“If someone is abused with the name of his caste or the caste is uttered suddenly in course of events and during the incident, then that by itself cannot be an offence under the SC/ST Act.”

If you feel there is something terribly amiss about this quote, then you would be someone who comprehends the predicament of a Dalit or an Adivasi (person from an indigenous tribe). This is a quotation from a recent judgement passed by an Orissa High Court judge, Justice RK Pattanaik on March 1, 2023. The Judge had taken a similar view in December last year in Surendra Kumar Mishra vs State of Orrisa [CRLMC No. 2628/2013; decided on December 19, 2022].

Name calling by using the caste of a person, is an offence under the The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 [referred to as SC/ST Act hereinafter] which states thus:

3. Punishments for offences atrocities – (1) Whoever, not being a members of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe –

(r) intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view…

…shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years and with fine.

Now, caste slurs and desire to humiliate are socio-politico-religious phenomena not easy to quantify or even cap under motive or mens rea under criminal law. However, given the emancipatory vision of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 that replaced the 1955 Protection of Civil Rights Act* is such an easy exemption good in law?

The ingredient of mens rea, a concept in broader criminal law has been introduced into the Atrocities Act, to establish the offence of insulting a member of the SC/ST community. Structural, societal  control and bias allows free passage of such slur and abuse, from a position of dominance on those who are marginalized, and hence it is defined as a criminal offence.

However, by introducing a more exacting criterea of mens rea behind such slur and abuse, Courts have been guilty of rendering the offence obsolete. 

The Orissa High Court in its judgement of March 1, Ajay Pattanaik and anr vs State of Odisha [ CRLMC No. 2636/2021; decided on March 1, 2023] observed that the caste name was uttered at the spur of the moment:

“It was on the spur of the moment that the incident happened, in course of which, the alleged abuse was hurled at the witness, whose caste name was uttered by one of the petitioners. To claim that it was with an intention to insult or humiliate the witness present at the spot and the alleged offences under the Special Act are committed would be like stretching things too far and unjustified. If someone is abused with the name of his caste or the caste is uttered suddenly in course of events and during the incident, in the humble view of the Court, by itself would not be sufficient to hold that any offence under the SC and ST (PoA) Act is made out unless the intention is to insult or humiliate the victim for the reason that he belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe is prima facie established.” [Para 9]

The judgement may be read here:

The apex court has some contrasting views in this regard

In Arumugam Servai v. State of Tamil Nadu (2011) 6 SCC 405 the court recognised that:

“The word `pallan’ no doubt denotes a specific caste, but it is also a word used in a derogatory sense to insult someone (just as in North India the word `chamar’ denotes a specific caste, but it is also used in a derogatory sense to insult someone). Even calling a person a `pallan’, if used with intent to insult a member of the Scheduled Caste, is, in our opinion, an offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989” [Para 8]

In our opinion uses of the words `pallan’, `pallapayal’ `parayan’ or `paraparayan’ with intent to insult is highly objectionable and is also an offence under the SC/ST Act. It is just unacceptable in the modern age, just as the words `Nigger’ or `Negro’ are unacceptable for African-Americans today (even if they were acceptable 50 years ago). [Para 10]

In Swaran Singh & Ors. vs. State thr’ Standing Counsel & Anr. (2008) 12 SCR 132 the Supreme Court had observed thus

“Today the word `Chamar’ is often used by people belonging to the so- called upper castes or even by OBCs as a word of insult, abuse and derision. Calling a person `Chamar’ today is nowadays an abusive language and is highly offensive. In fact, the word `Chamar’ when used today is not normally used to denote a caste but to intentionally insult and humiliate someone.” [Para 21]

“It may be mentioned that when we interpret section 3(1)(x) of the Act we have to see the purpose for which the Act was enacted. It was obviously made to prevent indignities, humiliation and harassment to the members of SC/ST community, as is evident from the Statement of Objects & Reasons of the Act. Hence, while interpreting section 3(1)(x) of the Act, we have to take into account the popular meaning of the word `Chamar’ which it has acquired by usage, and not the etymological meaning. If we go by the etymological meaning, we may frustrate the very object of the Act, and hence that would not be a correct manner of interpretation.” [Para 22]

However, in 2014, the Bombay High Court had granted anticipatory bail to one Ujwala Khomane while observing that if someone from SC/ST community is addressed by her/his caste out of habit or because of their occupation, it would not be an offence under the Act. 

“Sometimes a person is addressed by his caste by way of habit or due to the work being done by him/her. While addressing a person by caste, if it is not uttered with the intention of degrading or humiliating a person on the ground of his/her caste, it does not constitute an offence,” the court said as per a report by DNA.

In Manju Devi v. Onkarjit Singh Ahluwalia @ Omkarjeet Singh, AIR 2017 SC 1583 the complainant had alleged that the accused abused her and her family members of their caste by calling them ‘Harijans and Dhobis’. The court held,

The use of the word ‘Harijan’ ‘Dhobi’ etc. is often used by people belonging to the so-called upper castes as a word of insult, abuse and derision. Calling a person by these names is nowadays an abusive language and is offensive. It is basically used nowadays not to denote a caste but to intentionally insult and humiliate someone. We, as a citizen of this country, should always keep one thing in our mind and heart that no people or community should be today insulted or looked down upon, and nobody’s feelings should be hurt. [Para 14]

In Surendra Kumar Mishra vs State of Orissa [CRLMC No. 2628/2013 ; decided on December 19, 2022] the informant stated that the petitioner abused him while he was engaged in civil labour which was causing noise. The petitioner allegedly abused him by taking the name of his caste and even hit him with a stick. The court inferring from this finally held that all insults or intimidation would not be an offence under the Act unless such insult or intimidation is on account of the victim belonging to SC or ST. The court concluded that “it has to be held that all insults or intimidation do not make out an offence under the Act unless it is directed against the person on account of his caste.” [Para 9]

“No doubt petitioner took the name of the informant’s caste while abusing the latter. By taking the caste name or utterances of abuse by taking the name of one’s caste would not be an offence under the Section 3(1)(x) of the SC&ST (PoA) Act unless the intention is to insult, intimidate the person being a SC or ST.” [Para 10]

“Though the informant was abused at a public place or may be within public view by taking his caste name but as it is made to appear from the conduct of the petitioner, it was apparently without any intention to insult, intimidate and to humiliate him. It was pure and simple an abused by the petitioner under the peculiar facts and circumstances and a sudden outburst and on the spur of the moment without carrying the requisite intention to humiliate the informant so to say.” [Para 10]

It is unclear how these opinions of constitutional courts interpret the “intention of the accused” especially when the latter uses the name of the caste to address the complainant in such cases. They heavily rely upon Hitesh Verma Vrs. State of Uttarakhand and Another 2021 (I) OLR (SC) 85. In the facts of this case, the litigants were involved in a land dispute and the allegation of hurling caste abuses was made against a person who claimed title over the property. The court noted that the incident took place within the four walls of the building; there is no mention that there was any member of the public (not merely relatives or friends) at the time of the incident in the house. Thus, this did not qualify as “place within public view” [as interpreted in Swaran Singh & Ors. v. State through Standing Counsel & Ors (2008) 8 SCC 435]. The court held that the property dispute was not on account of the fact that the informant was a Dalit.

“The property disputes between a vulnerable section of the society and a person of upper caste will not disclose any offence under the Act unless, the allegations are on account of the victim being a Scheduled Caste. Still further, the finding that the appellant was aware of the caste of the informant is wholly inconsequential as the knowledge does not bar, any person to protect his rights by way of a procedure established by law.” [Para 22]

However, the FIR in this case clearly stated, “All the above persons used to abuse the applicant her husband and other family members and use to give death threats and use “caste-coloured abuses”. On 10.12.2019 at around 10 am, all these persons entered illegally in to four walls of her building and started hurling abuses on myself and my labourers and gave death threats and used castes’ remarks/abuses and took away the construction material such as Cement, Iron, Rod, Bricks. The Applicant is a Scheduled Caste and all of the above persons use castes’ remarks/abuses (used bad language) and said that you are persons of bad caste and that we will not let you live in this mohalla/vicinity.” [Para 2] Despite such assertions made by the complainant, the court viewed this case as merely a dispute over land. Even if it were a dispute over land, the underlying factor was the caste of the complainant, else the accused would not have abused him and other members by their caste name. 

Statement of Object and Reasons ignored

In many of these judgements, the statement of Objects and Reasons of the SC/ST Act is quoted. However, it is evidently not interpreted the way it ought to be. The Statement inter alia, reads, “Because of the awareness created amongst the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes through spread of education, etc., they are trying to assert their rights and this is not being taken very kindly by the others. When the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes try to preserve their self respect or honour of their women, they become irritants for the dominant and the mighty.”

These lines highlight the fact that the privileged castes are perturbed by the SC/ST community reclaiming their rights and fighting for their dignity. Their dignity, as protected by Article 21 (Right to life), lies in not being abused by a person from a privileged caste even by calling by the caste name. The feeling of othering that a Dalit person experiences when derogatorily addressed by his/her caste name is one that only comes through lived experience and others can simply empathise with them. But this empathy is lost when the cases come to court presided over by judges belonging to privileged castes who are ignorant towards the mental trauma of the aggrieved Dalit.

Casual use of casteist slurs

A pop culture website Homegrown had listed out a few terms that are casually used in colloquial terms quite ignorantly, but actually denote a caste and are thus derogatory towards Dalits. These terms include ‘Bhangi’, Malech, Dhobi, Chamar, Kameena, Chandaal, Pariah, Mahar, Kanjar, Bhand, Kathodi, Dedhgujari, Junglee, Kasaai, Naai. In the Vanya Lochan writes that such terms “that we repurpose to denote lowliness are words that we have historically learnt to hate and deem inferior.”

Here is a list of casteist slurs listed down by Dalit activist Divya Kandukuri, that people oftenuse in casual conversations but are actually demeaning towards the SC/ST communities

Thread.
Casteist slurs that you use everyday. #EverydayCasteism

— Divya Kandukuri దివ్య కందుకూరి (@anticastecat) November 14, 2018

On the issue of name name-calling by caste, Dalit author Yashica Dutt had written an article for The Print. Old videos of actors Salman Khan and Shilpa Shetty resurfaced, where they casually talk about how a certain awkward dance step or a less than presentable appearance made them look ‘Bhangi’. Explaining why this was not acceptable, Dutt wrote,

“Language and the words we use to describe things almost always represent the ideas of a society. And it’s no secret, that as a society, we are pretty darn casteist. We ridicule Dalit men for growing mustaches, kill a ‘lower’ caste person for marrying someone from a ‘higher’ caste and keep our ‘lower’ caste house workers out of our kitchens because ‘who knows where their hands have been’. So when Khan and Shetty describe looking Bhangi when they are at their worst, they are essentially opening a wormhole to the disgust our societies reserve for ‘lower’ castes, especially Bhangis. Because don’t we already assume that all Bhangis look exactly like Shilpa Shetty’s worst and Salman Khan’s most clumsy.”

Articulating the implications of the use of words in such a manner, she writes, “When they say they look Bhangi when they are less than attractive, they mean they look as bad a Bhangi does every day. Because for them, and the rest of the society, there is no other way for Bhangis to look, appear, or behave.”

Manjula Pradeep speaks to Sabrang India 

Manjula Pradeep, an activist working on the issue of caste exclusion, disagrees with the view taken by courts that calling by caste name in itself is not an insult unless it was intended. “Using caste slur is a humiliation in itself and amounts to discrimination which is protected under Article 15 of the Constitution.” While speaking to Sabrang India, she highlighted how the members of the judiciary, especially the judges at all levels need to be sensitised about the SC/ST Act. She said that in many parts of the country, the Act is referred as the “Harijan Act” even though it is a word declared as derogatory by the Supreme Court and has been rejected by the Community a long time ago as Dr BR Ambedkar had refused the term to denote Dalits. 

When asked about her opinion on such judgments that imply that caste name calling is acceptable if not “intended” as an insult, she said it was a means to dilute the Act and it shows that Dalit and Adivasis are “regarded as lesser humans and it also shows the mindset of the judge”.

Speaking about the obstacles faced by a person from SC/ST community when lodging a complaint under the Act, she said, “Hindrance starts from the Police. They are hesitant to lodge FIR if it is against someone from ‘upper caste’. They will always check of there is some physical injury to the complainant. But the mental trauma of being humiliated by your caste name or threatened for your caste identity is disregarded. Even in cases of violence or rape of members of Dalit community, the SC/ST Act is diluted. The conviction may happen under the penal code. Like in the Hathras case, the person was convicted only under IPC and not the SC/ST Act”.

Related:

Dalit MBBS female intern allegedly died by suicide due to caste discrimination

Dalit Sanitation Worker Dies by Suicide in Gram Panchayat Office in Telangana

How long will Dalits and Adivasis students succumb to violent caste discrimination before effective measures are created?

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Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress on Saturday raised concern over use of casteist slur in a skit performed at a college fest here.

“There is a video containing abusive and objectionable content on Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit communities being exhibited in a programme organised at Jain college in Bengaluru,” it stated in its social media handle.

Demanding an action by the City Police Commissioner and Bengaluru police in this regard, the party said, “The police should take cognisance of the incident and initiate legal action.”

The incident during a college skit recently in Bengaluru has triggered a row with a police complaint being registered.

‘The Delroys Boys’, who performed the skit, have tendered an unconditional apology for the same. However, the debate over the issue is gaining traction.

On Thursday evening a group of students published an online petition on Jhatkaa.org bringing the incident to light. The petition stated the college contingent from Jain University’s Centre for Management Studies (CMS) staged an incredibly casteist and insensitive skit at the event.

The anonymous petitioners objected to the normalisation of caste discrimination in the pretext of humour. The skit was performed as part of ‘MadAds,’ a segment at the fest where the participants had to advertise imaginary products along lines of humour.

‘The Delroys Boys’, the theatre group from CMS, who are in the thick of controversy, in their skit, exhibited a man belonging to the lower caste attempting to date an upper caste woman. The skit turned B.R. Ambedkar as Beer Ambedkar. The phase of why be Dalit, when you can be D-Lit.

Akshay Bansode, State Member of the Vanchit Bahujan Yuva Aghadi has filed a police complaint in Maharashtra under provisions of the Atrocity Act and IPC. The complainant had urged the police to treat the complaint as FIR and initiate action against the performers and University.

The complainant had urged the police to treat the complaint as an FIR and initiate action against the performers and University.

Sources explain that the controversial skit was performed at other platforms. The Delroys Boys maintained that they apologise to everyone they have spoken badly about.urtesy

Courtesy: The Diaily Siasat

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K.S. Eshwarappa

This is a tight knit and toiling caste, anthropologically recognised as being experts in digging wells, who after their migrations from Orissa centuries ago, were deployed for building village and temple tanks.The Vaddars, , who by and large speak Telugu, are also known as “Vaddars” and “Bhovis” in different parts of Karnataka, and as “Boyars” in Tamil Nadu. The community falls under Scheduled Castes in Karnataka and Most Backward Class (MBC) in Tamil Nadu.

Now, weeks to go before the by-polls to 15 assembly seats in the state due on October 21, Karnataka’s minister for rural development and panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa has literally put his foot in his mouth! Recently allegedly derogatory remarks against this section of the population that numbers 18 lakhs in the whole state, have angered this toiling section of the population.  The minister was confronted with the ire of the Bhovi community when he paid a visit to Chamundeshwari Temple atop Chamundi Hills in Mysuru on Sunday. His recent remarks were seen to be derogatory against the community; Eshwarappa was reacting to former chief minister Siddaramaiah’s attack on BJP national president Amit Shah.

The community members, who had threatened to gherao Mr. Eshwarappa, turned up outside the temple with placards in hand and staged a protest near the statue of Mahishasura. “Our community dug up the earth and rocks on Chamundi Hills to lay the 8-km-long road to Chamundeshwari Temple from the foothills. Not just this, the community was engaged in the construction of KRS, besides other basic infrastructure works, including the construction of tanks in villages,” said Seetharam, former chief of Karnataka State Bhovi Development Corporation. He accused Mr. Eshwarappa of slighting the community by using a casteist slur. “His tongue is not under control,” he said, seeking action against the Minister.

Mr. Eshwarappa, who was scheduled to chair a progress review meeting with officials of RDPR in Mysuru, was compelled to leave without holding the meeting in view of the enforcement of poll code.

Who are the Vaddars?
The Hindu reports that this community has ensured drinking water for people for centuries. It is also believed to have played a role in the construction of Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS).

According to experts from the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), Vaddars originally hailed from Odisha but migrated to the southern parts of India centuries ago from Andhra Pradesh when the then Nayaka rulers, including Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara empire, recognised their expertise in digging earth for wells and deployed them for building village tanks and temple tanks.

According to anthropological experts, members of the community have traditionally identified themselves with hard work like digging wells, cutting stones at quarries, and extracting lime from deposits in the soil. “They are not only skilled in digging wells, but are also good at identifying locations of sources of water for digging wells,” said Satyanarayanan, Deputy Director of AnSI, Southern Regional Centre, Mysuru.

They are believed to have been the mainstay of the workforce deployed for the construction of KRS and other dams in the region. “About 2,000 members of the community had come walking from Kolar, Doddballapur and various parts of Andhra Pradesh to Kannambadi village at the time of the construction of KRS reservoir in the early 20th century,” said Seetharam, former president of Karnataka State Bhovi Development Corporation.

Even today, members of the community are the backbone of the construction industry, engaged in digging the earth, laying foundation slabs, and carrying loads of sand and bricks. “Most of the labourers deployed for digging earth to lay electric, telephone and optical fibre cables too are primarily Bhovis,” said Dr. Satyanarayanan.

According to an official account, there were 11.75 lakh Bhovis in Karnataka in 2002. The Karnataka State Bhovi Development Corporation was established in 2015-16 with Mr. Seetharam as its first chairperson. But he said their population in the State now stands at roughly 18 lakh, and the community has seven members in the Legislative Assembly.

Now on the eve of the by-elections a full-fledged political controversy has broken out. R. Dhruvanarayan, former MP, has called for removal of Minister K.S. Eshwarappa from the Ministry for using a “casteist slur” amid a threat from Bhovi community in Mysuru to boycott Dasara festivities.Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Dhruvanarayan took offence to the allegedly derogatory language used by Mr. Eshwarappa against former chief minister Siddaramaiah, in response to the latter’s attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the Hindi language issue. Contending that Mr. Eshwarappa’s language violated the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, Mr. Dhruvanarayan demanded an immediate apology from the senior Minister.

Former chairperson of Karnataka State Bhovi Development Corporation Seetharam told reporters that the community would boycott Dasara celebrations in protest against the remarks.

V/Waddar (Vadee rajulu, Od), or Vadari, is a dialect of the Telugu language spoken among social caste of Waddars scattered over South India, especially in Karnataka, where it has a status of Scheduled caste. 200,000 people reported their languages as ‘Vadari’ in the 2011 census. Ethnologue treats it as separate Dravidian language closely related to Telugu, but without clear grounds. Waddars show their close relevance to Kaikadis.

The word Bhovi is evolved from ‘vav’ meaning well in northern India and there they were called as Vaddar and similarly well is called as bhavi in karunadu hence the name Bhovi. They were professional well diggers since medieval times. The etymology also hints about the route of their migration from northern parts of India and then to southern part. Long back it was said that they migrated from the state of Odisha hence they were called as vaddars, further the cites and many places are named after them like the Vadodara, vadnagar, etc. During course of their migration they picked local languages on their way, hence majority of them can speak Telugu in karunadu. Majority of the heritage sites in the regions of Karnataka may have been constructed by Bhovi’s who were skilled workers. The Bhovi were 955,752 in Karnataka at the 2001 census (11.2 per cent of the scheduled caste population of Karnataka),^[1] 74.9 per cent of the Karnataka Bhovi population was rural, 49.2% were literate.^[1] Only 2.9% were graduates.^[1] Bhovi’s used to work as skilled labourers as they were good at construction and carvingsculptures and they were highly respected in the Vijayanagara Empire.^[2] Their village councils consists of experienced literate or illiterate people. ^[3] and Women are also given limited powers, however. ^[3] They claim to have originated in areas such as Odisha.^[3] Bhovi also was the surname name of a male leader of a Bhovi community before the 21st century.^[3] The language spoken by Bhovi is Kannada language.^[3] They also claim to be the clan of Bagirath Ganga, who was responsible for bringing Ganges or Ganga to earth through manmade canals, hence claim to be the first builders of modern India.^[4] They are distributed in almost all districts of Karnataka having a major concentration in parts of Gulbarga, Bhadravathi and Bangaluru.
 

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Image Courtesy: Amir Rizvi
 
Sanjay Jatav wore a proud blue coloured suit for his wedding on Sunday. He shone when he rode on a horse-drawn carriage through his bride’s village routes, a velvety red cushion providing contrast from the back, making his face more visible to the dancing crowd below.
 
It was the first time in 80 years that a Dalit wedding procession had crossed the path of a Thakur dominated village.
 
It is no surprise that the upper caste people in the village have seen green over his proud, blue and suited appearance. Threats to the bride’s family have been surreptitiously made, even though the ceremony received unprecedented security.
 
Over the last few years, Dalits have been threatened, killed, maligned and maimed for apparently breaking age-old caste rules that often look petty on the surface. It could be twirling a moustache, wearing a white shirt, riding a horse, jumping into a pond, dancing to music and even having a common Indian name.
 
On July 17, human rights advocacy group Amnesty International released its data recorded on its ‘Halt the Hate’ website. “In the first six months of 2018, 100 hate crimes have allegedly been committed against people from marginalised groups. 67 incidents of alleged hate crimes against Dalits and 22 against Muslims were recorded in just the first six months of 2018. 42 incidents involved killings and 13 involved sexual violence against women from marginalised groups,” the report said. UP topped the list of hate crimes followed closely by Gujarat.
 
When mostly Savarna movie critics do not appreciate the significance of Rajinikanth’s suits in the movie Kabali, it is wilful ignorance on their part. A mere slip of the upper caste gaze. As compared to when Dalits, or the marginalised, cross caste lines indelibly drawn through the centuries, a laxman rekha crafted to keep them subservient and meek. Why do such actions of assertion by a Dalit person or a person supposedly from a lower caste, draw such murderous ire?
 
Social patents justify caste violence?
Dalit rights activist Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’ took a militant approach to instil pride in every Dalit person. He twirled his moustache, wore a blue scarf and posed in front a banner which read ‘The Great Chamar welcome you to Gharkoli.’ The image drew immense focus on him and his politics. The UP govt wants to arbitrarily keep him behind bars (he has been in jail since June 2017) by slapping the draconian National Security Act against him. Why did his pride hurt upper caste sentiments so much?
 
A Dalit boy was murdered for wearing ‘Mojdi’s’ in Ahmedabad, Pradip Rathod was beaten to death for riding a horse in Gujarat and Maulik Jadav was beaten for adding the word ‘sinh’ to his name, also in the same western Indian state. A ‘sinh’ literally means a lion and Rajputs have claimed that name for themselves over centuries, apparently showcasing their bravery and past glory as warriors. Men were beaten for sporting moustaches and killed for watching the Garba dance in Gujarat. In Rajasthan, a mob attacked a Dalit wedding procession for playing a popular Bollywood song.
 
The answer lies in social patents.
 
“A social patent is a phenomenon in which dominant groups lay claim to exclusive enactments of social conduct, even of the most universal kind, apart from appropriating sartorial choices and facial hair styles for themselves. Their replication is then proscribed for the lower castes, who violate these social patents at their own peril,” wrote Ajaz Ashraf, a journalist from Delhi.
 
“A social patent is as restrictive as a manufacturing patent. Unlike products that are copyrighted, though, a social patent is a right that belongs to a group, not an individual. Social patents reward a social group not for its inventiveness but for ensuring that the inequality of status between its members and the downtrodden stays undiminished,” he added.
 
“A social patent determines who can sport a moustache, particularly of the sort that can be twirled. It decides who can hold a wedding procession, ride a horse to the bride’s house, hire a music band to strike notes of celebration. A social patent can debar a person from watching a dance performance, or riding a bicycle, or even wearing a white shirt. Social patents could include in their ambit any human activity likely to inject a sense of worth and joy among the lower castes,” he observed.
 
He said that the social patent of greatness lay with the Rajputs, so Azad claiming to be great while being a Chamar was an insult.
 
“Such stand-offs are a manifestation of a deeper struggle within society: Men and women from upper castes are increasingly anxious that Dalits – who makeup 16.3 percent of India’s population–previously considered untouchables, and relegated to jobs considered impure, are enrolling in schools in greater numbers, studying in colleges, finding better jobs and aspiring for long-denied equality,” reported Firstpost.
 
Could social patents be the only reason why traditionally advantaged classes resent the assertion of ‘inferior’ or ‘lower’ castes in personal and social politics?
 
Talking about upper caste insecurity, an article in DailyO said, “As modernisation and liberalisation create their own classes of the disadvantaged and take away tangible manifestations of their superiority – land, money – from some upper-class groups, they then hold onto the trappings even more fiercely. Any Dalit making pretensions to what had been their prerogative – leisure (attending garbas), pride (moustache, horse, dressing well) – has to be struck down, surely and swiftly. This attitude is by no means limited to rural societies alone. In the poshest of circles, Dalits most often exist only as ‘projects’ to be patronised, not equal humans to be fraternised with.”
 
Paying the price for existing
The legend of Nangeli from Kerala is proof of how caste bias meant one had to pay a heavy price for being born. Even though the practice of taxing the backward and lower castes just for being themselves existed 300 years ago, the struggle for asserting their fundamental rights hasn’t quite ended.
 
“Over three hundred years ago, the southern state of Kerala had a system of taxation, whereby women belonging to backward castes and Dalits had to pay a tax, if they wanted to cover their breasts. Standing bare chested was taken as a sign of respect towards those castes supposedly “superior” to them – for both men and women. The tax however, was levied only on Avarna (lower caste) women who wanted to cover their chest. It goes without saying that some of these “superiors” would have also got their voyeuristic kicks out of this system as well. Royal officials would travel door to door, collecting this heinous “Mulakkaram” – literally Breast Tax- from Avarna women who had passed puberty. Sickeningly, the amount would depend on the size of the breasts,” wrote Supriya Unni Nair, a journalist from Bengaluru.
 
Nangeli had had enough of this humiliation. “When the pravarthiyar, or village collector came asking for her share, she lit a lamp and laid down a plantain leaf as per the custom, but instead of money, she cut off her breasts and placed them on the leaf, shocking the officials,” she wrote.
 
Having a name killed a minor boy in UP in 2011. “Ram Sumer and Jawahar Chaudhary have sons named Neeraj and Dheeraj and that has long been an issue between the two families, Sub-inspector Praveen Kumar said. Mr Chaudhary, who belongs to a higher caste, had given several warnings to Mr Sumer to change the names of his boys. On 22 November, Neeraj left home after dinner to watch television at a friend’s house. His body was found the next day. Police said he was strangled,” reported BBC.
 
A Dalit man was killed in Jharkhand for celebrating the festival of colours. In 2017, the police beat 52-year-old Pradeep Choudhary to death for ‘daring’ to throw colour on a man. He and his friends had thrown colour at a local chowkidar on Holi. The man then called the police to ‘teach them a lesson. Another Dalit man from the same state was tonsured and paraded in his village in 2015, on the suspicion of lighting the Holika pyre. 
 
When did celebrating a festival become a death sentence?
 
The emperor’s new clothes
Those aware of the fairy tale know how dangerous ignorance and blind fear can be.
 
While the upper castes find varied ways to secure their social hierarchy’s, they also find ways to not let those they consider below them to ever question their place.
 
Lessons in caste began early in a Tamil Nadu school where students had to wear wristbands with colour codes based on caste.
 
“It’s red and yellow for Thevars, blue and yellow for Nadars, saffron for Yadavs — all socially and politically powerful Hindu communities that come under the Most Backward Classes (MBC) category — while students of the Dalit community of Pallars wear wrist bands in green and red and the Arundhathiyars, also Dalits, wear green, black and white,” reported the Indian Express in 2015.
 
The colour of their tilak on their forehead is also a code for caste. “The headmaster at a school near Tirunelveli town said there were other markers. “Like you have different houses — green house, yellow house, etc — in city schools, children here wear coloured vests. We cannot ban everything, definitely not what children wear under their uniform. These vests come in handy during a game of basketball to draw up teams based on caste lines, but they are as effective to settle scores,” he said in the report.
 
In 2012, A Dalit man was beaten up for wearing a white shirt.
 
“Clothing, a symbol of social standing and power, has also been an instrument of oppression and an integral tool for determining and imposing identity in traditional Indian caste-hierarchies,” wrote Sunaina Kumar in Scroll.
 
“These codes of dressing have been a part of the wider social structure across India and anytime they have been broken, there have been reprisals from the upper castes. In Rajasthan, Dalit men were forbidden from wearing colourful pagdis and punished and thrashed if they dared to do so. In Tamil Nadu, lower caste men were forbidden from folding up their lungis and had to wear it to their toes. In parts of the state, this rule still applies. Dalits were generally not allowed to wear clean, bright or new clothes or sandals. In some places, if a Dalit wore new clothes, they had to be smeared with soot so they would appear unclean. Dalit women were not allowed to wear gold or silver jewellery, or saris in which gold thread was used,” she wrote.
 
The article makes a thought-provoking point. When Mahatma gave up expensive clothes in favour of the Dhoti, it was seen as a revolution. For a Dalit to wear a three piece suit, just like BR Ambedkar, is equally revolutionary. Why then is a Mahatma celebrated but a Dalit murdered?
 
Dehumanising people to perpetuate caste bias
‘Bhangi,’ ‘Chamar,’ ‘Harijan,’ are just some words that are used to deny basic human dignity to people from ‘lower castes.’ They are seen as pollutants to the ‘upper caste’ hegemony. A group of Dalit boys were paraded naked after being beaten in a village because they dared to ‘pollute’ a well by swimming in it to beat the summer heat.
 
Not just people in the patriarchal social hierarchy that traditional Hindus follow, Muslims are also called words and names to strip away their humanity. “Barbaric,’ ‘dirty,’ ‘Katua,’ (meaning circumcised,) are just some words used to describe Muslim people in the country.
 
Excerpts from the book ‘Genocidal Nightmares: Narratives of Insecurity and the Logic of Mass Atrocities,’ show how masses justify their violence against minorities by dehumanising them. It is written by Dr. Abdelwahab El-Affendi, originally from Sudan, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Professor of Politics at Doha Univeristy and Co-Ordinator of University of Westminster’s Democracy and Islam Programme since 1998. He wrote about what preceded the Gujarat 2002 carnage.
 

[Embed 1,2,3,4 screenshots]
 
Caste bias during Ambedkar’s time
BR Ambedkar seminal work, ‘Annihilation of Caste,’ is compulsory reading material to learn about caste. On December 12, 1935, Bhimrao Ambedkar had been asked by the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (Society for the Abolition of Caste System), a Hindu reformist group, to address their annual conference and speak about the ill-effects of caste in Hindu society. When he sent them ‘Annihilation of Caste,” they responded by asking him to delete certain paragraphs. He responded by saying that he would not change a single comma.
 
He was swiftly uninvited and his speech lay undelivered. He published it himself and the rest is history. Excerpts from the speech show how caste symbols were used to defile and denigrate people:
 
Under the rule of the Peshwas in the Maratha country the untouchable was not allowed to use the public streets if a Hindu was coming along lest he should pollute the Hindu by his shadow. The untouchable was required to have a black thread either on his wrist or in his neck as a sign or a mark to prevent the Hindus from getting themselves polluted by his touch through mistake. In Poona, the capital of the Peshwa, the untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a broom to sweep away from behind the dust he treaded on lest a Hindu walking on the same should be polluted. In Poona, the untouchable was required to carry an earthen pot, hung in his neck wherever he went, for holding his spit lest his spit falling on earth should pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it. Let me take more recent facts. The tyranny practised by the Hindus upon the Balais, an untouchable community in Central India, will serve my purpose. You will find a report of this in the Times of India of 4th January 1928. ” A correspondent of the Times of India reported that high caste Hindus, viz. Kalotas, Rajputs and Brahmins including the Patels and Patwaris of villages of Kanaria, Bicholi-Hafsi, Bicholi-Mardana and of about 15 other villages in the Indore district (of the Indore State) informed the Balais of their respective villages that if they wished to live among them they must conform to the following rules:
 
(1) Balais must not wear gold-lace-bordered pugrees.
 
(2) They must not wear dhotis with coloured or fancy borders.
 
(3) They must convey intimation of the death of any Hindu to relatives of the deceased—no matter how far away these relatives may be living.
 
(4) In all Hindu marriages, Balais must play music before the processions and during the marriage.
 
(5) Balai women must not wear gold or silver ornaments; they must not wear fancy gowns or jackets.
 
(6) Balai women must attend all cases of confinement of Hindu women.
 
(7) Balais must render services without demanding remuneration and must accept whatever a Hindu is pleased to give.
 
(8) If the Balais do not agree to abide by these terms they must clear out of the villages. The Balais refused to comply; and the Hindu element proceeded against them. Balais were not allowed to get water from the village wells; they were not allowed to let go their cattle to graze. Balais were prohibited from passing through land owned by a Hindu, so that if the field of a Balai was surrounded by fields owned by Hindus, the Balai could have no access to his own field. The Hindus also let their cattle graze down the fields of Balais. The Balais submitted petitions to the Darbar against these persecutions; but as they could get no timely relief, and the oppression continued, hundreds of Balais with their wives and children were obliged to abandon their homes in which their ancestors lived for generations and to migrate to adjoining States, viz. to villages in Dhar, Dewas, Bagli, Bhopal, Gwalior and other States. What happened to them in their new homes may for the present be left out of our consideration.
 
The whole episode and the rest of the speech can be read here.
 
Donald Trump and the Nazi Throwback
Dehumanising language and words have been commonly used throughout history to deny human rights to people and even justify their genocide. World media could not stop from making parallels between Donald trump’s diatribe against immigrants and Nazi propaganda employed to wipe out Jews.
 
He informed the world like he usually does, with a tweet. He called immigrants infestations. “Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!” he tweeted.
 
Infestations are caused by insects. Adolf Hitler consistently propagated this view about Jews. He compared them to rats and demanded their ‘extermination’ and eradication. The propaganda lead to the genocide of 6 million Jewish people.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1015&v=XlGFeSFP78s&bpctr=1531991161
 
“The use of the word “infest” to talk about people is literally out of the Nazi/anti-Semites’ playbook for talking about the Jewish threat. It was also a standard for talking about Chinese in the western United States and it remains part of the vocabulary for talking about Romani (Gypsies) in parts of Europe. This is the most hard-boiled kind of racist demagogic language, the kind that in other parts of the world has often preceded and signalled the onset of exterminationist violence. The verb “to infest” is one generally used to describe insects or vermin (rats), creatures which are literally exterminated when they become present in a house or building or neighbourhood,” said Josh Marshall, editor and Polk award winner.
 
Rwandan genocidaires also claimed that their victims, the Tutsi people, were cockroaches and snakes that had to be wiped out.
 
Closer home, all we need is the life of a dog, to dehumanise a person. Dilip Mandal wrote a searing essay ‘Just like a Dog’ in Sabrang India about how the animal has been used by Indian politicians to pardon violence and rid the criminals of guilt.
 
“Dogs are so prominent in mythology that we just can not ignore them. They are all over. As in the consciousness of General Singh. In the Mahabharata, the dog is the only companion of Yudhishthira in his journey to heaven, the dog is also present as a pathetic creature in the story of Drona and Ekalavya. In the 13th century Telugu text called Vijnaneshvaramu, as cited in the journal Modern Asian Studies (43-1) there is mention: if a Brahmin commits a crime deserving capital punishment, this is what should be done: shave his head, mark his forehead with the sign of a dog’s paw and so on. For others, less fortuitously born, the punishment is going to the gallows. So there is always some poor dog, or a dog reference, during life and even after death, the after life,” he wrote.
 
Perpetuating violence in the name of religion
What has happened in the name of various religions over the past four years is not news.
 
Centuries-old dehumanising customs are making a comeback and being used to deny basic human rights enshrined in the Constitution and practised in the 21^st century today. What changed in the last few years that caste biases, symbols, nomenclature and language became the sole obsession of the country?
 
“Last week, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told a gathering at the Bombay Stock Exchange that politicians are compelled to practise caste politics because society votes on the basis of caste, that even those politicians who would seek to change caste politics feel compelled to pander to it first. Bhagwat’s portrayal of caste politics as a sort of necessary evil reflects the RSS-BJP world-view, which perceives caste primarily as an impediment to the forging of political unity of Hindus. A corollary is the refusal to acknowledge that caste politics has provided agency to historically disprivileged communities to fight social and political exclusion,” an Op-Ed of The Indian Express read.
 
Harish S. Wankhede, a professor at JNU summarised the hatred for Dalit assertion in politics. “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) understands the dynamic legacy of the Dalit movement in disturbing the Hindutva’s ideological rigour. Hence, to neutralise the impact of Dalit assertion on the political and social fronts, the right wing forces have improvised their tactics at both levels. On the political front, the BJP is showcasing its inclusive character; however, in the social sphere, the right wing is using anti-Dalit sentiments to consolidate its political base,” he wrote in The Wire.
 
“A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania under Social Attitude Research for India highlights that large sections within the upper-middle class society still hold explicit prejudices against the Dalits. Brahmanical conservatism grips the social psyche even in times of high-modernity and refuses to change. Social relationships are still disciplined through caste and communal prejudices. Muslims and Dalits face humiliation and violence everyday because of the ingrained hatred constructed by the conservative Brahmanical social values. The agenda of social reform, therefore, remains incomplete, as the radical transformation of social attitudes needs annihilation of caste pride. The social elites have not only resisted the agenda of social reforms, but have also categorically treated those who stood against Brahmanical values, rituals and customs as anti-social. The claims for constitutional safeguards, reservation policy and social dignity by the Dalits are often belittled as demands of ‘freeloaders’ and ‘non-meritorious’ people,” he wrote.
 
“The way Muslims as the ‘political other’ are required to be submissive to majoritarian Hindu communalism, the Ambedkarite Dalit minority, too, is being projected as the new ‘social other’ to help the right-wing mobilise conservative Brahmanical Hindus. One can see such trends, especially in UP and Maharashtra, where ideologically committed Dalit castes, like Jatavs and Mahars, are being projected as ‘aggressive’ anti-Hindutva castes. The Ambedkarite Dalits are thus branded as counter-culturists to the collective will of the Hindus and, therefore, as ‘anti-social’ and ‘anti-national,’ he added.
 
“The BJP is trying hard to retain its conventional upper caste support. It is pretty clear that the right wing is consciously trying to engineer a broad social alliance of upper castes and other dominant castes by projecting Ambedkarite Dalits as a new militant social “enemy,” he said.
 
When will we stop seeing these clearly caste-based provocations as a ‘minor skirmish,’ ‘isolated incident’ and ‘personal feud’ and call out the bullshit for what it is- a social and moral decline of a country. A rigid refusal to grow out of the retrograde custom, some sanctified by ancient scripture and move on, to embrace new realities. A cancer of the human community.
 
The writing is on the wall.

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