How Does It Feel to Be the Lowest Caste in India?

rianrachmadi (41)in #racist • 7 years ago

Throw Dalit

There is a law that prohibits discrimination against the Dalit as the lowest caste and wasted. But the reality is often said otherwise.

That day, Wednesday (3/1/2018), approximately 300,000 Dalit caste residents occupied the streets of Mumbai City to the entire state of Maharashtra, India. The train line is blocked. Buses attacked. The passengers were forced to go down, the scheduled departure delayed for hours. Many schools and restaurants are forced to close.

According to a report by Guardian journalist Michael Safi, Dalits crowded in Bhima Koregaon village on Sunday to celebrate the British East India Company's victory over Peshwa from the Maratha Kingdom in 1818. The Maratha kingdom controlled much of India before the arrival of Britain . There used to be many Dalits who supported England. According to historical records, once a 900-member battalion successfully ousted Peshwa's army of 20,000 troops.

This year's celebration is the 200th. Many Dalit caste residents make it the most important historical moment as well as a symbol of resistance to an oppressive caste system. Conditions that make them seem less valuable, not part of the people of India, and already thousands of years running. In other words, it strikes from generation to generation, as is the rule of caste-style inheritance: based on blood descent.

Initially the mass action went orderly. Then, as Safi observed, a Dalit activist spotted two Hindu right-wing nationalist activists attacking a procession near an English-built obelisk to commemorate the battle. The Obelisk is considered a symbol of British colonization over India. But for the Dalits, the obelisk is a symbol of Dalit's struggle.
Dozens of cars on the edge of the street burned the masses. One person is reportedly killed, others wounded, and at least 100 more Dalits are secured by the Mumbai police.

According to the Indian Census Bureau reported by India Express, in 2011 there were 16.6 percent of Dalit caste people from the entire population in India. Nearly half live in Uttar Pradesh state (21 percent), West Bengal (11 percent), Bihar (8 percent), and Tamil Nadu (7 percent). The state with the most Dalit population is Punjab (31.94 percent), while the least is Mizoram (almost 0 percent).

Dalit is the lowest caste in India that is not even included in the four levels of the varna system (Brahmana, Ksatria, Waisya, Sudra) so it is classified as the fifth varna (panchama). The name "dalit" means "oppressed" in Sanskrit or "split / scattered" in Hindi.

The term "dalit" is used in the classification of the British Raj census (British colonial government in India) to refer to oppressed classes before 1935. Economist and reformer BR Ambedkar (1891-1956), who is also a Dalit and became the most important figure for the people, popularized in 1970. The term is increasingly familiar in the ears of the Indian people after being adopted by a group of activists named Dalit Panthers.

The National Commission for Registered Castes India considers the use of the term "dalit" as an "unconstitutional" act because modern law prefers the term "Listed Castes". But some sources judge the "dalit" to be more representative to appoint groups of oppressed India than "Registered Castes".

According to James G. Lochtefeld in the book "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z", Dalit residents are considered "contaminate" Hindu society so rationed the dirtyest work and the lowest salary. Long since the Dalits have been victims of ostracism; people who touch the physical Dalit can be considered contaminated.

India's oldest economic policy research institute, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) with the University of Maryland, has conducted a survey about the attitudes of social groups in India against Dalits. The survey results reported by India Express daily in 2014 found that 27 percent of respondents still avoid physical contact with Dalit caste people, or so-called "untouchability" practices. Research also shows that one-third of Hindus who are respondents (30 percent) still do so. More specifically, they forbid Dalitians from entering the kitchen or using cooking utensils.

Not only Hindus, the practice of "untouchability" is also dilakoni Sikh respondents of 23 percent, Muslims as much as 18 percent, and Christians with 5 percent. In other words, the discrimination that occurs to date extends not only to the citizens of the top four caste but also to non-Hindu adherents in India.
Dr. Vinod Sonkar once shared experiences as a victim to the BBC. Sonkar has a PhD in law and is teaching at a campus in Delhi. One day he ordered tea at a stall in the Rajastan area. The owner handed over a cup of tea while asking what Sonkar caste.

"I am a Dalit," answered Sonkar.

"Then, wash your own glass when it's done," said the stall owner.

Sonkar's self-esteem was trampled. The glass he held he threw, floated across the room, and smashed against the wall. Other customers to stop drinking tea activities.

Sonkar did not hesitate to mention India as an apartheid country. Apartheid was once carried out in South Africa during colonization by a white minority that made the rule of separation from blacks in the public sphere. Sonkar researched India by comparing the social system of its people with other former apartheid states, including the United States that used to adopt a policy of slavery and similar segregation.

Local authorities sometimes receive reports of Dalits who are victims of mass violence (formerly also unlawful killings) and other acts against human rights. But law enforcement often ends up nil.

Amit is one of the wargha Dalit from the village of Haryana. To the BBC he agreed on HRW's conclusions through his painful stories. Dalit residents, he explained, are still often prohibited from entering houses or temples of worship by the higher caste people. In the expected but slow-moving social change, Amit sees a Dalit tied up in a tree and beaten by a man from a higher caste.

"The police have done nothing because none of them are from Dalite caste," he said.

Discrimination breeds poverty. Dalit people in various corners in India on average occupy the lowest social class alias wallow below the poverty line. Some can improve living conditions through higher education, but this fate has not been evenly distributed to all Dalit residents. In the classic rules, which are still widely found today, Dalit residents depend on the profession of "dirty" and automatically pay the lowest.

"It's like you were born with a stamp on your forehead and you'll never get rid of it," Amit illustrated that the discrimination facing his people is something born from birth.

A totally unfair condition, but changing it is not as easy as turning a palm.

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