We need to build deeper, more intimate connections of solidarity, and instil awareness about anti-casteness, especially among the caste elite who often participate in these crimes
Caste discrimination is alive and thriving in India. Three incidents reported from two extremities of the country underscored this unfortunate trend — the first where a temple in Tamil Nadu’s Salem was sealed after entry was denied to Dalit devotees; the second was in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukottai, where the discovery of human faeces thrown in a drinking water tank meant for Dalit communities exposed an insidious system of caste segregation in the village; and the third from Uttarakhand, where the parents of children from the Dalit communities complained they had been made to sit separately from upper caste students in school.
There can be no liberation for women’s rights while caste discrimination thrives. (Shutterstock)
This scourge has persisted despite decades of protest — in much the same way that violence against women has continued to roil society. Every time an incident shakes the public conscience, like the December 2012 gang rape case, activists, non-governmental organisations and ordinary men and women pour into the streets, imbuing hope that misogynistic mindsets will see some positive change. The attitudes that are responsible for caste discrimination are not unconnected to the thinking that inflicts violence on women — a feeling of superiority that needs to be attacked with repeated and consistent blows.
Some of this horror came together in the grisly murder and gang rape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras two years ago. Not only was a group of four upper caste men brazen enough to rape the young woman while she was out in the fields, but due to the social marginalisation and vulnerability of the victim and her family, her body was later controversially cremated, allegedly without the consent of her family. She was an ambitious, talented woman, reports said, who wanted to make something of her life, but her gender and caste locations were responsible for her unfortunate end, and for snuffing out the hopes of a better life.
Earlier this month, the country marked the 10th anniversary of the 2012 gang rape case, a moment in India’s collective history that sparked a remarkable outpouring of anguish, forced the government to amend laws and brought conversations about gender rights into our living rooms. But these 10 years have also underlined the limitations of our movements. Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau showed that a crime against a woman was registered nearly every minute in 2021, and a crime against a scheduled caste person was committed every 10 minutes. Needless to say, Dalit women, who fight the oppression of both patriarchy and caste, are affected the most.
This is not to say that our movements have had no impact. But we need to build deeper, more intimate connections of solidarity, and instil awareness about anti-casteness, especially among the caste elite who often participate in these crimes (think of the case of Payal Tadvi, who was driven to suicide in 2019, allegedly by three senior women students in a medical college).
There can be no liberation for women’s rights while caste discrimination thrives. We are fighting for our rights, dignity and identity — in schools and colleges, offices, on the streets, in literature and inside legislatures. Whether it be the victims of Khairlanji in 2006, Delhi in 2012 or Hathras in 2020, justice can only be achieved when we pledge to continue to build a more sensitive and compassionate world for our women and marginalised groups.
Anita Bharti is a veteran Hindi author and rights activist.
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