The
Politics of the Caste System and the Practice of Untouchability
The Hindu religious belief that" ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT BORN
EQUAL" is deeply entrenched in the psyche of the upper-caste Hindus,
leading them to see themselves as a superior race destined to rule and the
out-castes (the Untouchables or Dalits) an inferior race born only to serve.
This system, which has resulted in the destitution of millions of people due to
racial discrimination, has not changed one iota after 50 years of Indian
independence.
The basic survival of 250 million Untouchables and Tribals is at stake because
of the Hindus' complete lack of respect for the Dalits' human dignity and
equality. Indeed, the violation of the Dalits' fundamental human rights is a
daily occurrence - rights which are laid down in United Nations' fundamental
human rights instruments, including Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
International Covenent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International
Covenent on Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination etc. of which India is a Signatory, and the Liberty, Equality,
Justice and Fraternity for every citizen guaranteed by Constitution of India
itself.
The Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace (ACJD) presents to the UN Committee
on the Human Rights a series of case studies that illustrate various facets of
the ongoing violation of the Dalits' fundamental human rights and a glimpse of
the Apartheid of South Asia
The Hindu religion is based on Caste System with graded
inequality, Brahmin (Priest caste) on the top, below comes Kshatriya (ruling
caste), below comes Vaishya (business caste), below stands Sudra (menial caste)
to serve all 3 masters, and Untouchables are the lowest of the low- the
Out-Caste. In this caste hierchy power is in ascending order and contempt is in
descending order. This is like a 5 story building with no stairs to go-water
tight compartments. The top 3 castes are the ruling high caste less than
15%, but control 80 % of the power, wealth, police judiciery and 100% media.
This is why West has failed to take a notice of sufferings of the Untouchables.
As India celebrates its 50th Anniversary of Independence from British Rule on
15th August 1997, for the Untouchables and Tribals, the most marginalised people
of the size of USA or the combined population of France, Germany and England,
this means only the change from British Masters to High Caste Hindu Masters.
Even after 50 years of independence, Human Rights
Watch, Washington Think Tank, in its 1996 report, states that there are more
than 115 million children in child labour, which 20 million are working in
Hazardous Working Conditions, most of these children being from the lowest caste
(Untouchables and Tribals) .
"..children were in bondage in agriculture, brick kilns, stone quarries, carpet weaving, handlooms, matches and fireworks, glass bangles, diamond cutting and polishing; that child bondage and force labour were connected with trafficking, kidnapping, repression, absence of freedom of movements, beating, sexual abuse, starvation, abnormal working hours and hazardous working conditions."..82nd session, Report III, (part 4a), pare 42 referring to India, ILO, 1995.
The Hindu religious traditions in certain parts of India
force 6 year old female Untouchable child to marry to temple god by coercing her
parents-the landless labour, and at puberty they rape her and every year
5000-10,000 these children are secretely auctioned to the brothels of Bombay and
other major cities. This system is known as Devdasi or Maidens of God.Other
sanctified female child prostitution is called Jogins where a child at puberty
is forced to stay with her parents as a BONDED LABOUR and the Hindu masters
visit her at her house to have the sexual pleasures.
UN Commission on Social Development report 1996 states that half of the world's
poor below poverty line are in South Asia, out of which 300 million are at
starving level. Most of these starving people are Untouchables and Tribals.
India's 80% population lives in villages, as a landless labour 90% Of Dalits
live in rural India, with 80 % illiterate, totally dependent for their survival
on the high caste Hindus, they are ill paid, ill fed and forced into bonded
labour
Chief Justice P.N.Bhagavati in one of his judgements on bonded labour case wrote
"They are a non- being, exiles of civilisation, living a life worse than that of animals, for animals are at least free to roam about as they like and they can plunder or grab food whenever they are hungry, but these OUT CASTES of the society are held i!? bondage, robbed of their freedon, and they are consigned to an existance where they have to live either in hovels or under the open sky and be satisfied with whatever little unwholesome food they can manage to get, inadequate though it be to fill fill their stomachs. Not having any any choice, they are driven by poverty and hunger into a life of bondage, a dark bottomless pit from which, i'? a cruel exploitative society, they cannot hope to be rescued. " (Human Rights in India Today, 1992 edition, NCPHR page 177).
In villages Dalits cannot fetch a water even from the public well or the well gets polluted as per hindu beliefs. They cannot socialise in village cafe for the fear of pollution. If they dared, there are many cases of beatings, killings by high caste Hindus. Recently there were 10 untouchables killed in cold blood who tried to assert their rights in Bihar state by the landlord army. Even Government of India's own Commission on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (constitutional name for Untouchables and Tnbals) Report 1994 states that there were more than 62000 human rights violations. Every one recorded, nine go unrecorded. This gives the picture how big the problem is.
This may be only country on the earth where if an Untouchable
landless labour lady complains to her master about unfair wages, she is stripped
naked and paraded naked as it happened in Bhopal, Uttar Pradesh, and near Bombay
in the last 2 years. The shock is so severe to the lady that she commits suicide
later. The Hindu master wants to teach the lesson
to the slave.
More than 500 children died of starvation in Melghat county, Amaravati district,
Maharastra in 1995 and they are even dying today. No provision, protection are
given to these helpless Tribal women to survive.
With all the industrialization of India, less than 15% of the high caste Hindus
are becoming filthy rich and on the other side our children, women and men dying
hungry. THIS IS A DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW, BY THE FEW, OF THE FEW (HIGH CASTE
HINDUS).
Even the political rights cannot be enjoyed by our people. In a recent local
elections in Tanil Nadu state, the reserved seats, as per provision in the
constitution, were available. Our people were prevented from filling the
nominations. Finally our young people got so frustrated that 7 went to the local
collector's office to burn themselves alive by kerosene, 6 were prevented, but
one finally died by burns. No enquries were done or compensation given to the
family.
The main jobs for our people are cleaning latrines, carrying dead animals,
carrying human excrete on head, cleaning streets, landless labour, bonded labour,
child labour., peons and coolies. The constitution of India provided full
protection against attrocities by making the practice of Untouchability a
criminal offense (Article.. 17) and provided reservations 22% in jobs from
coolie (class 4) to senior bureaucrat (class 1). The low level jobs are filled
by our people like peons ,clerks but class 1 and 2 are not filled yet in 50
years which give the power to improve our lot. They have filled less than 5%
total. There are very few judges or the secretaries of the ministries. So when
the crime is committed by the high caste hindus against helpless Untouchables,
the police officer is their cousin and judge is their uncle. Therefore Justice
is not served as it should be and culprits are scottfree..
This Hindu Mentality has been created by the undemocratic, barbaric Laws of the
MANU - Hindu Law Giver about 2000 years back.
In laws of Manu it states:
1) Food gets polluted by the smell of a pig, by the look of a dog, and the
touch of Sudra (the law caste person). Ch.3..S.251
2) A Brahmana (high caste priest) can take work from a Sudra (lowly) for wages
or no wages. The Sudra (low caste) has been created by Brahma (God) to serve the
Brahmins Priest Caste). Ch. 8, S..413, S..413
3) A Brahmana (Priest caste) may give for the livelihood of Sudras (low caste)
the remnants of his food, his torn clothes, and tasteless grain. Ch. lO, S..125
4) A Dharma (religion) attached to each caste is in accordance with the sacred
Vedas (holy book). Ch.2. S..7
CASE STUDIES
1) Raid
Kodiankulam, August 1995 - Destruction of Dalit village, lives and property
On August 31, 1995, police raided Kodiankulam, a Dalit village of 350
families in Tamil Nadu state. Not only did the 1,000-strong force destroy and
loot property, they also inflicted personal injury on the villagers. The police
beat a pregnant woman and a nursing mother, and several persons complained of
brutal attack in which old men, women and children were not spared.
The tiled roofs of many houses were damaged. Besides destroying and looting
consumer durables, they also rendered agricultural implements and household
articles useless. They made a bonfire of clothes, and also the passports and
educational certificates of a number of youth. Two tractors and a couple of
trucks were damaged. There were also complaints of theft.
The policemen also damaged the food grains the villagers had stored by pouring
kerosene over them and ransacked the fair price shop. They poisoned a public
well with pesticides and fertilizers. Even the village post office and the sub
postmaster were targeted.
After the villagers appealed to the Madras High Court, the Tamil Nadu state
government was forced at least to restore the basic necessity of water. However,
the state government has not taken any action against the local officials who
were involved in the raid. Nor does the compensation offered by the state
government begin to approximate the losses suffered by the villagers.
Kodiankulam is still waiting for adequate compensation and an inquiry to be
conducted at the federal level by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Immediately after the raid, the Dalits filed a case with the Madras High Court,
which restricted itself to issuing a directive for an immediate supply of
drinking water to Kodiankulam. After much public outcry and media coverage, the
state government struck a one-person commission of inquiry. The entire village
boycotted the commission as they were convinced that it was so much eyewash.
Similarly, the state government belatedly announced a paltry 1.7 million rupees
as compensation to two districts affected by communal clashes. The people of
Kodiankulam, having themselves lost 35 million rupees, rejected the offer.
The Tamil Nadu Devendra Kula Vellalar Federation led by Dr. K Krishnaswamy, who
visited Kodiankulam immediately after the raid, held a rally in Madras on
October 6 to demand adequate compensation and a CBI inquiry. The police shot and
killed two Dalits and set on fire several trucks and buses that had brought
people to the rally. On November 6, the Federation organized a state-wide
roadblock to press their demands.
In the case of Kodiankulam, the conflict is between a Dalit community and the
Thevars, high caste Hindus. The Thevars are the traditionally dominant caste in
the district of Tamil Nadu where Kodiankulam is located and dominate the state
government and police force. The Kodiankulam Dalits are relatively economically
independent of the Thevars. Since 1980, it has benefitted from the flow of Finds
from natives employed in Dubai, Kuwait, the United States and other countries as
technicians, chartered accountants and so on. Most of the villagers cultivate
their own land. Even the few landless labourers do not seek employment with
Thevars, but work only in Dalits' farms. Some farmers have even bought land.
This modicum of prosperity has enabled the Dalits to assert themselves and start
demanding their fundamental human rights. By inflicting extensive damage on a
relatively prosperous community, the high- caste Hindus have moved to reassert
their control over the untouchables and to reconfirm the power relations
inherent in the caste system.
The issue of control is equally apparent in the aftermath of the raid. Given the
predominance of the Thevars in the police and state government, it is difficult
for the Dalits to get justice at the local level. The administrators and rulers
of state governments are mostly from the high-caste ndus, and the Dalits are
always at the receiving end in caste-based clashes. The villagers could not
approach anybody locally for justice - they could scarcely lodge a complaint
with the police.
The Dalits continue to try to use the judicial system and have filed a writ
petition with the Madras High Court, arraigning the State of Tamil Nadu. It
seeks legal proceedings against those responsible for the attack on the Dalits,
including the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police, under the
Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989 (untouchables are known as Scheduled Caste in the Indian
constitution). In fact, the Indian Constitution drafted by its chief architect,
Dr. Ambedkar, the first Law Minister of India and a foremost human rights
champion of the 20th century, is based on the foundation of liberty, equality
and fraternity. Discrimination of any citizen has been prohibited. However, the
belief on the part of the ruling high-caste Hindus in the superiority of their
race has been the major stumbling block in the progress of achieving full
democratic rights by every citizen.
2) Tsundum
Massacre, August 1991 - Genocide of Young Dalit
Men
On August 6, 1991, the Dalit men of Tsunduru were chased out of their colony
in the village by the police to nearby paddy fields and massacred by the
high-caste Hindus. The bodies were stuffed in gunny sacks and thrown in a canal.
The history behind this atrocity is a stark illustration of the violation of the
Dalits' human rights by high-caste Hindus in an extremely cruel and degrading
form.
Tsuduru is a village in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh state. It has a
population of 7,000 people of different castes. The Scheduled Castes number
around 3,000; the Scheduled Tribes, 350; and the upper castes (Reddys and
Telegas), about 3,000. The rest belong to the other castes and sub-castes. There
are 4,000 acres of arable land in the village. Only 50 acres belong to the
Scheduled Castes; the majority of the Scheduled Castes, therefore, work as
agricultural labourers and a few sharecrop. However, the Dalits are becoming
somewhat economically independent by acquiring some education and lower-end
clerical jobs in the government bureaucracy.
The Dalits are becoming conscious of their rights and are getting organized;
they have installed a statute of Dr. B.R Ambedkar on the roadside in their
colony. By showing respect to Dr. Arnbedkar, their emancipator, the Dalits are
signifying to the high-caste Hindus that they will not be slaves forever.
However, the Dalits do not wield political power or influence. Most of the local
members of parliament and legislative assembly are high-caste Hindus.
Furthermore, the high-caste Hindus control the levers of power such as the
judiciary and, as this particular incident so clearly illustrates, the police.
The Tsunduru massacre had its immediate beginnings in July 1991. A local Dalit
university student accidently touched a high-caste Hindu (notion of pollution by
human touch as per Hindu religious belief). The student apologized, but
nonetheless he was verbally abused. Some Dalits rallied to support young man.
Subsequently, both the student and his father were assaulted. The police took no
action on behalf of the victims.
Matters escalated when the upper castes organized a boycott of the Dalits: no
work was to be offered to the Dalits nor were shopowners to sell items of
necessity to the Dalits. The Dalits went in search of work to other villages,
and some decided simply to go away. The tension was mounting and a dash seemed
imminent. On July 12, the authorities declared Section 144 of the Indian Penal
Code on curfew in the village. In the morning, the Reddys began to throw stones
at the houses of the Dalits, and the Dalits came out to retaliate. The police
rushed to the spot, fired into the air to disperse the mob and threatened them
with clubs. The next day, the police summoned the Dalits to the police station,
ostensibly to work out a compromise. Once there, they found that the police had
illegally registered cases against 18 youths, charging them with attempt to
murder.
The upper castes continued to squeeze the Dalits economically until things
came to a head on August 6. The police and the high-caste Hindus joined forces,
and the police swooped down on the Dalit colony to enforce the orders
prohibiting the Dalits from meeting in groups and arranging their own
protection. The male residents were chased out of the to the paddy fields and
railway tracks nearby where the high-caste Hindus who had surrounded the area
(as preplanned with the police) were laying in wait Fully armed. They killed the
fleeing men, packed their bodies in gunny sacks and threw them into a nearby
canal. The women, hearing the screams of the men, asked the police for help. The
police, however, said that nothing more serious than a fight was occurring. On
the other hand, when the upper caste women came to seek protection for their
children in school, the police provided escorts. The dismemberment of the some
out of the 17 young Dalit men was so shocking to the doctor who did the autopsy
that he committed suicide.
The General Secretary of the Dalit Maha Sabha (a Dalit organization), Mr. Katti
Padma Rao, went to Tsunduru, but was placed under virtual house arrest and not
allowed into the area where the massacre had taken place. The Dalits then
decided to go on an indefinite fast. They called on units of the Maha Sabha to
organize relay fasts in their respective areas. The fast was begun in Tsunduru
by two men on August 31, and on September 5, the police arrested them and took
them to the hospital. Another two began fasting, and on September 10, the police
arrested them as well. After returning from the hospital, the police threatened
to pull down the tent, put a stop to the fasts, disperse the crowd and suppress
the movement. On the excuse that someone had pelted stones at them, the police
opened fire without warning and shot at point- blank range, killing a crucial
eyewitness - the only survivor- to police participation in the August 6
massacre.
The police claimed that the killing was in self defence and that the Dalits
were armed. The Superintendent of Police claimed that the women had thrown
stones at the police. However, the protest was nonviolent and the man was shot
from behind. He was facing the women, not the police, asking them to go back to
their houses. Furthermore, the police assaulted the women with clubs and gun
butts. About 20 men and women were hospitalized. The police force numbered 40;
the men and women, 200-250.
When Dalits stepped up their protests for justice, federal authorities appointed
a retired high-caste Hindu judge to investigate (without authority to prosecute
and with the goal to delay the proceedings for a long enough time that the
victims would run out of time and energy). Even after five years, the culprits
are still at large, the police officers responsible for this genocide have not
been punished according to the law, no adequate compensation has been given to
the victims and their families and the survivors are not given any protection
against the life-threatening warnings from the culprits and their
relatives. In this manner, the Dalits are terrorized into staying away from
seeking redress through the legal system. Furthermore, this case was thrown out
of court after four years of delay on a technicality, and the government failed
completely to implement its own law, the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.
The development of the Dalits through education has been a sore spot for the
high-caste Hindus: they consider the independence of the educated Dalit youth to
be a threat to Hindu sdf-assigned superiority. The massacre of Dalit youth was a
lesson to the Untouchables not to try to improve their status. The massacre also
represents a total failure of the state government and federal government to
implement their own laws, benefitting the high-caste Hindus as usual.
3) Rajasthan
massacre, June 1992 - Systematic genocide of Dalits
In Kumher in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan state, at least thirty Dalits
were killed (unofficial figures run as high as 200), hundreds brutely injured
and property worth millions of rupees was damaged and destroyed by the joined
forces of the high-caste Hindu landlords (Jats) and the police force. The Dalit
village was burned and women and children raped.
As in the cases of Kodiankulam and Tsunduru, the roots of the massacre are to be
found in the increasing economic independence of the Dalits from the upper
castes and a greater understanding of their rights. Subsequent events provide
another illustration of the Dalits' difficulty in asserting their independence
and realizing their rights when the judicial system, the police and the
bureaucracy are loaded in favour of the high-caste Hindus.
Soon after the massacre in Kumher, a large number of Union Ministers, Rajasthan
Government Ministers and officials, delegations from Dalit organizations and
most of the political parties and other prominent leaders visited Kumher, but
were hesitant to deal with the rioters in accordance with the provisions of the
law. The visits of party delegations were purely for political ends and were
meant more for heightening the parties' profile than providing relief to the
victims. the Rajasthan Government appointed a one-person commission of inquiry,
headed by a retired high-caste Hindu judge of the Rajasthan High Court. As in
the case of Tsunduru, this Commission was also part of the delay tactics
employed by ruling high-caste Hindu governments, both state and federal, to
defeat Dalit attempts at redress through the court system. Knowing the
situtation of the Dalits - their fear of retribution on the part of the Jats-
protection was not given to the survivors of the massacre in order to allow them
to participate in the Commission proceedings.
The Government and Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi, which was charged
with the job of investigating the Kumher massacre, facilitated the delay tactics
of the Commission through a lack of coordination. Even after two years, the
Commission did not start with the proceedings. The Government and the CBI
succeeded in obtaining a stay order from the Rajasthan High Court against the
directives of the Commission to supply copies of the relevant documents to the
parties before the Commission.
The partisan nature of the police and administration as well as the apathy of
the Government towards the lives of the victims is not simply a matter of
dereliction of duty. This portrays the complicity of the administration and the
Government in the murders and destruction of Kumher. In brief, the Dalit victims
got no help from the police, Commission or the Court because the law enforcement
system is dominated by high-caste Hindus. At present, the Dalits have still not
received adequate compensation for their losses or protection from the local
high caste Hindus; nor have the culprits been punished. Furthermore, the police,
who helped to plan and implement the massacre, have not been brought to justice.
According to Article 6 of the CERD Convention concerning judicial recourse and
compensation, Tribunal and other competent national bodies must provide
effective protection and remedies against acts of racial discrimination. Anyone
may seek compensation or satisfaction in the courts for damages suffered as a
result of such discrimination." Clearly, the Dalit victims of Kuhmer
village (or Kodiankularn and Tsundur) have not enjoyed the protection of Article
6.
4) Dalit
child blinded, August 1995 - Because of the notion of pollution
In August 1995, a five-year-old untouchable girl was blinded in one eye as
the result of a beating from her teacher. The teacher was incensed that the girl
had used a drinking cup normally reserved for upper caste students.
A high level of untouchability is prevalent in most of the villages in India
like Kattunaickenpatti. At Kattunaickenpatti Panchayat Union Elementary School
in Mettur Taluk Tamil Nadu state, (as in many villages in India) it is taboo for
lower-caste children to drink water from a cup meant for higher-caste peers.
They can only gesture to somebody else that they are thirsty, and water is
poured into their cupped hands. Dalit children are also made to sit at the back
of the class so that the high-caste Hindu children will not be polluted by their
presence. The young girl, who had just entered school, did not understand the
'system' and unwittingly broke the taboo. The teacher beat her with a stick and
struck her in the eyebrow and eye. The lens soon clouded up, and only an
expensive operation could save the girl's vision. The family is poor and no help
was forthcoming from the teacher.
The story broke when the family went to the Salem Hospital, leading to the
intervention of the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha. The director of the
Government Ophthalmic Hospital found that an intra-ocular lens implant could
restore the child's vision. Usually, the lens would cost Rs. 1,500, but in this
case, the government took care of everything because of their embarrassment over
the publicity generated by the young girl's story. The Union Minister of State
for Welfare said the Centre had asked the States to take severe action to
prevent such incidents. There were constitutional safeguards and laws on
protection of civil rights and curbing atrocities against the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes. The Minister also said he appealed to teachers to treat
children with love and affection and not force and physical violence. The
teacher has been charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt and criminal
intimidation. It is worth noting, however, that the high-caste Hindu teachers'
federation supported the action of the teacher involved.
In this instance, the government went through the appropriate steps to contain
the damage to its image caused by the beating of an innocent child - it has
borne the cost of the eye operation and has employed existing legislation
designed to protect the Dalits to prosecute the teacher. Nonetheless, this
incident reveals how brutal the practice of untouchability is when a
five-year-old girl's behaviour is seen as subversive to the existing system of
caste relations.
Conclusion
The International Bill of Human Rights, to which India is a signatory, was
designed to preclude barbarous acts such as the Rajasthan and Tsunduru
massacres, the raid of Kodiankulam and the blinding of a little girl. Clearly,
the Dalits have been denied the advantages accruing from Article 1: All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood. Not to mention Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights
and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind,
such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. And Article 3:
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
The Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace appeals to the United Nations
Committee for Human Rights to bring the following questions to India's attention
in each of the case studies presented in this document:
1) What steps has the Indian government taken to investigate and bring the
culprits to justice in the fullest sense of the law?
2) What steps have been taken by the Indian government to punish the police and
the bureaucracy responsible for helping to plan and implement the brutal
massacres and treatment of Dalits?
3) What steps have been taken by the Indian government to fully compensate and
rehabilitate the victims and their families and to provide them with full
protection from retribution?
4) In 1993-94, according to Indian government reports, the human rights
violations of untouchables was recorded as exceeding 62,000 cases (for every one
recorded, nine go unrecorded). In light of its own reporting, what steps has the
Indian government taken at both the state and federal level to ensure that the
police, judiciary and bureaucracy implement the existing laws designed to
protect the human rights of the Dalits?
In short 250 million people, nearly 25% population of India including 115
million children are suffering from their human rights violations with no
escape even though the laws are in place but will of the government has been
missing to impliment its laws to protect them.
The magnitude and complexity of Caste System and practice of Untouchability are
so unique and hidden under the cultural issue of South Asia, that it poses the
biggest challenge to the United Nations after dismantling Apartheid of South
Africa.
In the light of the above facts, there is an urgent need to send the FACT
FINDING MISSION of the distinguished members of the Human Rights Committee.
Since India is more open to deal with its problem because of its present
proactive govemment and the previous UN High Commissioner, Ayala had already
visited India due to present open policy, we are sure that Indian Delegation
will be delighted to extend the invitation to the Fact Finding Mission of UN
which also should include Special Rapporteur on Child Rights, Special Rapporteur
on Racism and Racial Discrimination.
By Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace to UN Committee on Human
Rights to discuss the condition of 250 million slaves of the Hindu caste system -
The Untouchables and Tribals
Geneva, 20-27 July 1997