16-11-2020 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk ASIA 16-11-2020 to 30-11-2020 9
A Dalit Woman
Derby People are deeply alarmed at
the news of a brutalgang rape and murder
of a 19-year-oldDalit woman in the
district of Hatras in Uttar Pradesh. The
alleged rape was carried out on 14
September 2020, by four upper-caste
men who then left her for dead, with a
cut to her tongue and injuries to her
neck and spine. She was found by her
relatives in the fields, they were working,
by her relatives who took her to
hospital and reported the incident to the
police. Due to lack of proper medical
care her health deteriorated for fourteen
days before was shifted to a hospital in
Delhi, where she died fifteen days after
her attack.
The police refused to register an FIR
to record the rape despite the girl's video
recorded statement that named the
rapist. The police arrested the accused
but only registered an FIR of attempted
murder, not rape. The UP administration
ordered the police to cremate the victim's
body which was donein the dead
of the night at 2.30am,without the consent
of her family, who were denied
even sight of the body, leave aside perform
the last rites. This unconstitutional
action of the police has raised serious
questions of tampering with the evidence
of rape and affording protection
to the upper caste perpetrators of the
crime. What is more alarming is that the
upper-caste local community has been
allowed to mobilisein defence of the
rapist and against the Dalit outrage.
One journalist (Caravan) has been
arrested for probing deeper into the incident
and charged under the Unlawful
Atrocities Prevention Act (UAPA) and
several more have also been locked-up
seriously. Atrocities against the Dalits
has been going on for centuries. Dalits
are mainly those who have been pushed
beneath the lowest category of the four
varnas system of castes specified and
practiced in the Hindu religion. Those
that fall below the four varna system
have historically been known as the
'untouchable' in India. Today they are
known as Dalits, a collective term given
to people historically coming from a
whole range of low-castes and
oppressed sections of society.
There has always been continued
oppression of the Dalit communities in
India. The Dalits have from time to time
put up brave resistance against this
City of Derby (UK) Against
Caste Atrocities in India
oppression. The recent years of Dalit
assertion for their democratic and constitutional
rights has seen increased
retaliation from the Hindutva forces
backed by the current PMModi's BJP
led government. It is a well-known fact
that the present Modi government is
engaged in the Hindutva project of
replacing the existing secular
Constitution of India, accredited to its
chief architect Dr B R Ambedkar, with
an alternative Manu based rules and
regulations. The idea of India based on
socialist, secular, democratic republic is
to be thrown out by the existing Indian
government and replaced by a monolithic
religious state that imposes
Hindutva rule.
Dalit resistance to the Hindutva project
has been going on for many years. In
Maharashtra, Dalits have always celebrated
the incident that took place in 1
Jan 1818 - Bhima Koregaon, near Pune.
This incident remembers the few hundred
low caste Maratha solders who,
enlisted in the East India Company,
fought and defeated tens of thousands
strong Peshwa's casteist rule. In
2018very many Dalit organisations,
academics, students and social activists
decided to make a big celebration to
mark the 200th anniversary of Bhima
Koregaon victory - a tradition that has
been going on for years. This event led
by two retired judges,was planned to be
a big event. One totwo lakhswere
expected to gather for the bicentenary.
Very many well-known public speakers,
poets and dramatist were expected to
appear throughout the two tothree-day
event. Messages of solidarity, standing
firm against the Dalit oppression, in
peaceful manner were to be delivered.
The actual day of the celebration 1
Jan 2018 saw riots in and around Bhima
Koregaon. These riots saw destruction
of property and one person die as a
result. The common cry amongst the
Dalits was that local Hindutva leaders,
Milland Ekbote and SambhajiBhide, had
generated the anti-Dalit hysteria and
organised the violence. The states
response was to arrest Ekbote and
release him on bail butBhide remains
absconding to this day.In contrast, very
many writers, poets, drama artists, members
of Kabir Kala Manch, who took
part in the Bhima Koregaon celebrations
were picked-up by the police and have
been in prison since January 2018. Since
then there has been an unprecedent State
conspiracy to shut-up all voices ofdecent
against the Government.
The action of the Dalits to assert their
democratic rights seems to have frightened
the Indian State to such an extent
that it has developedafascistic desire to
lock-up anyone who speaks against the
Government.This has resulted in rounding
up of lawyers, academics, artist,
poets and social activists. On 8 June
2018 the India State arrested five people,
Surendra Gadling (lawyer), Sudhir
Dhawale (Dalit activist), Rona Wilson
(political prisoner activist), Shoma Sen
(professor), Maheshi Raut (Adivasi
activist). The State invented the 'Urban
Naxal' tag, applied it to these five people,
falsely accused them of instigating
the Bhima-Koregaon violence and
slapped the ridiculous charge of planning
to kill PM Modi. These arrests
were later extended to Vara Vara Rao
(poet, activist), Sudha Bharadwaj
(lawyer), Arun Ferreira (lawyer),
Vernon Gonsalves (writer, Dalit &
Adivasi activist), Guatam Navlakha
(journalist, human rights activist) and
Anand Teltumbde (professor in management/technology)
who isthe grandson
in-law of Dr BR Ambedkar.
The Bhima Koregaon 16
In the last few months, the National
Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested
Hani Babu (DU prof, Dalit activist),
Sagar Gorkhe member of cultural group
Kabbir Kala Manch, Christian activist
Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap. The
latest insane arrest is of an ailing 83-
year-old Farther Stan Swamy who has
worked all his life for the betterment of
the oppressed Tribal and Dalit people.
Using fabricated evidence, all sixteen
arrested have been falsely accused of
keeping links with the banned Maoist
Party, planning the Bhima Koregaon
violence, plotting to assassinate PM
Modi and overthrow the Indian
Government. They are being held under
the most draconian UAPA law and could
remain in prison for many years without
trial, without justice, as is often the case
in India. There is the case ofProfessor G
N Saibaba who has tirelessly worked to
expose the unjust displacement of
Adivasi in the jungles of India to make
way for the mining corporations to loot
the land. He was arrested on May 9, on
charges of having Maoist links. Prof
Saibaba who is 90% physically handicapped
and has been wheelchair bound
all his adult life. He has been kept in
solitary confinement, in 'anda cell' since
his conviction on March 2017.
Prof G N Saibaba
The arrests of above mentioned
human and democratic rights activists
have come to the lime light because of
theirhigh professional and social standing
in society. There are however thousands
of other activists facing similar,
unjustified, imprisonment who are less
well known. Their real 'crime' is exposing
the injustices happening to the
Dalits, Adivasi, Minorities, Women and
LGBTs in India's feudal setup, sponsored
by the multinational corporations.
The BJP led Indian Government is
responding by circumventing all norms
of democratic procedures and crushing
all forms of decent using the most draconian
measures. The Indian authorities
do not want the voices of justice to be
heard, particularly outside India. This
month the Indian Government has taken
reprehensible steps to freeze the bank
accounts of Amnesty International -
Indian office, thus effectively shutting
down their operations.
Since the horrific gang rape of the
Dalit woman in Hatras, many more such
brutalities have been reported in Utter
Pradesh, Bihar, etc. The most recent one
occurred in Delhi on October 4, where a
17-year-old Dalit girl was thought to
have been raped and then hanged in the
house where she was adomestic labourer.
The Delhi police called it suicide,
ignored the cries of rape and moved
quickly to cremate the girl's body. To
destroyevidence of rape, one may wonder.
The parent's cry of foul play has
beenmet with police beatings, threats
and deafening silence from the media.
Derby Against Caste Atrocities in
India demands:
- Rapist Murderers are quickly
brought to justice
- Police who burnt the victim's body
are charged for violating the law
- End to Caste Atrocities
- Release All Political Prisoners
- Repeal UAPA
Supported by:
Guru Ravidas Sabha Derby;
Indian Scheduled Caste
Welfare Assoc.;
Indian Workers
Association Derby