http://ibnlive.
Caste in blood: Hisar can't give up prejudice
Jyoti Kamal, CNN-IBNPosted on Apr 25, 2010 at 16:04 | Updated Apr 25,
2010 at 16:21
Hisar: An argument over a barking dog in the street led to one of the
most violent clash that Haryana has seen this year. But was it just a
village fight going horribly wrong or was it a clash between upper
castes and lower castes in Hisar's Mirchpur village?
On April 21, 15 houses belonging to the village's Dalits were set on
fire by the upper caste Jats. The incident of violence witnessed a
physically challenged girl and her 70 year-old-father being burnt
alive.
"My daughter pleaded that she cannot run. But she was burnt," recounts
Kamala Devi, the mother of the dead girl.
It is now being said that it an argument over a dog that started it
all. However, in a world far removed from urban dwellings, where caste
divisions run deep, a street fight can take an entirely different
dimension. Obviously, there are different sides to this story.
Chander Singh, a Dalit villager says it was a fight among youngsters
over a dog.
"Then two representatives from our side went over to say that there
should be no fighting and things should be cooled down, but they were
also beaten up," claims Singh.
The Dalits say the upper caste feel threatened by the changing status
quo as Dalits get educated and financial muscle. The Dalits accuse the
administration of also favouring the upper caste. They allege the
police did nothing when their houses were torched.
"The police SHO is related to the Jats. He did not take any action. He
was standing there with the Jats and drinking water with them,"
alleges Ajay Kumar, another Dalit villager.
The upper castes on the other hand hold the Dalits responsible for
aggravating the incident.
Some Jat youth were returning from the fields when a dog started going
for their legs. One of the youth took off his shoe to fling at the dog
but it hit a Dalit boy sitting nearby. That Dalit youth got up and
caught the Jat youth by the neck and slapped him which led to the
clash," Raghbir Singh, a Jat elder.
The government is meanwhile trying to pass it off as a one off incident.
This is something this is a sporadic type of incident. It just got
flared up and went on spreading," says OP Sheoran, Deputy Commissioner
of Hisar.
Perhaps the clash that Mirchpur has witnessed is the friction of
change. When centuries old traditions get overlaid on a village fight,
it assumes an entirely new dimension and those are the dimensions that
modern Haryana has to manage and cope with.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD?
Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to ZESTMedia-digest@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/
PARTICIPATE:-
On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com
TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:-
If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to ZESTCaste-subscribe@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/
Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/
No comments:
Post a Comment