largest democracy in the world.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment