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Dalit anger boils over in Haryana
29 Aug 2007, 0102 hrs IST,C Shamsher,TNN
CHANDIGARH: The killing of a Dalit in broad daylight hours after he was acquitted by a CBI court on charges of murdering a Jat, has brought to the fore the simmering class and community crisis in a land where the khap, or caste panchayats, still brazenly announce death penalties on lovers marrying outside their caste or even within the same gotra.
To anyone who has followed the Gohana violence, which rumbled to life on August 31, 2005, after upper caste groups burnt 50 houses of Dalits, this is not the handiwork of criminals but of self-appointed conscience-keepers of society.
A keen watcher of Haryana affairs, Hisar-based sociologist Ajit Singh, said, this could be because of a perceived lessening of distances between Dalits and upper castes. Such clashes are bound to happen. This is where the state should intervene.
Dalits, though, are in no mood for theories about caste crises. They want action. Surinder Singh, president of the Confederation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Organisation, told TOI over phone from Gohana that the murder of Rakesh is retaliation by the Jats.
They (the Jats) wanted to penalise him for a murder in which he had been exonerated by the courts, he said, adding, The police didnt do much when our houses were burnt, they wont do much now.
In Haryana, some parts of which seems to have active Dalits groups ready to protest and act against what they see as injustices, areas like Gohana are turning into tinder boxes of caste-related violence. In March this year, Rajputs destroyed 73 Dalit establishments, including four houses in Saalwan village, Karnal.
Some time ago, a Dalit girl called Usha, from Jind, was brutally beaten by the headmistress of her school and charged with theft of jewellery. And who doesnt remember the lynching of five Dalits in Jhajjar in 2002?
We have represented our case at the National Commission for SC/ST times without number. In return they have got back to the state government and sought replies on all the atrocities against us, but the situation hasnt improved a bit, said Karamveer Singh, president of the Confederation of SC/ST Organisation (North India).
The Times of India: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India.
29 Aug 2007, 0102 hrs IST,C Shamsher,TNN
CHANDIGARH: The killing of a Dalit in broad daylight hours after he was acquitted by a CBI court on charges of murdering a Jat, has brought to the fore the simmering class and community crisis in a land where the khap, or caste panchayats, still brazenly announce death penalties on lovers marrying outside their caste or even within the same gotra.
To anyone who has followed the Gohana violence, which rumbled to life on August 31, 2005, after upper caste groups burnt 50 houses of Dalits, this is not the handiwork of criminals but of self-appointed conscience-keepers of society.
A keen watcher of Haryana affairs, Hisar-based sociologist Ajit Singh, said, this could be because of a perceived lessening of distances between Dalits and upper castes. Such clashes are bound to happen. This is where the state should intervene.
Dalits, though, are in no mood for theories about caste crises. They want action. Surinder Singh, president of the Confederation of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Organisation, told TOI over phone from Gohana that the murder of Rakesh is retaliation by the Jats.
They (the Jats) wanted to penalise him for a murder in which he had been exonerated by the courts, he said, adding, The police didnt do much when our houses were burnt, they wont do much now.
In Haryana, some parts of which seems to have active Dalits groups ready to protest and act against what they see as injustices, areas like Gohana are turning into tinder boxes of caste-related violence. In March this year, Rajputs destroyed 73 Dalit establishments, including four houses in Saalwan village, Karnal.
Some time ago, a Dalit girl called Usha, from Jind, was brutally beaten by the headmistress of her school and charged with theft of jewellery. And who doesnt remember the lynching of five Dalits in Jhajjar in 2002?
We have represented our case at the National Commission for SC/ST times without number. In return they have got back to the state government and sought replies on all the atrocities against us, but the situation hasnt improved a bit, said Karamveer Singh, president of the Confederation of SC/ST Organisation (North India).
The Times of India: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India.
