In another time, another place, Sai Ram might have escaped serious harm, but he died in great pain last week, a casualty of a bitter, barely reported conflict that still claims many lives every year.
Ram, 15, was a goatherd in the poor eastern Indian state of Bihar. He was a Dalit, the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy that still defines the lives, and sometimes the deaths, of millions of people in India.
His alleged killer, currently being held by police, is from a landowning caste. He took offense when one of the teenager’s goats strayed onto his paddy field and grazed on his crops. Ram was overpowered by the landowner and other men. He was badly beaten.
Then gasoline was poured over him and lit, said Ram’s father, Jiut Ram.
“He was crying for help, then went silent,” the 50-year-old laborer told reporters.
The incident took place at Mohanpur village, about 200km southwest of Bihar’s capital, Patna, in an area known for caste tensions. It was the latest in a series of violent incidents that have once again highlighted the problems and discrimination linked to caste, particularly in lawless and impoverished rural areas.
Earlier this month, five Dalit women were allegedly gang raped by upper-caste men in Bihar’s Bhojpur district. Last month, hundreds of Dalit families were forced from their homes in two other districts of Bihar after a man from the community tried to contest a local election against higher-caste candidates.
Several political, social and economic factors usually lie behind such upsurges in caste violence. One reason for Bihar’s recent incidents may be the appointment in May of Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Dalit.
Since taking power Manjhi has announced measures to help Dalits in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, and is reported to have urged the community to have more children to become a more powerful political force.
Dalits account for about 15 percent of Bihar’s population of 103.8 million.
The chief minister’s call was not well-received by other castes, observers said. Sachindra Narayan, a Patna-based social scientist with the National Human Rights Commission, said: “The prime reason [for the violence] is that [Dalits] feel empowered after seeing someone from their community at the head of the state and have begun to assert their rights. This is purely a retaliation from the dominant social groups.”
Manjhi said a temple in northern Bihar was ritually cleaned and idols washed with holy water after his visit to the shrine. Such ceremonies are still performed by upper castes to eradicate “pollution” left by lower-caste visitors.
In the vast neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, caste is also a major issue, with power contested by two parties that broadly represent two different castes: Mayawati explicitly campaigns for Dalits, while the ruling Samajwadi party is seen by many as representing the Yadav community, once pastoralists.
Caste became a factor in recent national elections too. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes from a poor family from the lower-caste Ghanchi community. His rise from humble origins to prime minister has inspired many — but also provoked scorn from elite politicians.
The origins of caste are contested. Some point to ancient religious texts, others to rigid classifications by British imperial administrators. The word “caste” is of Portuguese origin.
Regardless of its origins, the word still stirs controversy. Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author, recently accused former Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi of discrimination and called for institutions bearing his name to be renamed because of his attitude to caste.
Sociologists say the rapid urbanization of India has weakened the caste system as the realities of living in overcrowded Indian cities make reinforcing social separation and discrimination through rituals much harder.
In October last year, a roadside bomb killed Sunil Pandey, a landowner alleged to be a senior figure in a militia formed to enforce the interests of higher castes, but which has been dormant recently.
The Ranvir Sena militia, formed by the Bhumihar caste of landlords, is held responsible for a series of massacres of Dalits in the 1990s. These murders, in effect reprisals against Maoist guerrillas, who have also killed many, reached a bloody climax with the deaths of 58 villagers of Lakshman Bathe in 1998. Ranvir Sena and Pandey were blamed.
Last year 24 men had their convictions for that massacre overturned by Bihar’s high court, prompting renewed clashes.
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