The year was 1996. The elected President of Tamil Nadu’s Melavalavu village council, Murugesan, was targeted by a mob following the elections and the cold-blooded attacks resulted in the death of six people including a few other members of the Council. Murugesan’s severed head was later found in a well.
Fast forward to 2006. Ten years after the Melvalavu murders, four members of a family were brutally hacked to death after being paraded naked on the streets, in Khairlanji village of Maharashtra. One would have expected prompt action against the perpetrators of violence and extensive media coverage of the incident. But, contrary to expectation, no such measures were taken immediately after the incident.
These two occurrences, no less disturbing in their intents and execution, have another gruesome similarity. Both were examples of caste-based violence that claimed innocent lives. Murugesan belonged to an oppressed class and those who instigated the violence belonged to a more politically powerful section of the society. The Bhotmange family which fell victim to mob lynching, too, belonged to the depressed class of people.
These killings are not limited to the two states mentioned here. It is a nationwide disease that is claiming lives by tens of thousands every year. In a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), disturbingly high figures were stated for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Violence against members of the said classes take many forms- mob lynchings, forced manual labour that often requires them to handle human excreta with bare hands, ‘honour’ killings where young people are made to pay with their lives for daring to love beyond rigid caste barriers, barring entries to public places and discrimination in society.
Unfortunately, it is still a reality and continues even after more than a decade of the Khairlanji killings that sparked off communal violence in the western Indian state. Members of the community to which the Bhotmanges belonged had to engage in mass protests simply to bring the heinous crimes to light and urge the government to take action against the accused. Only in 2008 was a sentence awarded for the crimes and in 2010, the punishment was reduced to a jail sentence from the death penalty. Justice for the Melavalavu case only saw the light of the day in 2001, four years after the incident took place.
The Bhima-Koregaon violence that took place earlier in 2018 only goes on to show that Indian society is still susceptible to sparks that fly along communal lines. But what was the underlying cause behind it? The battle of Bhima-Koregaon that was fought between the armies of Peshwa Baji Rao II and the British gave rise to communal tensions which still exist even after 200 years. During the time of the Great Chattrapati Shivaji, caste-based discrimination was at an all-time low and men of all castes served in the army. Their bravery in battle and loyalty were rewarded, however the rulers who came after the Great Chattrapati were resistant to the idea of inclusivity and barred certain castes from serving in the army.
The British used the festering wounds of indignation due to injustice to their advantage and a large number of these men were part of the army that defeated the larger army of the Peshwa, restoring the caste-pride in their eyes. Hence, every year a march to the battle site is undertaken to commemorate this victory. On January 1, 2018, the peaceful march was disturbed by right-wing groups and led to rioting in various parts of the state.
Honour Crimes In India: Another Form Of Caste-Based Violence
Another ugly head of caste-based violence, honour killings, are undertaken to ‘preserve the honour of the family’. It is an inhumane form of violence where killings are done by the family members of the victim to avoid what they perceive as a tarnish on their bloodline. The murder of Perumalla Pranay, by his father-in-law for marrying ‘above’ him, sent shock waves across the state of Telangana. This was preceded by another case in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu where Sankar, a youth, was murdered by members of the regionally dominant caste his wife belonged to. Both these cases stand apart from the numerous other cases of honour killings because charges have been pressed by both spouses against their own blood relatives for their crimes.
Movies like Pariyerum Perumal(Tamil), Sairat (Marathi) and Dhadak (a Bollywood remake of Sairat) highlight the atrocities committed against SC/STs and the government has brought in numerous laws and acts (such as the PoA) to safeguard their interests. In Tamil Nadu, following the Self-Respect Movement spearheaded by Periyar, the use of caste-based surnames has been discontinued.
Is The Reservation System Designed To Combat Social Inequality And Weed Out Social Disadvantage?
Reservations are essential to ensure level playing ground to those who have been denied even basic human rights for millennia. Until a social equilibrium is reached, the scrapping of reservations would only widen the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged. Dr. Kaushal Pawar, in an episode of Satyameva Jayate, discusses the challenges she faced as a young girl growing up in a society blinded by hierarchies. Dr. Pawar is one among many who have gone on to shine despite all odds and have given a befitting response to those agitating against reservations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QdakWYbcSM
But an important question arises here. Is the existing system of reservation designed to combat social inequality and weed out social disadvantage? Unfortunately, the system does not ensure that the reservations reach the ones intended – who are in dire need of it. It tends to stagnate at the creamy layer, circulates there and takes much longer to reach those at the bottom.
In 2018, a Supreme Court bench headed by former Chief Justice Dipak Mishra noted, “The whole object of reservation is to see that backward classes of citizens move forward so that they may march hand in hand with other citizens of India on an equal basis. This will not be possible if only the creamy layer within that class bag all the coveted jobs in the public sector and perpetuate themselves, leaving the rest of the class as backward as they always were.” Social equilibrium can only be reached when the benefits reach the truly downtrodden so that they are able to educate themselves and walk hand in hand with the privileged sections. Only when the last person denied education on account of caste oppression is brought on par with his/her social counterparts, must reservation be scrapped. But we are still ages away from that point.
The Varna system that dictated the division of society based on occupation was once a system that came into existence to facilitate governance for it would have been easier to lay down a set of rules relating to occupational governance. However, even this could not ensure basic human rights to those at the lower rungs of the hierarchy. As time went on, these barriers solidified and one’s caste began to be determined by the accident of birth alone and not the chosen occupation.
In today’s world, barring parental expectations, academic ability and financial constraints, there is nothing that holds back someone from choosing their career paths. Now, as India is progressing and more and more families are becoming financially stable, there is increased flexibility in mindsets and unconventional professions have come into existence. Using caste as a parameter to judge someone’s worth completely lacks context as caste holds no relevance today as it’s not related to occupation in any way. People must be accorded the respect a human being deserves irrespective of what they do for a living.
Oppression in the name of mere tags accorded by birth has to stop. If it doesn’t, India’s development will be held back by her own children fighting along invisible and imaginary boundaries.