anti-caste

IN AFTERMATH OF HINDU-RIGHT POGROMS AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA...

Survivors of Communal Violence in Kandhamal Under Threat of Evacuation for Third Time (Communalism Watch)

"Around 100 survivors of communal violence, who have been staying in an abandoned NAC market complex at G. Udaygiri of Kandhamal district after the forcible closure of relief camps by the government, have been asked by the local administration to vacate the place. With the news of visit of a European Commission team to the region, the government have ordered to remove the people again as a part of its attempt to project that government had brought back normalcy in Kandhamal and violence affected people are living at their villages peacefully without any threat.

"‘The BDO has asked us to vacate immediately and if we refuse police force will be used,’ said the worried survivors of Kandhamal violence. When the violence broke out on August 23, 2008, they were forced to leave their villages and their houses were burnt down. They had to take shelter in relief camps, but they were forced to leave from there also after the new BJD government come to power. Hence they had taken shelter in the market complex like beggars.

"‘Where can we go with these two babies?’ asked a crying mother Ms. Menaka Nayak (25). Her youngest baby was born in the camp itself. ‘We can not go back to our village, because they will not allow us to live there if we do not convert to Hinduism. The government is not prepared to provide security and necessary help. On top of it they are trying to throw us out from here also.’"

See more on Hindu-right atrocities in Orissa

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME

Dalit youth alleges he was forced to eat human excreta (PTI)

"In a shocking case of caste discrimination, a dalit has alleged that he was forced to eat human faeces by a group of 'high caste Christians' for walking with chappals [footwear] in their street in the district.

"The dalit youth, in his complaint to Batalagundu police inspector, said 'a group of high caste Christians forced human faeces into my mouth after beating me for walking with chappals in their street.'

"Sadayandi, who is from Indhira Nagar in Meikovilpatti in Dindigul district [of Tamil Nadu], claimed the incident occurred on January 7 when a group of more than 10 'caste Christians' stopped him and asked if he was not aware of the 'order' that dalits should not walk with chappals in their street. Then they asked him to remove his chappals and slapped him with it, he said.

"'One of them suggested that I should be fed human excreta.'"

THE CAPITALIST STATE CANNOT PREVENT ATROCITIES AGAINST UNTOUCHABLES

Victims always: The S.C. and S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has failed to make Dalits any safer (Frontline cover story)

"The aggressive pursuit of neoliberal economic policies by governments at the Centre and in many States over the past decade has also resulted in an increase in atrocities against the S.Cs and the S.Ts. Ironically, even the Uttar Pradesh government [headed by dalit chief minister Mayawati] is not free from such ventures. The government’s ambitious 1,047-kilometre-long Ganga Expressway project, connecting Greater Noida near Delhi and Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh, was expected to acquire 64,000 hectares of land, 70 per cent of which is agricultural land. A number of observers and social analysts pointed out that this acquisition would militate against the basic livelihood of a large section of Dalits who were into share-cropping with upper-caste, land-owning farmers.

"According to NCRB data since 2005, Uttar Pradesh ranks the highest in the number of cases of caste atrocities, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat. 'Acts like these empower and help organise Dalits. With greater awareness about the Act, we have seen a rise in caste atrocities every year,' said Sirivella Prasad of the NDMJ.

"The trend clearly shows that caste atrocities have increased with greater social and economic mobility of the S.Cs and the S.Ts which disrupts the exploitative status quo of a feudal society.

"Many activists note that atrocity cases happen when Dalits try to avail themselves of legal resources; assert their right over land, water, and livelihood; assert their right to choose their occupation; attempt to participate in the cultural life of the community; assert their right to vote; and are victimised to satisfy the superstitions of dominant castes (witchcraft, human sacrifice). With respect to the S.Ts, activists say most of the atrocities happen when they try to organise themselves politically against the combined exploitation of government officials and industrial goons in the hinterland."

ATROCITIES IN MAHARASHTRA

Growing Unease by Lyla Bavadam (Frontline cover story)

"A 15-year-old S.C. girl [of Rajnai village in Beed district on August 23] was kidnapped and gangraped by three men, one of whom is believed to be a Hindu priest. She was left at a bus stand by her assailants. Her family filed an FIR but the police initially refused to register a case under the S.C./S.T. Act, though they did it later, under pressure from a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The main accused has not yet been arrested and the family is under pressure to withdraw the case. 'They are landless people and depend on the upper castes for their income. This is being used to put pressure on them,' said a representative of the NGO.

"If they did own some land and decide to grow something on it, they could meet the fate of Madhukar Ghatge of Kulakjai village in Satara district. When he retired from his job in the Railways in Mumbai in 2007, he only had one aim – cultivate his land in the village. One of the first things he did was to dig a well after acquiring the permission from the panchayat. It was, tragically, his last action. Ghatge’s upper-caste neighbours were enraged at his 'audacity.' On April 26, 2007, he was attacked with rods and axes and he died on the way to hospital. Fourteen people were identified as the assailants and 12 were arrested and charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the S.C./S.T. Act. A charge sheet was filed and they were released on bail. They are now believed to be absconding. [...]

"If Dalits raised their voice, they were silenced brutally, as a young mother (name withheld) was at Telgaon village in Solapur district in March 2006. She knew she was taking a bold step when she complained against the liquor barons in her village but had no idea that they would use her caste against her. The mother of a child was stripped, beaten, paraded and then kept on 'display' for a few hours. Her child was with her through this humiliation. After media intervention an FIR was filed under the S.C./S.T. Act, but the young woman’s social, emotional and economic support systems had been destroyed. Social pressures forced her husband to abandon her. She has no land and others are unwilling to employ her. Under the Act she is eligible for rehabilitation, but the district administration refused this. Instead, she was told that she could live in a government institution for abandoned women. Her child lives in another such institution. Her case is in the sessions court at Solapur at present."

UNTOUCHABLE WOMEN ATTACKED BY LANDLORD FOR REFUSING WORK

Car runs over Dalit women (The Statesman (Kolkata))

"Just days after a woman was stripped in public, an influential upper caste landlord ran a car over seven Dalit women for refusing to work in his farmland. The shocking incident took place in Sheikhpura district of Bihar last evening.

"Police said a local landlord Sonu Singh asked a group of female labourers to work in his field at low wages which the latter refused. Sources said, when the Dalit women were returning home in the evening after work, the accused drove his Ambassador car over them, injuring all the seven women. The injured have been admitted to the local government hospital in Sheikhpura.

[...]

"This is the third major incident of atrocities on women in the last one week. On Saturday, a Dalit woman was stripped and beaten up after her goat strayed into the field of a landlord in Sitamarhi district."

IN AFTERMATH OF POGROMS, THREATS BY HINDU RIGHT KEEP UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS FROM THEIR HOMES

Over 3,000 still in Orissa camps (The Hindu)

"More than seven months after Orissa’s tribal-dominated Kandhamal district experienced widespread anti-Christian violence, 3,100 people belonging to the minority community are still living in relief camps being run by the administration.

"About 25,000 people took shelter in 19 relief camps when communal violence was at its peak in the district in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others on August 23 last.

"The number of people living in the camps has decreased slowly but the 3,100 people in six camps are not willing to leave as they are being told by the communal forces that they can return to their homes only as Hindus."

NEW BOOK ON THE HINDU RIGHT'S POGROMS AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

quoted in VIOLENT GODS: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present – Narratives from Orissa by Angana P. Chatterji (Three Essays Collective, 2009):

“We did not convert because we are poor. If I am poor but accepted by my community, there is no [social] terror in that poverty.... We did not convert for money. We converted because of the society that saw us as lesser, not worthy. We were ‘lower caste’, ‘untouchable’, ‘lowly’. Now we are Christian. Our god wants us. We can walk into his temple. We are worthy. You understand?” [Spoken by a Dalit convert in Orissa.]

from the publisher:

"This pioneering research was conducted between 2002-2008 in urban and rural settings in the eastern state of Orissa, a primary arena for the onslaught of organized Hindu majoritarianism. Through situated reflection, storytelling, and ethnographic accounts, this genealogical excavation examines Hindutva/Hindu supremacist proliferations in manufacturing imaginative and identitarian agency for violent nationalism."

See also:

interview with Agana Chatterji on Violent Gods (ZNet)

And see anti-caste: ORISSA: HINDU-RIGHT ATROCITIES.

REPORT ON ANTI-UNTOUCHABLE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN ATTACKS BY HINDU RIGHT IN ORISSA AND KARNATAKA

From Kandhamal to Karavali: The Ugly Face of Sangh Parivar (Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, Human Rights Forum, Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights, Peoples Democratic Forum, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Karnataka State Unit, Federation for Peoples Rights, Committee for Protection of Civil Liberties, Peoples Union for Human Rights, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights)

"This is a report prepared jointly by a number of Rights Organisations and individuals on the large scale violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka during August-September 2008. The violence was committed by Sangh Parivar organisations, mainly the Bajrang Dal. Their political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) happens to be in power in both the States, and that has ensured that the police watched benignly as the arson and murder took place in public. The ideology and the organization of their mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), pervades the media in both the States to such an extent that with a few honorable exceptions, the Press has reported the violence in a manner that puts the onus on the victims: they were at fault and had it coming."

ATROCITY IN MADYA PRADESH

Indian girl beaten to death because mother took water from well without washing feet (Telegraph (UK))

"Saroj Lal, 25, was first turned away from the handpump in Adrouni village in Madhya Pradesh, when she approached wearing slippers. A higher caste villager told her Dalits were dirty and not allowed to draw water without first washing their hands and feet.

"He began abusing her over her low caste until she left to complain at the local police station along with her husband and daughter. According to police, the villager, known as Makhan, called six of his friends and headed them off en route. He attacked Saroj, grabbed her baby and threw her to the floor, killing her instantly."

REGISTERED ATROCITIES AGAINST UNTOUCHABLES GOING UP

Atrocities on SC/ST (Government of India Press information Bureau)

"The number of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was 31,387 in the year 2005, 32,407 in the year 2006 and 35,352 in the year 2007."

FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD BEATEN AND THROWN UNDER A TRAIN

Teenager murdered for writing love letter to girl of higher caste (The Times (London))

"Manish died because he was a member of the Ravidas community, a Dalit sub-caste that has been confined historically to working with leather – a profession deemed unclean by Hindus, for whom cows are sacred.

"Another term by which the group is known, chamar, is considered a grave insult.

"Three months ago the boy sent a letter 'expressing his interest' in a girl from the Dhobi community, another Dalit sub-caste, which has traditionally washed clothes for a living – but is fractionally above the Ravidas in the Hindu hierarchy. The note was discovered by the girl’s parents."

UNTOUCHABILITY AND WATER RIGHTS

In most parts of India, where water for drinking and irrigation is scarce, control of water sources is an index of class dominance, which is linked in turn to caste status. And in the ritual scheme which legitimizes the caste system, water is a carrier of the pollution that lower castes and untouchables spread.

So water rights in the Indian countryside is a chronic site of caste oppression, which, when resisted—as it increasingly is—often leads to atrocities like the ones collected below, all from the past eleven months. In no way exceptional, these stories stand in for any number of others that might have been chosen, as well as for countless more that surely never made it into the press:

Uttar Pradesh, January 16: The upper castes are not allowing Dalits to draw water for irrigation from a government tubewell.

Rajastan, January 26: When Dalits won the right to use the village pond, caste Hindus turned it into a sewer.

Orissa, March 26: Upper caste residents allegedly denied a woman from drawing water from a tube well because she was a Dalit.

Bihar, May 6: A Dalit youth was tortured and beaten to death for allegedly stealing a water pump.

Himachal Pradesh, May 13: They are prevented to draw water from the village tube-wells and even to sit on verandas of the upper caste.

Bihar, May 30: In the scorching summer, Janpatia Devi's family doesn't have a drop to drink. That's because she is a Dalit, and the well in the village meant only for her community has gone dry.

Madya Pradesh, June 6: An elderly Dalit woman was burnt alive allegedly by three members of an upper caste community over a dispute on fetching water from a village hand pump.

Uttar Pradesh, June 9: 15-year-old Daya Shankar and three fellow villagers were arrested for allegedly trying to capture a tanker delivering drinking water to their village.

Gujarat, July 31: If there is water in a well, Dalits have to wait for other villagers as we can't touch their wells.

Karnataka, November 8: The “upper castes” in the village had stopped the supply of water from a tank located in the Dalit colony on the grounds that the water from the tank was not fit to be used to conduct puja [Hindu ritual worship].

Uttar Pradesh, November 12: An old Dalit woman was beaten up by upper caste people for using a hand pump installed in their locality to draw water.

UNTOUCHABLE STUDENTS ATTACKED ON CAMPUS

Caste clash rocks Law College (Indian Express)

"CHENNAI: Three students were seriously injured in a violent caste clash that broke out between two groups of students at Ambedkar Law College on Wednesday.

"The students waged a pitched battle, even as a posse of policemen waited outside the gates and news photographers clicked pictures.

"Knives, iron rods, wooden logs and tubelights were freely used by the clashing students. The police remained silent spectators, waiting for a call from the college principal for help."

The background of this unbelievable attack is as follows. A group of caste-Hindu students were putting up posters around campus for a celebration related to their own caste. On the posters the name of the college was given as "Government Law College," dropping the name "Dr. Ambedkar." B.R. Ambedkar was an untouchable leader who drafted the Indian constitution. Untouchable students confronted them about the omission, and a fight broke out. The caste-Hindu students threatened to prevent untouchable students from sitting for exams in two weeks' time to teach them a lesson. What happened on the day of the exam is captured in the picture above and even more graphically in the news video at this link: Blood bath in a law college.

See also:

Caste Violence in Ambedkar Law College, Chennai

Clashes at Law College: A Fact-Finding Report (November 24, 2008)

HINDU RIGHT LEADS FORCED CONVERSIONS OF UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

Convert or we will kill you, Hindu lynch mobs tell fleeing Christians (Guardian (UK))

"The wave of forced conversions marks a dramatic escalation in a two-month orgy of sectarian violence which has left at least 59 people dead, 50,000 homeless and thousands of houses and churches burnt to the ground. As neighbour has turned on neighbour, thousands more Christians have sought sanctuary in refugee camps, unable to return to the wreckage of their homes unless they, too, agree to abandon their faith.

"Last week, in the worst-affected Kandhamal district, The Observer encountered compelling evidence of the scale of the violence employed in a conversion programme apparently sanctioned by members of one of the most powerful Hindu groups in India, the 6.8-million member Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - the World Hindu Council."

See also anti-caste: ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

TEMPLE ENTRY: LANDOWNERS ENFORCE CASTE LAW AGAINST THE LANDLESS

Dalit killed for entering temple in Bihar (Times of India)

"In a shocking incident, one person was killed and two were injured when upper caste people allegedly shot at a person hailing from Dalit community who had gone to offer prasad to goddess Durga at Jiyar village of Bihar's Nalanda district."

See also:

Fear grips Bihar village after Dalit's killing (Calcutta News, October 13, 2008):

"Villagers said they were shocked and feared for their lives despite the deployment of security forces two days after the killing of Karu Paswan, a landless Dalit in Jiar-Pindpar village in Nalanda, about 100 km from here.

"'It is like living in water with crocodiles,' Sitwa Devi, a Dalit woman, said in Hindi.

KHAIRLANJI DEATH SENTENCES ARE NOTHING TO CELEBRATE

In this commentary S. Anand, publisher of Navayana books, sets the long-awaited verdict against those accused of taking part in the Khairlanji massacre (see anti-caste: KHAIRLANJI MASSACRE (September 29, 2006)) in perspective, and abhors the use of the death penalty—of which untouchables are disproportionate victims—even to punish a crime as inhuman as this one.

Understanding the Khairlanji Verdict by S. Anand (The Hindu, October 5, 2008)

"The Khairlanji Verdict, in which six persons were awarded the death penalty for the massacre of dalits, is anything but historic. In treating the massacre as a purely criminal act, it actually masks caste realities."

ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

Christians cower from Hindu backlash in India's east (Reuters)

"The mob poured kerosene on the thatched rooftops of the village homes, then threw matches. Church spires were hacked down.

"The Hindu part of the village was untouched. For four days Digal and his stricken Christian neighbors hid in the teak forests, before being herded to a government-run relief camp.

"The violence replicated itself in village after village, as the rural Kandhamal district of Orissa convulsed from some of the worst anti-Christian attacks in India.

"At least 16 people, mostly Christians were killed, churches destroyed and 10,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes as violence spread.

"Christians responded with some -- not proportionate -- violence. Almost all the villages Reuters visited bore evidence of attacks on Christians."

See anti-caste: HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA (January 1, 2008)

See also:

Orissa: The sangh parivar’s reach for a Hindu state by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)

Interim Report on Orissa: Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact-Finding Mission, Sept 25, 2008

PUNISHED FOR RESISTING RAPE

Dalit mother, daughter stripped in Ajmer [Rajastan] (NDTV)

"Their crime to deserve such treatment was that Phooli Bai resisted two Jat men, who wanted to forcibly take away her 16-year-old daughter, Ramkanya on Monday evening.

[...]

"Besides thrashing them, Phooli Bai said that they were stripped in full public view at Sihaar village in Ajmer.

"Phooli Bai said, 'They tore off my daughter's clothes and tried to drag her outside our home. When I tried to save her, they tore off my clothes also. They not only beat us badly but also shamed us in front of the whole village.'

"The tormentors even threw out the Dalit family from the village, threatening them with worse punishment if they told their plight to anyone.

"Since Tuesday the frightened Dalit family is sitting at the office of the Deputy Superintendent of police in Ajmer's Kekri town and they refuse to go back to their village for fear of losing their lives.

"Satya Narayan Kamad, Phooli Bai's husband said, 'As we have complained against them, our fear is that they will kill us. They won't spare us now.'"

UNTOUCHABLES PUNISHED FOR RESISTING FORCED LABOR

Two separate stories of atrocities committed after untouchables refused to work for upper caste landowners:

May 3, Uttar Pradesh

Seven Dalits injured as Jats fire on them (Press Trust of India):

"The trouble started when some Dalit labourers were asked by a group of Jats in Mandoda village to cut wheat crop in their fields and they refused. Infuriated by their refusal, the Jats allegedly attacked their homes and fired at their women and children, injuring seven."

May 13, Bihar

Dalit tortured for refusing to work in fields (India eNews):

"A Dalit was allegedly held captive and thrashed for six days in Nalanda - the home district of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar - after he refused to work in the fields of an upper caste man.

"Not only were his wife and minor daughter forced to work in his place during that time but the family was also turned away by the local police when it tried to lodge a complaint, he has alleged.

[...]

"'My only crime was that I refused to work in their fields as they were giving just one kilogram of food grain in return for 10 to 12 hours of toil,' an official at a special police station for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Biharsharif near here, quoted Manjhi as saying.

[...]

"'The helpless and poor like me are not free people. We have to live under the shadow of fear and at the mercy of people like Abhay Singh, who tortured me to teach a lesson to me and others so that we don't raise our voice,' Manjhi told police."

UNTOUCHABLES DRIVEN OUT BY UPPER-CASTE LANDOWNERS LEFT HOMELESS

Dalits live like refugees in Gujarat (NDTV)

"Over 100 Dalits in Palanpur township of north Gujarat have been living in makeshift camp for last eight months after being driven out of their village by upper castes.

"Ironically, the camp is outside the collector's office.

"Maniben is one of them, widow of a man, who was killed after he went to court over against Rajput family attempting to bring down his house to get to their fields.

"He won the case but after his killing, Dalits in the area were attacked and threatened. They fled their homes and have been living in these camps since."

UNTOUCHABLE CHILD THROWN IN FIRE FOR CROSSING A ROAD

Girl in oven for road ‘crime’ (The Telegraph (Calcutta))

"An eight-year-old Dalit girl was set on fire in a Mathura village for crossing a road used by upper castes.

"Kamalesh, the daughter of Saudam Jatav, a landless Dalit, is fighting for her life in hospital.

"Deputy superintendent of police Bireswar Mishra said the child took the road while returning home last evening with cattle.

"Madan Singh alias Sunil, a Thakur [Bengali brahmin] through whose land the road passes, spotted Kamalesh and started screaming at her.

"'He came running and began yelling at her. He asked her to leave the road. ‘This road is not for you,’ he kept repeating,' the DSP said.

"When the girl refused to budge, Sunil dragged her to an oven meant to boil sugarcane juice and pushed her into it."

See also:

Police don't treat Kamlesh's case as caste violence (CNN-IBN, May 1, 2008):

"Incidentally, Kamlesh is from the same Jatav community as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

"The police have arrested one person in connection with the case, but they are not categorising the incident as caste violence, something that villagers in Tarauli are living with.

"Other villagers have said that though the police appear, they take money and hurl abuses at Dalits, taunting them.

"'They say we have the arrogance of Mayawati,' said a villager while another added, 'This is how we have spent our lives here.'

15 FAMILIES FLEE ATROCITY IN MADYA PRADESH

Dalit beaten by upper caste villagers for smoking (CNN-IBN)

"She said her husband was mercilessly beaten up and asked to leave the village with a warning not to show his face again.

“'The Thakurs [brahmins] do not behave properly with us. It is not just this incident, they do not allow us to fetch water and we are forced to carry our shoes on our heads while passing in front of their houses,' Halki Bai said.

"The immediate provocation for the Thakurs' action was apparently a Dalit smoking without taking permission during a funeral procession. Halki Bai is not the only woman whose husband has been forced out of the village. All male members of the 15 Dalit families in the village have fled and individually reported to the police."

See also:

Police pooh-pooh MP Dalits' complaint against Thakurs (CNN-IBN, April 21, 2008):

"'There are some complaints and we have taken action but there is nothing like Thakurs forcing the Dalits out of the village,' said SP (Jabalpur) Markand Devaskar."

CASTE AND WOMEN'S OPPRESSION REINFORCE EACH OTHER

Girl escapes honour killing, now fights a lonely battle (IBNlive)

"Nineteen-year-old Poonam's blank look speaks of the trauma she has suffered at the hands of her family. Her relatives, threw her into a canal at Tibbi, near Haryana's border with Rajasthan, and left her to die. All because she, a Jat girl, married a Dalit boy."

HINDU RIGHT LEADS MASS ATROCITY AGAINST CHRISTIAN UNTOUCHABLES IN ORISSA

Christians in India are, with very few exceptions, untouchables or oppressed tribals. They take Christianity at least in part in order to escape their outcaste status, if only in name.

The Hindu right has been on a campaign since the late 1990s to intimidate and forcibly convert this small, vulnerable religious minority. The pattern of violence includes incidents of murder, rape, and arson. In one widely reported case in 1999 an Australian missionary and his two young sons were burned to death while sleeping in their camper.

That was in Orissa, and it is in that backward state, where nearly half the people live below the official poverty line, that the worst attacks ever against Christians in India were carried out last week. They took place in the district of Kandhamal, where Hindu-right activists have been organizing among the majority Kandha tribals, encouraging them to take up orthodox Hindu practices and exploiting their petty rivalry with the untouchable Panas, ninety-five percent of whom are Christians.

In Kandhamal's Bharakama village on the days leading up to Christmas celebrations, Hindu-right activists staged provocations against Christians and vandalized decorations. On Christmas Day a Hindu-right mob of thousands systematically destroyed Christian homes, churches, and institutions, killing several people and leaving thousands more homeless.

See:

Charting the history of sangh parivar violence in Orissa by Angana Chatterji (Communalism Combat)

See also:

Fact Finding Report by All India Christian Council Orissa Chapter

India: Stop Hindu-Christian Violence in Orissa (Human Rights Watch, December 27, 2007)

A dangerous mix by Soumyajit Pattnaik (Hindustan Times)

And for background on the Hindu right's anti-Christian campaign:

Anti-Christian Violence in India by Vinjay Lal

Anti-Christian Violence on the Rise in India (Human Rights Watch, September 29, 1999)

ATROCITY IN UTTAR PRADESH OVER INTER-CASTE ELOPEMENT

Caste war: Dalit woman burnt alive (NDTV)

"The 45-year-old woman was burnt allegedly by some upper-caste villagers in Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

"On Wednesday, her son Bunty eloped with the daughter of an influential upper caste villager Rajveer Singh Yadav, who was opposed to the relationship.

"Yadav and 3 others allegedly set Bunty's mother ablaze on Thursday."

BEATEN TO DEATH FOR DEFENDING FAMILY AND LIVELIHOOD

Dalit woman resists forcible harvest, killed (Calcutta News)

"According to Paswan, the Tiwaris have been forcibly harvesting crops from their field for years. But this time his wife, who was in her 40s, decided to resist their move but it cost her life.

"The victim's son Bablu said the Tiwaris first attacked him for opposing them. 'When my mother intervened to save me and resist them, they turned to her and beat her to death,' Bablu said."

MAHARASHTRA: UNTOUCHABLE HACKED TO DEATH OVER WATER RIGHTS

Dalit killed for digging own well (Hindustan Times)

"Ghatge (48), a Dalit farmer and a father of three, retired from the Railways a few years ago and moved home from Mumbai to farm on his family’s 5-acre plot here. He was murdered last week by upper-caste villagers who did not want him to dig a well on his own property.

"It would have been the first well in Kulakjai village on land owned by a Dalit.

"The police said Ghatge was hacked so violently that even the earth-moving machine he was using at the time was damaged.

"'They were armed with axes and iron rods. They attacked him and left him to bleed to death,' said Ghatge’s 21-year-old son Tushar, a law student at a local college.

"Ten people have been arrested and charged under the Atrocities Act and special police teams deployed. 'They said his well would mean less water for the common well in the village,' said Tushar.

"Ghatge tried to reason, saying he had acquired permission from the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti and had promised to share the water in times of scarcity, but the crowd grew menacing."

See also:

Kulakjai Dalit Murder Report by Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), a Bombay-based voluntary organization (May 10, 2007):

"[W]e understand that wells in drought-prone areas are of utmost importance, and hence control of wells is also a symbol of power since these water sources function as on of the most important means of life and livelihood. It is also at times a more important means of production than the land. By deciding to dig a well [the Ghatge family] had challenged – indirectly - the monopoly of upper castes over water which stings them the most."

And see:

All's Well, Did You Say? (Outlook India, August 20, 2007):

"Twelve attackers were arrested, but they are all now out on bail. Later, a supplementary FIR named political heavyweights, all upper-caste men, as the masterminds behind the attack. But, as usual, but little has come of it."

LANDED CASTES HIGH AND LOW IN BIHAR RAISE ARMIES AGAINST LANDLESS UNTOUCHABLES

Formation of private armies by Sanjay Kumar (Hindustan Times)

"The Bhumi Sena is the private army of the Kurmis, whose main occupation is cattle raising. They make the Harijan landless peasants work at gun point without paying them the minimum wages."

ATROCITY IN BIHAR

Dalit woman paraded half-naked for stealing fruit (India eNews)

"A middle-aged Dalit woman in Bihar was tonsured and paraded half-naked on the orders of the husband of a woman village head for allegedly stealing a few bananas."

STATE-BY-STATE REPORT ON CONDITION OF UNTOUCHABLES

Victims, still (Frontline)

See also:

further special coverage in Frontline in the wake of the militant mass protests over Khairlanji:

on dalit activism: At a crossroads

on atrocities: Khairlanjis of the past

see anti-caste: KHAIRLANJI MASSCRE: Maharashtra Burning

POLICE SLOW TO ACT IN CASES OF CASTE VIOLENCE AGAINST UNTOUCHABLES

Dalit atrocity cases: Just 15% convictions (Times of India)

"The high acquittal rate appears to be a direct fallout of police delay in booking the guilty.

[...]

"The nature of offences, too, are an eye-opener. The second most common offence under the POA Act — after atrocities to humiliate — is outraging of modesty of SC/ST women. As the study notes, 'It indicates a tendency to use the dominant caste position to sexually exploit Dalit women.'"

KHAIRLANJI MASSACRE

September-December 2006
MAHARASHTRA BURNING

An atrocity left unpunished and a hero’s statue desecrated drive untouchable masses into the streets across India’s second-most populous state.

September 29: Four members of an untouchable family are horrifically lynched by men and women of the dominant caste in the tiny village of Khairlanji.
November 6: After over a month of negligence by the police and inaction from the state government, mass protests by untouchables break out in Nagpur and spread throughout the district.
November 28: A statue of the Independence-era untouchable leader B. R. Ambedkar is beheaded in the city of Kanpur.
November 29-30: Untouchable youth take to the streets in spontaneous protests across the state. In Bombay large groups target public transportation, emptying buses and a train and setting them on fire.

The rape/murder of the Bhotmange family in Khairlanji village occurred on September 29, but it was only at the end of October that the story first broke in the national press, under the ironic headline “Just another rape story.” There are hundreds of atrocities against untouchables and over a thousand rapes of untouchable women officially reported every year in Maharashtra state alone. And how many go unreported? As the Khairlanji lynching itself might have. If it hadn’t been for two surviving blood relatives who secretly witnessed this public massacre, the case would never have been registered with the police: even now, no one else will talk.

So why did the news of this particular horror spread mainly by word of mouth throughout the region and across the state? Why this time did rage over the incident simmer for two full months before finally boiling over in an unprecedented statewide uprising of the untouchable masses that took India by surprise?....

...see anti-caste article: MAHARASHTRA BURNING

see also:

Khairlanji and Its Aftermath: Exploding Some Myths by Anand Teltumbde (Economic and Political Weekly, March 24, 2007)

Dalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords by Shivam Vij (Tehelka, November 4, 2006)

Village quiet after it ganged up to hack Dalit mother, 3 children by Vivek Deshpande (The Indian Express, November 8)

Khairlanji: How the Other Half Dies? (Central Chronicle [Bhopal], November 14)

fact-finding report on Atrocities against Bhotmange Family in Khairlanji by Vikas Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), a Bombay-based voluntary organization

He lives to see justice done by Meena Menon (The Hindu, November 17)

Dalit blood on the village square by Lyla Bavadam (Frontline, November 18-December 1)

A Flag Over the Dead by Dilip D'Souza (Tehelka, November 25)

Kherlanji's Strange and Bitter Crop by Satya Sagar (November 29)

Maharashtra: Dalit anger leaves 4 dead, 60 injured (rediff.com, November 30)

Dalit Rage by Smruti Koppikar (Outlook India, December 5)

The fear of democracy of the privileged by P. Sainath (The Hindu, December 8)

Khairlanjis of the past (Frontline, December 16-29, 2006)

A real agenda for Dalit liberation by Praful Bidwai (Frontline, December 16-29, 2006)

And see from Sujatha's family history:
Adavi Kolanu: "Humilated for wearing nice clothes, for being clean, for being literate, for being a teacher, for desiring to be treated with dignity."

Priyanka Bhotmange (image via Atrocity News)

Bhotmange home (image via Atrocity News)

MASS ATROCITY BACKED UP BY POLICE

Justice for Dalits still a dream (The Hindu)

"When the Dalits attempted to take out their procession, the police stopped them. The next day, in blatant violation of the law, the sarpanch allegedly instigated upper caste youth to attack the Dalits with hatchets and sickles by making announcements on a loudspeaker from the local temple. The attackers did not spare even women and children.... Instead of arresting those who attacked the Dalits, the police arrested 15 Dalits on false charges ranging from 'dacoity' to 'attempt to murder.'"

POLICE ATROCITY IN HARYANA

Dalit youth dies in police custody (The Tribune (Chandighar))

"Harjeet Singh, a Dalit youth of Niko Sarai village in Dera Baba Nanak area, was killed in Batala police’s custody allegedly due to torture. The police cremated his body at night without informing his family."

MASS ATROCITY IN HARYANA

10 injured in attack on Dalit colony (The Tribune (Chandighar))

"In what could be termed as the recurrence of the Gohana incident, an armed mob of upper castes, mostly Rodhs, allegedly attacked Ravidas Colony at Mehmadpur village of the district today morning. The only difference between the two incidents was that instead of torching houses of Dalits as had been done in Gohana, Ravidasis were allegedly attacked with sharp-edged weapons, including axes and swords."

ATROCITY IN PUNJAB: BANT SINGH

Casteist assault (Frontline)

"On January 7, Bant Singh, a resident of Jhabbar in the southern Punjab district of Mansa, was surrounded by a group of Jat youths from the same village. The upper-caste men brutally beat him with iron rods. Three days later, after gangrene set in, doctors amputated his limbs."

ATROCITY IN BIHAR: SIX BURNED ALIVE

Caste waters run deep in Bihar village (newkerala.com)

"The village in Vaishali district bristled with tension, anger and pain Monday, a day after the 45-year-old woman and her five minor children were torched to death in their hut because her husband refused to withdraw a police complaint against a Yadav for the theft of a buffalo. While the killings came as a shock to members of the backward agrarian Koeri caste to which the victims belonged, they were quick to point out that they were not allowed to keep cattle and those who dared flout the unwritten rule paid for it."

ATROCITY IN BELKHED VILLAGE (AKOLA), MAHARASHTRA

The riots and wrongs of caste (The Hindu (Opinion)) by P. Sainath

"The Dalits here are impoverished agricultural labourers. Some of these tiny, ruined dwellings housed 12 or more people. The over 150 families in the basti have homes bunched together, often joined by common walls. The flames must have spread quickly."

RESISTANCE PROVOKES VIOLENCE

Orissa villagers protest against inhuman practice (The Hindu)

"Four women were beaten up and another was paraded naked allegedly by a group of 'upper caste' men in the village on September 19.

"'We are not sure when we will be able to return to our homes. We have lost everything,' Sabitri Barik, one of the victims, said here on Friday.

[...]

"The women were abused by large number of men, allegedly from the Khandayat community, because their husbands refused to wash the feet of the groom and guests during marriage ceremonies as per custom.

[...]

"'I am scared to go to my village because the Khandayats will surely attack me,' saidHadibandhu Barik. 'Our children are educated and they are not willing to do the customary job of washing the feet of upper caste men, clear the left-overs after the marriage feast and wash the utensils.'

[...]

"'The local legislators and other politicians do not come to the rescue of barbersfearing the loss of the `upper caste' votes,' said Baghambar Patnaik of the Odisha Gotimukti Andolan, an organisation fighting for the cause of barbers in Brahmagiri, Puri Sadar and Satyabadi blocks of Puri.

"'The district administration has been treating the problem as a conflict between two castes, ignoring the fact that the job assigned to the barbers amounts to bonded labour, and that they cannot be forced to do the work,' he said."

ATROCITIES IN HARYANA

Caste war shows India's lowest class still faces struggle (The Chicago Tribune)

"Higher-caste members say the Dalits just want attention and set their own homes on fire, shaved their own mustaches and made everything else up.[...] They say the Dalits are treated equally in Badhram and live pretty well.

"'They even have tractors and motorcycles,' said Jagan Singh, a farmer and former village leader who belongs to the Zamindar land-owning caste. 'They even have trucks.'

"'Mobile phones,' one man shouted.

"'Color TVs,' another pointed out.

"'They eat butter chicken every day,' Singh added."

MASS ATROCITY IN GOHANA, HARYANA

There's a much larger house on fire (The Hindu (Opinion)) by P. Sainath

"About the time 50 Dalit houses were set ablaze in Gohana, the country marked 50 years of a law giving effect to the Constitution's abolition of untouchability. As if to rub in the irony, 25 more Dalit homes have been torched in the same week. This time in Akola, Maharashtra."

See also:

'Gohana is Haryana's shame today' (rediff.com, September 1, 2005)

Prosperity Sharpens Caste Animosities (Inter Press Service News Agency, September 19, 2005)

ATROCITIES IN HARYANA

Landlords set 3 houses on fire (asianage.com)

"Landlords have ostracised dalits and confined to their homes 45 persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes since July 20, when they offered prayers at a local temple. Dalits have been beaten, and the moustache of one dalit man is lopped off every day."

ATROCITY AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHILDREN IN HARYANA

Dalits made to drink urine: Upper-caste landlords abuse 3 youths over cricket dispute (The Indian Express)

Three boys "were dragged to the residence of the sarpanch, Gurdas Singh, where the landlords urinated in their juttis (shoes) and forced them to drink it at gunpoint."

ATROCITY AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHILDREN IN UTTAR PRADESH

Dalit youths in this UP village win a game of cricket but lose lives in the caste war (Outlook India)

"'The cricket team from Hasanpur, made up mostly of Rajputs, seems to have taken the defeats as an insult to their pride and honour. They considered themselves invincible and couldn't stomach being defeated by Dalits,' says Pushkar Raj of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)."

See also:

the PUCL report "Two dalit youth killed for winning cricket matches" (January 2004)

MASS ATROCITY IN NEPAL

Inter-Caste Marriage Became a Cause of Destruction (Asian Human Rights Commission)

"The young couple, who had an inter-caste marriage, has been kidnapped by the girl's relatives and the Dalit community, which the male victim belongs to, was attacked by 200 upper caste people and forced to leave the village."

ATROCITY OVER DRINKING-WATER RIGHTS IN MAHARASHTRA

Dalit burnt to death in Maharashtra for using handpump

"Caste barriers run deep here and the Patils' writ dictates that it's their privilege to use handpumps first. On the day of the incident, the Patils reportedly tried to get fresh with Lata Shendge (17) for questioning their privilege. Her brother Dilip intervened only to be accosted by a group of belligerent Patils in the evening, who allegedly set him, his sister and his mother ablaze right outside their mud-walled hut. [...] "'Four years back, the only source of water was the Dudhna river, which was a 40-minute walk from here. We got the government to install these two pumps and now it's only a five-minute walk. These Dalits can't even give us the right to use it first,' says Damodar Patil (50), a land-owner."

See also:

Dalit boy killed for sister's 'folly' (NDTV.com, May 19, 2003)

The caste cauldron of Maharashtra (PUCL report, December 2003)