By Madalyn Bakhman
As the world entered a state of devastation post the 1900s, the effort to establish and safeguard human rights rose. Many began to protest the inequalities and environmental damage that globalization had created and/or reinforced. In India, the 1949 Constitution outlawed discrimination against the class Dalits. Known as untouchables in the Indian caste system, many believed that even coming into contact with a Dalit required the person touched to undergo a cleansing ritual.
Often, Dalit were subjected to tasks and positions that were viewed as unclean or unsanitary, such as removing dead carcass from roads or animal slaughter. Many remain unaware of the violence and discrimination the Dalit continue to face in the 21st century.
On June 1st 2020, Vikas Jatav, a seventeen-year-old Dalit boy, went to visit his local Shiva temple with the intention to pray and as a result, several upper caste youth raised objections at his desire to enter. Vikas continued to ignore them, and a fight ensued which left Vikas beaten up. The police were informed of the fight, but Niraj Kumar, the in-charge of the local station, stated that the investigation didn’t suggest the fight was correlated with the temple or his Dalit status. On a Saturday, four people by the names of Lala Chauhan, Horam Chauhan, Jasveer, and Bhushan, came to Vikas’ house at night, shot him, then ran away.
Twenty-year-old Viraj Jagtap, died on his way to the hospital after being run over by a speeding tempo and beaten with iron rods and stones. On the night of June 7th, Viraj came to the residence of his girlfriend's family, being upper caste, who did not approve of their relationship. The girl’s father shouted at Viraj, "How did you dare to have a relationship with my daughter. You belong to mahar maang community, you don't have the standard or class to have an affair with my daughter.” Haresh Kumar Solanki, a 25-year-old Dalit man, was similarly hacked to death on July 8 by his upper-caste in-laws.
On October 15th, 2020, an 8-month old pregnant Dalit women by the name of Savitri was collecting garbage from her assigned five uppercaste houses. At one of the homes, she tripped and lost her balance due to a rickshaw that caused her to fall on a bucket. Kusuma, a neighbor of Anju whom the bucket belonged to, reported seeing Anju kick Savitri in the stomach and repeatedly bang her head into a wall. Anju’s son proceeded to beat Savitri with sticks. Six days later, Savitri and her unborn child were pronounced dead due to an antemortem head injury. Savirti’s husband brought her to the hospital but there were no visible external injuries, so she was released.
The Hindu Caste System
The origins of Hinduism dates back at least 3,500 years to the Aryans from north of the Himalaya Mountains as they migrated to present-day Pakistan and India. With them, they brought the Vedas--scriptures and religious texts of Hindu teachings. The Vedas teaches that one’s jiva (translating to “an individual soul”) is reincarnated many times (a process called samsara). A jiva’s next reincarnation depends on the actions of the previous life (karma). Otherwise an endless cycle of death and rebirth, successfully escaping samsara can be done by achieving moksha or “liberation” -- one of the four and the last goal of a Hindu life. The Vedas also taught that society is to be organized into distinct and defined classes. Thus, the Four Varna System came about which was meant to encourage the spiritual and social growth of the people.
The system organizes as follows: the Brahmins, those who study the Vedas and perform rites and rituals, the priestly class; Khsatriyas, those who are commanded to protect the people, the warrior class; Vaisyas, the merchant and the peasant class; Shudras, those who would serve the other three castes above, the labor class; and finally, the Chandalas, known as the “untouchables” whose own shadows were considered to be impure.
Scholars believe the early-Vedic people had a flexible and socially mobile society, evident in the Rigveda (the first book of the Vedas) because there is no mention of a caste system except within the Purusha Sukta, which is considered to be of the later Vedic period. Scholars presume that the caste system became rigid by the work of the upper castes who found it in their favor to preserve their economic and political status by setting clear social distinctions. The concept of staying away from the unclean stems from the attempt to remain physically and mentally pure. While it isn’t abnormal in any given present society to stay away from those who you find unfamiliar or recognize the differences amongst man, the system implemented inequalities based on birth and family lineage. It favored a small population at the expense of a mass majority, denying that majority the chance to pursue their own personal aspirations.
How Coronavirus Has Disproportionately Affected the Dalit
Dalit remains to be the most underpriveleged class marked with the stigma of “untouchable.” Caste discrimination is becoming further reinforced with the outbreak of Covid-19, and the Dalit are one of the most vulnerable communities with less access to health services.
Kalpana Nagari says, “During every meal, I worry about where the next one will come from, and I feel faint. The landlords did not give me any work in the rice fields because they said ‘your husband has corona, you might also be infected.’” Dipak Auji, 22, is the middle child of Kalawati Auji and whose money allowed Kalawati to pay for food and medicine for their family. When Dipak returned to Nepal after losing his job, he tested positive for Covid-19 and was quarantined. During his 36-day quarantine, he was subjected to prejudice for not only being infected but also for being Dalit.
Being that Dalit workers are the essential workers of India, one would expect them to receive the proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), however, Vanita Bhaskar Salvi speaks out. A sanitation worker in a hospital, she says she is only given a single cloth mask. “We are lesser humans. We clean and wash the entire ward. When patients soil their clothes, we clean them up… And now we are further at risk of disease as we have no protective gear when we touch and clean all the waste.” Harish B K was subjected to quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19. He recounts how “[t]he non-Dalits in the quarantine used to get hot water, lunch, and more food than us. If we asked for more food, they would ignore us.” Harish was one of the two Dalit's who tested positive.
The ostracization against Dalit is not reported by mainstream media, leaving the rest of the world believing casteism no longer exists in India; however, it remains prevalent.
Covid-19 may not see race or caste, but society definitely does.
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