knowledge has no horizons

(I intend in this essay not to classify the internal divisions of scheduled castes as Paraiyar and Arunthathiyar; instead, I desire to put the general term “Dalits”.)

Three women are raped everyday; thirteen are killed every week; six are kidnapped or abducted every week; five homes or possessions are burnt every week – thus goes the survey of NCDHR – and all this is because they are born dalits and of dalits. What is there being born so? Of course, India has recorded in the past and is recording in the present innumerable incidents of inequality. While the Indian sub-continent boasts of its “unity in diversity”, it is now time to question the “thought” itself that every Indian tends to take pride in.

This essay confines itself in discussing about a race that is called “Harijan” in Gandhian term, “Scheduled caste” in English term, “Dalits” in Tamilian term. This is about a race that formed the 17 percent of the total population of India in the 2001 census. This is about a race that is kept on neglecting in either of the scenarios – political, educational, professional. This is about a race that is viewed with visceral dislike of and is made to dance to the tunes of the upper-caste hindus and is puppets in the hands of politicians.

“If untouchability continues to exist in India, it is sure to lead only for its destruction”, cursed Mahatma Gandhi, who viewed harijans as gods. Forget the Gandhian view on them. After all, they are human beings.

India has registered various embarrassing incidents targeting datits, and Tamil Nadu has always been the place of violence against them. Although there exist several acts (!) to protect them, it is excruciating to know that they continue to be targets of assaults and are victimized for longer. Which section of Indian Penal Code prevents a dalit taking part in a land auction? Of course, it is a cognizable offence, according to the upper-caste hindus’ codes, and death is the punishment for this in their courts. Sennakarampatty is such a village in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, that executed such sentence. Four of the dalits belonging to Sennakarampatty that took part in the land auction were brutally murdered on their way to their homes in July 1992. The village witnessed yet another massacre of two dalits – Velu and Ammasi –who were dragged from the bus to be beheaded.

Madurai, notoriously earned fame of being the biggest village in India, has been a place of concern and was known for its law-and-order problems, until recently. Who can erase from their memory the agonizing incidence of brutally butchering the seven people – Murugesan and others – traveling in a bus, simply for the reason Murugesan contested elections and won in the neighbouring village of Sennakarampatty, Melavalavu, in june, 1997. Political powers are fated to particular castes?

Thinniyam, a village in Trichy district, staged a yet another embarrassing scene. A dalit named Karuppaih along with two other dalits Ramasamy and Murugesan was branded with a hot iron and made to eat human faeces for asking to reiterate the money. One can’t turn a deaf ear to this as it was staged by a woman, who was the president village at that time, and by her husband.

How cruel it is for Dalits to live in a society in which even bringing up a dog was prevented by the upper-caste Hindus, and this is because they might have contact with their dogs resulting in mixed breeding. This atrocity goes up at its height in Velayathapuram, a village in Tuticorin of Tamil Nadu. A dalit named Mariappan was refused marriage hall in Erode district; those that opposed the dual tumbler system in Udumalaipet were beaten; and the list goes.

I remember reading Rousseau’s Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains. But in the case of Dalits in India, he is made from his birth to bear the stamp of untouchable until his death.