equal by law, unequal by caste - International Dalit Solidarity Network

306 Wisconsin International Law Journalunderreporting and to the staggering acquittal rates associated with thesecrimes. Despite these obstacles, fifty-seven atrocities cases are officiallyregistered in police stations across the country every day. 286Violence is a principal weapon in sustaining economic and castebaseddiscrimination against Dalits. Dalits’ attempts to enforce theirrights, alter village customs, defy the social order, or to demand land,increased wages, or political rights often lead to violence and economicretaliation on the part of those most threatened by changes in the statusquo. 287 Dalit communities as a whole are summarily punished forindividual transgressions; Dalits are cut off from community land andemployment during social boycotts, women bear the brunt of physicalattacks, and the letter of the law is rarely enforced. 288Over the course of just one week in September 2007, a numberof atrocities made the headlines. On September 20, it was reported that aDalit man, a sixty-year-old landless laborer, was beaten to death bylandowners in the eastern state of Bihar over a “land-related dispute.” 289Two days later in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit woman,whose son was accused of eloping with an “upper-caste” girl, was set onfire and killed. 290 The following day it was reported that police had failedto register a First Information Report (“FIR”) against suspects in the caseof a Dalit boy who was forced to set himself ablaze in the northern stateof Punjab. 291 On September 26, newspapers reported that in the centralstate of Madhya Pradesh, a Dalit laborer was reportedly tied to a tractor286 CRIME IN INDIA, supra note 285.287 The following headlines are commonplace in Indian newspapers and speak to the retaliatorynature of violence against Dalits: Dalit Leader Abused for Daring to Sit on a Chair, INDO-ASIANNEWS SERVICE, July 10, 2006; Dalit Lynched while Gathering Grain, INDIAN EXPRESS, Apr. 25,2006, http://www.indianexpress.com/story/3152.html (last visited Aug. 15, 2008); Dalit Beatenfor Entering Temple, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, Feb. 22, 2006; UP Dalit Girl Resists Rape,Loses Arm as a Result, HINDUSTAN TIMES, Feb. 13, 2006; Dalit Tries to Fetch Water Beaten toDeath, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, Feb. 4, 2006.288 See also TELTUMBDE, supra note 152, at 14-15 (arguing that atrocities occur as a means ofmaintaining the subjugation and dependency of Dalits towards higher castes, and as a way ofstifling any uprising that seeks to alter the inherently feudal relationship).289 Dalit Man Beaten to Death in Bihar, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, Sept. 20, 2007.290 Caste War: Dalit Woman Burnt Alive, NDTV.COM, Sept. 22, 2007,http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070026983&ch=9/22/2007%2010:35:00%20PM (last visited Aug. 16, 2008). Earlier in the month it was reported that a 55-year-old Dalit woman was “tortured, stripped and tied to a tree in Ram Duali village of Punjabbecause her nephew eloped with a girl from the same community.” Dalit Woman Tied Naked toTree, TIMES OF INDIA, Sept. 10, 2007, available at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2353945.cms (last visited Aug. 16, 2008).291 Bipin Bhardwaj, No FIR in Dalit Immolation Case, THE TRIBUNE, Sept. 23, 2007, available athttp://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070924/punjab1.htm#9 (last visited Aug. 16, 2008).