Killing for land

It is beyond belief. Four members of the Bhotmange’s family were butchered to death by the upper caste villagers of Khairlanji, a village in Maharashtra state, India. The community wanted to grab this Dalit family’s land – two 2 acres of land had already been taken in the name of common passage; and the upper caste villagers were pressurizing the family to give up their remaining 3 acres as well. The Bhotmanges family of Khairlanji was a Buddhist Dalit family, and they were trying to live with dignity and resisted all attempts to deprive them of their property. It seems that the immediate provocation for the killings was that Surekha and Priyanka had testified against 15 of the upper caste people beating up of one Siddharth Gajbhiye (also a Dalit) earlier that month.

This could not be allowed.

Surekha (44 years), her daughter Priyanka 18 years, sons Rakesh 23 years and Sudhir, 29 years were first pulled out from their hut and stripped naked. According to Sujata and Chhaya Khobargade who investigated, ‘these women were stripped naked by the uppercaste women’. Surekha’s sons were also stripped and asked to rape their mother and sister. When they refused to follow, they were hacked to death. One of the sons named Sudhir was a physically challenged person. Later, the mother and daughters were raped and killed. Their bodies were found next day, naked.

Complaints were lodged with the police and yet no action was taken. The Dalits waited for many days patiently – neither the government officials nor the media visited them. The state government which did not take prompt action against the accused acted quickly to arrest those who were protesting its inaction. At the India Social Forum 2006, New Delhi, Dalit organizations led by National Conference of Dalit Organisations, NACDOR, held a big demonstration at the Jantar Mantar where a large number of human rights and Dalit activists demanded immediate punishment for those responsible for this heinous crime against humanity. “If the Maharastra government does not take action against the culprits, the situation would go out of hand,” social activists warned. And it did.

Dalit reaction

After a month-and-a-half, the patience of the Dalits boiled over. Kamptee, a predominantly Dalit area near Nagpur city saw violence as a mob of Dalits pelted stones, damaged vehicles and set a few of them ablaze to protest the killings and the police inaction. Five police officers and 12 policemen were injured and curfew had to be clamped. About 10,000 Dalits marched in the city of Amaravati, protesting violently the killings and the government inaction. As the violence by the Dalits spread, the media finally came to report and the government started taking action: the Home Minister R R Patil ordered a Crime Investigation Department inquiry into the Kamptee/Nagpur incidents but not what happened at Bhandara’s Kharilanji village. The issue is now being side tracked as the government wants to know how much of the violence by Dalits was prompted by Maoists.

Dalit revolt?

Embracing Buddism is itself a revolt against the dominant caste culture of India. It is a revolt and a revolution. But the Dalit community is ill served by its leadership which is easily bought out by the dominant castes. When people do not have a lawful avenue for growth or for redress of grievances, their reactions can be unpredictable.

Akka Yadav’s case in Nagpur is an example. Yadav was a local goon who sexually harassed women, specially Dalit women. With his connections in the police and in society he always got away. During the Nagpur violence the Dalit crowd attacked Yadav and his friend and killed them on the spot.

Recently a statue of Dr. Ambedkar was damaged by miscreants in North India. In protest, the Dalits of Ulhasnagar near Mumbai set on fire the prestigious Deccan Queen train. The railways incurred a huge loss of 70 million Indian Rupees.

They are growing restless. They need justice. And as a wounded community they do not need any provocations now. But the Maharastra government has not learnt any lessons and pays no heed to this wake up call. The price of this failure could prove to be one which India cannot afford to pay.

V.B. Rawat