When Caste Kills

Khairlanji indicts the institutions responsible for the wretched condition of dalits, writes VIVEK KUMAR

KHAIRLANJI IS about the paradox which Indian society faces of existing inequality and emerging equality through constitutional laws. It is a story of existing poverty and emerging prosperity; the saga of pain, agony, exclusion, cumulative deprivation and discrimination of 170 million people of ‘shining India’, collectively called dalits. Manifestly and latently, it tries to indict the social groups and institutions responsible for the wretched condition of dalits. The book is divided into eight chapters along with an introduction, which contextualises the issue of caste-based atrocities.

Teltumbde questions the sanctity and effectiveness of different institutions of Indian society. He has tried to deconstruct the myth built around the two most ancient and traditional institutions — caste and village. Teltumbde observes and professes that caste is alive and kicking not only in rural India, but in urban India as well, in spite of modernisation. The book breaks the illusion about the Indian villages celebrated as ‘republics’ by Charles Metcalf and Gandhi’s dream of bringing ‘Gram Swaraj,’ by portraying how exploitative these villages are.

Khairlanji takes a dig at the Indian state, Judiciary, and Media also. It argues that State intervention does not protect dalits from the perpetrators of atrocities, rather, the state emboldens them. In the same vein, he argues that there is no presence of dalits in the fourth estate — the media, which has negligible understanding or empathy for the dalit cause. He opines that, “The media sexualises violence…without critiquing the power relationship in such violence against [dalit] women, the media often reinforces unequal aggressor-victim relationship”. He also laments that even the judiciary becomes an upholder of the caste system.

The net result of these prejudiced institutions is that the inequality and exclusion of the dalits goes on unabated. Teltumbde tellingly portrays that the life of 170 million dalits has become miserable. Every 18 minutes a crime is committed against dalits, every day eleven dalits are physically assaulted, three dalit women are raped, two dalits are murdered, and two dalit houses are burnt.

HOWEVER, Khairlanji suffers from some limitations. First, it tries to address too many issues without substantiation, which diverts the focus of the book. The issues of naxalism and dalit-adiwasi fall in this category. Secondly, the author has not evolved any typology to study the nature of atrocities committed by non-dalits on dalits. He has mixed the atrocities committed by non-dalits on dalits because of a traditional Hindu social structure laid down by sacred texts like Manu Smriti with the same atrocities in the secular realm because of assertion of dalits. One could probe: is there an intrinsic relationship between dalit assertion and the atrocities inflicted on them? Thirdly, he treats shudra castes perpetrating atrocities on dalits as a monolithic whole, which is misleading. Every State has a few mobile shudra castes who are directly involved in dalit conflicts. The rest of the shudra castes are akin to dalits in their social and economic position. Fourthly, we have to understand the social stratification system of each region if we really want to compare the situation of dalits

Last, but not the least, the endorsement of the book by Arundhati Roy trivialises the sensitive issue — you need a celebrity to sell the sufferings of the suppressed. Not withstanding the limitations of the book, it is a substantive addition to the literature on dalits by an insider.

(Dr Vivek Kumar is Associate Professor at the School of Social Sciences, JNU)