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October 18, 2001

 

ATROCITIES

 

 

Atrocities breed Rebellions Reactions! 

Revolutions also often seen initially as

Disturbances Law and Order Problems

Misguided actions of the useless youth

Or social unrest by anti-social elements

 

Atrocities do breed great social unrest

Leading to social divide, antagonisms

Long lasting enmity severing relations

Break big Nations, to small Countries

Give birth to serious acts of Terrorism

 

Atrocity is an unfair unjust action and behaviour that is based on intolerance.  That is perpetrated intentionally, with an extremely cruel wicked mind, and an evil intention.  That is almost an horrifying and or shocking experience.  That is invariably perpetrated on a helpless or weak individual or group of individuals or on others at an unexpected moment. 

 

The atrocity could be either an onetime activity or event, or one of a continuing series.  An atrocity is always committed by a mentally sick, imbalanced and or venomous individual or group of individuals.  It is generally an abnormal and or an extreme act of cruelty.  It is often crude and cowardice exhibitionism of arrogant inhuman perversion of authoritarian people.   The atrocity could either be an isolated incident or also be repeated or continued, or form a part of regular and frequent or series of planned attack to harass an individual or group(s) of people.  Whenever we read or hear about any atrocity, we should and must ask the questions –

 

Whether the perpetrators of the atrocity are inhuman people?

Whether those behind the atrocity are sick people – mentally sick?

 

Perhaps the oldest atrocities in the World are the Caste based atrocities oriented towards the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. 

 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the Aborigines of India.  They are the Natives of the Country.  They are the Adivasis or the Original and Indigenous People of India.

 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the children of the Indian Soil, and are wedded to the land.  They are today born bonded to the land, toil with the land, die generally working with the land, and are often buried in the land where they and their forefathers were born grew and died.  They like to be buried where their forefathers and mothers uncles aunts, and at times brothers sisters and even children lay buried. 

 

In most parts of the Country, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes till for the landlords, and physically live on the land they till.  Most often, they and their services are sold along with the lands, by their landlords to the buyer of the lands.  This cruel practice which used to exist in Russia, and was practised by the Boyars, was abolished there by the Czars as an socio-economic evil, but it continues even today in India.  That is a sad reality.

 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes may differ in many respects and have different problems today, but are invariably from the same stock in any given region.  They are mainly Dravidians mixed-Dravidians in most parts of the Country, or Mongolo-Dravidians or Mongoloids as in the Eastern and North-Eastern parts.  Though as Avarnas, the Caste-less Ati-Shudras of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, specifically denied Castes by the brahmanic scriptures and forced to live outside the brahmanic Caste System of Chatur Varnavyavstha, do not belong to the Brahmanic Society, they share a lot many things with the caste enclosed Shudras.  While the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are brothers and sisters separated by birth, the Shudras within the Caste System are in fact their cousins who had gone over to the other side, to be with their enemies and exploiters.

 

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been known, described and called differently at different times and periods of the long Indian History.  They were treated differently by different brahmanic groups who were always antagonistic towards them.  The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were considered to be unhearables, unseables, unapproachables, undinables, till recently as untouchables and now are unacceptable. They are unacceptable in the Society, friends circles, playgrounds, sports-fields, sports-teams, schools, colleges, jobs, offices either as new-recruits or juniors or colleagues or as seniors, administration, bureaucracy, political parties, and Govts.  Today, more than anything the atrocities bind them together into small small SC&ST Dalit Action Groups.  The discriminations, denial of good professional and superior education for jobs, and the deliberate hurdles being put up to block their channels move up to the higher echelons of the society bring them together.  And the silent subversive and treacherous manner in which they are being treated as Unacceptable are motivating them to fight for their rights, dues and rightful place in different spheres of the Society and Nation.  That is the exact reason why they are being denied a single identity and recognition under a single name as Dalits.  And now every conceivable form of action is being taken to divide them silently on language, region, State and Religious lines.  Officially, the Govts today are bent upon dividing them into separate Groups as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.  That in fact is Govt Atrocity, Bureaucratic Subversion and modern terrorism against the awakening SC&ST Dalits.

 

Dalit Atrocities are real true and very cruel.  They take place frequently, almost too frequently to be a regular feature of the Society, and in some areas continuously.  They are based on the evil concept of Castes. 

 

Castes give birth to hollow notions of superiority and wrong ideas of others being inferior to one.  These notions and ideas are the cause of the unique social distortion or imbalance, where any group of people ceases to be a people.  They consider themselves to be different and not homogenous, but belong to different groups and sub-groups within the groups, however small the group may be.  Each individual person or group or sub-group has developed an uniquely distorted perspective.  This is almost universal in the Indian Society, and could be seen in almost all parts of the Country.  Each and every group of people in the Indian society and the individuals within have developed a skewed thinking, to present a split personality and schizophrenic mind.  Thus every Indian has a strange self-assessment of being superior to many and inferior to some at the same time, based on the Castes and their relative superiority and inferiority with respect to another.  This gives room to an hierarchy of castes and sub-castes.  Even those condemned to be lowest in the hierarchy of castes have developed those notions and ideas of being superior to others within their own lowest Shudra Castes even as they are inferior to all the other dominant castes in the brahmanic caste system.  Also they have roped in the Caste-less Avarnas.  All the Avarnas, starting from the Ati-Shudras and the Chandals, Janglis, Mlechas etc have been brought under the Castes, even though not into the proper Castes and Chatur-Varna Caste System of Chatur-Varnavyavstha.   The habitation like distant hills, dark and dense jungles, or dangerous isolated valleys, or the various languages, cultural practices,, vocations and special skills have become the castes and caste names to be collectively grouped as the Panchamas or the Fifth Varna.  That it is improper, being outside the scope and without proper sanction of the Caste-System does not matter, as long as the marginalisation, deprivation, denigration, subjugation and exploitation of the SC&ST Dalits are ensured.

 

SC&ST Dalit Atrocities are based on Castes and sanctioned by the Caste System.  They are historic, traditional and deep rooted.  They can not ordinarily be seen or observed.  But they are real, cruel and often are criminal.  They are painful and crippling.  They are caused by Castes, Caste Prejudices and Caste Biases.  Underlying reasons behind SC&ST Dalit Atrocities are the continuing cultural differences, silent ethnic conflicts and racial antagonisms. 

 

The various forms of SC&ST Dalit Atrocities are, beating, shaving-off moustache and or hair; cutting-off fingers, chopping off nose and ears; breaking of bones like ribs, hands, legs; amputation of hands and legs, looting, burning homes, rape of women, killings and murders etc.  They continue unabated even fifty-four years after Independence in the twenty-first century, without any criticism or condemnation or castigation by the World Community.

 

SC&ST Dalit Atrocities continue because of –

 

Ø      Continuing notions and ideas of superiority-inferiority complexes, fear, enmity,

Ø      Unwillingness to accept Democratic Norms and share power in the Democratic Framework of Govt, 

Ø      Strong desire to subvert Constitutional Guarantees to the SCs and STs, opposition to Legal Provisions of Equality and Equal-Opportunities,

Ø      Desire to continue with discriminations and exploitations,  

Ø      Built in biases, born prejudices, acquired perversions, growing intollerances,

Ø      The desire of the caste hindus to teach the SC&ST Dalits a lesson, keep the young educated SC&ST Dalit generations down, put them in their proper places, assert their authority, establish their superiority, prevent the progress of SC&ST Dalits,

Ø      Lack of Dalit Unity, financial economic and political power, economic weaknesses, physical and social helplessness,

Ø      Lack of reaction and resistance from the SC&ST Dalit Victims and action by other SC&ST Dalits and their Leaders, 

Ø      Inaction by the Social Activists, Intellectuals, Journalists, Academicians, Officials, Govts, Peoples Representatives, Legislative Assemblies and Parliament, Political Parties, 

Ø      The failure of the Legal Framework, the unwillingness of the Law and Order Machinery of the Govts and the unwillingness of the Courts to punish the guilty.  

 

SC&ST Dalit Atrocities fall in the following broad categories –

 

Cultural : 

 

Ø      Denigration of anything and everything associated with the SC&ST Dalits, including their new found religions of Islam, Christianity and Buddhism,

Ø      Denial of permission to Dalits to perform their Cultural Numbers and Programmes at important places and auspicious occasions,

Ø      Compulsory performance of Dalit Cultural Numbers and Programmes during inauspicious occasions like death and on bad days,

Ø      Confining Dalit Cultural Programmes as free or cheap exhibitions on rare occasions only,

Ø      Devaluing Dalit Programmes and Discrimination of Artists,

Ø      Rejection of Dalit Performances and Artists,

Ø      Lack of recognition and or incentives to Dalit Performances and Artists,

Ø      Condemning and Devaluing Dalit Performances and Artists as Pimps and Prostitutes.

 

Economic :

 

Ø      Denial of the right to own Land, pucca/regular-Houses, or accumulate wealth, riches and noble metals like Gold and Silver,

Ø      Deprival of any property asset wealth or productive materials, 

Ø      Destruction of all Economic Activities of the SCs&STs,

Ø      Regular destruction of SC&ST Households,

Ø      Denial of decent jobs and regular or continuous employment,

Ø      Compulsory employment in dangerous and unhygienic jobs,

Ø      Allocation of unproductive, unremunerative, unprofitable and or undesirable vocations,

Ø      Unequal wages and denial of full and timely payments,

Ø      Denial of the right to trade, and reserving business as the monopoly of specific trading communities from the vaishya/bania castes.

 

Political :

 

Ø      Denial of real Power,

Ø      Deprival of good Status,

Ø      Avoiding proper Assignments,

Ø      Unwillingness to Share-Power,

Ø      Sidelining in the Higher Echelons,

Ø      Marginalisation in the Corridors of Power,

Ø      Downgrading in Rank and

Ø      Disallowing the Dalits to Vote or Caste their Votes to the Right Candidates,

Ø      Not allowing sensible Dalits to Contest or Win Elections,

Ø      Countermanding Elections when really Good Dalits are likely to win the Elections,

Ø      Ganging up against effective Dalit Candidates,

Ø      Killing Dalit Candidates and Winners,

Ø      Not allowing elected Dalits to Assume Office, Function Freely, or Perform their Duties,

Ø      Keeping the Dalit Winners as puppets of the DCHs,

Ø      Not allowing the elected to become conscious, active or effective, freedom to talk or mix with the common SCs&STs, or have good SCs&STs to be their assistants or advisers and be part of their personal staff,

Ø      Sabotaging all chances of SCs/STs from becoming Chair-Persons, Mayors, Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers,

Ø      Imposing crooks of the first order to oversee and control the thoughts, actions and works of the Dalits if by any chance ever elected to Offices of Power.

 

Social :

 

Ø      Segregation,

Ø      Sidelining,

Ø      Marginalisation,

Ø      Deprivals,

Ø      Denials,

Ø      Discriminations,

Ø      Humiliations,

Ø      Unapproachability,

Ø      Unaccessability,

Ø      Untouchability,

Ø      Unacceptability,

Ø      Curbing all forms of Social Interactions, silently to the maximum extent,

Ø      Practising Double Standards against the SCs&STs,

Ø      Denial of Education and Teaching, good Schooling, Science and other Good Streams of Education, Higher Education, Professional Education, Special Education, Post-Graduate Education, Super-Speciality Education, and all Education necessary for good well paid higher jobs,

Ø      Blocking of Temple Entry,

Ø      Not allowing entry into public places like hotels, restaurants, parks etc,

 

Well, Dalit Atrocities are the Realities of Indian Society.  They are Characteristic of India and the Indian Society.  That is true not only in India, but is universal amongst the Indian Society in any part of the World.  Dalit Atrocities are the effect of the Castes.  They are the direct result of the Caste System.  They are the cruellest forms of the Castes.  The effects of Dalit Atrocities are the clear visual indicators of the damages that Castes can cause, had caused and could have caused to the Indian Nation, Indian Society, Indian Economy, Indian History, Indian Culture, Indian Literature, Indian Arts, Indian Creativity, Indian Technology, Indian Science and Indian Capabilities.  That explains the stunted Development, dwarfing effect on Growth, and the stagnation of Indian mind.  This explains the lack of motivations, or innovations, or technological developments, or native architectural marvels within the Indian Shores.  This indicates as to why India is a Fossilised Society where nothing survives, everything degenerates and gets corrupted beyond hope and redemption.  This is the pointer why the Indian Civilisation had not grown after the coming of the Aryans.  This shows why and how the Indus Valley Civilisation and the builders of the Indus Valley People, their Creations, their Culture, Texts, Writings, History, Script and even Language vanished mysteriously and almost suddenly from this earth.

 

Dalit Atrocities, even today, almost 3500 years after the coming of the Aryans, indicate the continuing Racial Antagonism between the invading nomadic Aryan Tribes and the peacefully settled creative civilised People of the Indus Valley Civilisation.  They are a measure of the incompatibility of the Aryans to live in peace and harmony with anyone, who is not powerful rich wealthy and is not ruling or in control of the times, or the affairs of the State. 

 

We know the reasons, causes, types, effects, damages and on and on, of Dalit Atrocities.  The whole World knows that without rehabilitating or allowing the SC&ST Dalits to grow, develop, work and live in peace, India could never Develop.  And everyone knows that without stopping Atrocities on the SCs and STs, no Indian could ever claim to be a reasonable and sensible or decent human being; and the Indian Nation qualify to be considered as a modern, respectable, rational and Civilised Nation of the World.  Yet there are no hope or no indicators that the Indian Society and the dominant castes here could ever change, relent, relax or reduce their atrocities on the Dalits, or change their attitudes towards the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.  That is a big tragedy.  That it is so, even after fifty-four years Independence, in the third-millennium, is foxing the mind. 

 

The continuing, and in fact ever increasing numbers and cruelties of Atrocities against the SC&ST Dalits registered by the Police and reported by the Govts is mind boggling.  They are registered under the categories of Murder, Violence, Rape and Arson.  They are registered under two lesser known and generally neglected Central Acts – a) Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, and b) Atrocities against SCs&STs Prevention Act 1989.  There is no abatement of the atrocities.  If anything, the atrocities are becoming more sinister and cruel.  They are increasing, as the caste prejudices, biases, and the hatred and animosity against the SC&ST Dalits become strong.  While the atrocities are becoming crueller and show signs of long planning and organisation in the Rural Areas, they become discreet, sophisticated and incisive in the towns and cities, particularly in the Offices, Schools, Colleges, Universities and other Public and Govt Institutions.  As a result, the sheer numbers of even the small percentage of incidents of atrocities actually being registered are uncomparable with any casualties or any other tragedy in any part of the World ever. 

 

That these atrocities, their type, nature, cruelties, numbers and actual details of the atrocities reflect the Indian mind-set, however one may be learned, educated, otherwise claim to be advanced and grown or developed is unexplainable.  What is their mental make-up and psychological disposition to commit such base inhuman crimes on poor helpless developing people, even when they are grown up and had reached the top rungs of the society, bureaucracy, administration, political power and Govt, in a much more sophisticated concealed and discreet manner even in the high portals of the Country are not understandable, and could not now be explained.

 

Govt of India for International Reasons, and internal dynamics of Democracy, Electoral necessities and Constitutional Compulsions have taken up, often reluctantly many half-hearted remedial actions that fall far-short of the requirements, ground realities, complexities and the magnitudes of the actual problems.  The emphasis for correcting what is basically a deep-rooted historic multi-faceted socio-political economic cultural problem had by and large remained in the realm of legal measures, and some economic ameliorative steps taken from time to time in a disjointed manner.  There lie the failures of the Govts both at the Centre and the States during the last five and half decades.

 

The solution requires far larger social thinking and far reaching radical economic reforms, and or perhaps a major political upheaval.

 

Atrocities against the SC&ST Dalits

Are all brahmanic Caste Violations,

Committed blindly by lowly Shudras;

Financed by cunning Business Castes,

Enforced by most ruling kshatriyas,

Or with vengeance by the powerless

And sponsored silently by brahmins!

Cursing always only foolish Shudras

Will take us nowhere unless we hold

Squarely brahmins and their castes

Responsible for all these atrocities!

Make them pay full compensation!

 

 

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