Dalit cause

Discrimination still exists against the lower castes, 60 years of the Constitution being in force notwithstanding.

The conviction of eight people in the Khairlanji public lynching case by a fast-track court in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district is welcome, but also throws open one of India’s most severe fault lines — caste. The four members of the Bhotmange family who were killed in a mob attack on September 29, 2006 — a woman and her three children —had apparently enraged the other villagers because they were seen to be getting ahead of themselves. The father of the family — Bhaiyalal — escaped and is the only surviving member. He cannot live in Khairlanji village, given the circumstances.

The incident riled the Dalits who had gone on the warpath in Nagpur demanding justice. However, while the case was perceived as caste violence, since the Bhotmanges are Dalit and the rest of the village upper and other backward castes, the initial police report did not mention the caste angle. The court therefore ruled that caste hatred was not an issue. This has angered both Dalits and social activists who feel that by glossing over caste and treating this as just a routine murder, caste discrimination will continue unchecked.

This is a tricky line to walk on and both society and government have to be careful here. While the killing of members of the Bhotmange family and their stripping and beating have to be condemned strongly and a strict punishment of the eight convicted is certainly due, the question of the motive being caste anger is another issue altogether. There can be no doubt that discrimination still exists against the lower castes, 60 years of the Constitution being in force notwithstanding. But whether the police deliberately played down the caste angle or whether activists want to further their own cause using the Bhotmange tragedy is the question at hand. The fact that the other villagers were other backward castes — who saw themselves as superior to the Dalit Bhotmanges — went against the Dalit cause here. That is, society did not see it as an upper caste versus lower caste fight. But Khairlanji village politics seemed to suggest that the Bhotmanges were resented for being “proud” and successful and looking to move out of the designated Dalit areas.

The sickening horror of the violence in Khairlanji gave the case wide publicity. Whether the anger that led to murder was caste related or not, it still is a heinous crime. By hearing it in a fast track court, the judges have recognised the importance of the case, which shows that at the village level, local social politics can be nasty and brutish. The incident has also raised consciousness among the Dalits about utilising the full force of the justice system to fight for their rights. This is a victory of sorts by itself.