"We heard
their howls of agony, but simply could not find the courage to come out."
-Naimuddin
Ansari (prime witness)
Living in the so called world's "largest
democracy”, when incidents such as the Bathani Tola carnage surface, these
strip away the mask of the democracy and social justice off the state. Perhaps
this is not rare, we can count on incidents such as Chundur massacre,
Neerukkonda massacre, Laxmanpur Bathe, Cuddalore, Melavalavu, Muthanga, Kherlanji,
Mirchpur and many many more.
Recently Patna high court acquitted 23 persons, convicted
of the carnage, citing "defective evidence". Things went on like this,
on a july afternoon in 1996 Ranvir Sena carried out the brutal killings of
dalits in Bathani Tola( Bhojpur, Bihar) claiming the lives of 21 people
including women, children and infants. The FIR was filed against 33 persons the
next day. The Ara sessions court convicted 23 of them sentencing 3 persons to
death and life imprisonment to other 20. But as case moved to Patna High court
, these butchers are free. Perhaps the judiciary has really gone blind.
Persons like Brahmeshwar Singh( chief of the Sena) who
were engaged in other cases of such attacks now roam freely and sense of
insecurity prevails in the dalit community of the area.
The "honest" chief minister Nitish Kumar has
kept his silence. And in the words of Mr. Kishan Choudhary( survival of the
carnage and prime witness)," the govt. has sold out to the rich and
influential..".
The Bathani people have lost confidence in the govt.
and judiciary and now look upon people’s organisations for next course of action.
The so called "civil society" is also not responding to this.
QUESTION OF CASTE AND CASTE
BASED VIOLENCE:
“This condition
obtains even where there is no slavery in the legal sense. It is found where as
in caste system, some persons are forced to carry on the prescribed callings
which are not their choice”- Ambedkar
From many centuries, this system of exploitation has
existed in our society. It was maintained throughout pre-medieval Hindu
kingdoms and not only preserved consciously but systematically perpetuated in Sultanate
and Mughal Period and again upheld by the Britishers. The reason for this
clever preservation throughout medieval ages is that caste is nothing but consequence
of exploitative master-servant relation in agrarian economy.
Considering the causes why it has been preserved, it
seems to be the best method to deprive the majority of population, of the
property rights and extract maximum surplus out of cheap labour which is a
barbaric feudal tendency. To maintain their dominance, the upper class uses
this system to the fullest and manifests the discrimination through various
forms such as denial of basic rights of freedom, untouchability, segregation
from society, no right to own property and so on. They are forced to live in
misery and made to believe that they are made for this only, through the
concepts of religion, karma theory etc.
As majority of the dalit section is landless and
rarely has any means of production/subsistence, they have to depend on the rich
landlords to survive, who exploit them according to their own will.
There are many examples to site that whenever the
dalit section has demanded its rights and even minimum wages for living, how badly
they have been treated- sometimes in the form of social boycotts and sometimes
violent killings. Due to the people uprisings the landlord class direly
resorted to violent means. There are many armed groups which have been formed
by the landlord class to take care of such things and to carry out these types
of anti-social activities. Ranvir Sena is one of such caste armies. It is an
upper class landlord militia of Bhumihars and Rajputs mainly based in Bihar,
recognized as a terrorist group by govt. of India and have accomplished many
mass killings frequently like in 1995-Bihar elections, July 1996-Bathani Tola,
March 1997-Habispur, December 1997-Laxmanpur Bathe, January 1999-Shankarbhiga,
February 1999-Narayanpur and many more…
Even Police Administration has helped the sena in
their actions like in April 1997 at Ekwari village, policemen opened the doors
of houses of dalits so that sena men could enter and kill them.
The Ranvir Sena is funded and maintained by the rich
landlords and politicians. The Bhumihars forms majority of sena. The Bhumihars
are powerful caste which not only owns land but also control politics of the
area. In 1998 Lok Sabha elections, Chandra Dev Verma (Janta Dal) put to
legalise the Sena on his election campaign.
The Sena men and sympathisers proudly accept their
deeds and shamelessly justify their actions saying, “The land is ours. The
crops belong to us. Labourers didn’t want to work…….So they had it coming.” They
openly say that they kill children so that they can’t rise for revenge in
future and women so that they couldn’t give birth to rebels. In this way fear
in incorporated in the minds of people and they don’t dare to stand. The
democracy has been vulgarised and basic human rights to freedom and survive
have been taken away by these organised goons and as they have political
influence they are rarely brought to justice.
Judiciary: a watch in the pocket
of upper class
Even the lower judiciary seems to be tilted towards
the interests the upper class. If we see the cases of the Godhra genocide, the
1984 genocide and massacre of common masses in Punjab in late 80s and now the
recent acquittal of the convicts of the Bathani Tola carnage, the persons
responsible are roaming freely and have acquired high positions in legislation
and administration. And if we see the cases of Tribal cultural activist Jiten Marandi
and Human Rights activist Binayak Sen, which supported the cause of the
oppressed classes, the action of the courts were quick and anti-social.
Sitting here in the university we may sometimes feel
that the caste system now is an old story, and today who works hard can get a
better life. But as we enter professional lives, the caste system starts
showing its colour. We are not unaware of the fact that whenever there is a case
of inter-caste marriages, how the couple is dealt with. The caste system is too much deep-rooted in
our society and manifests itself even in higher educational institutes.
Students sometimes like to keep their identity secret otherwise they are
treated differently even in classrooms. This bad treatment sometimes leads to
suicides. “Since 2007, 18 dalit students
in top institutes like IIT and AIIMS have killed themselves.”- Insight
Foundation
In order to tackle this problem, we should understand the material reality and sought solution not in
human psychology but in material facts of production. The irregular
distribution of land and resources is prevailing in our society, which leads to
social inequality and other problems. Caste is enduring itself in order
only to maintain the generation old unequal property rights and inhuman
relations of master and servant in the process of production in an agrarian
economy.
·
So there is a strong need for radical land reforms to
shatter away the base of this institution of caste. The communities and forces
which are ensuring its survival must be seriously challenged.
·
Uncompromising ideological and cultural struggle has
to be waged against the most inhuman, unscientific traditions and customs
ensuring the survival of caste system. Besides moral and fiscal support must be
given to those communities and classes which are suffering the atrocities for
being of “low” caste.
APPEAL
We appeal the masses and progressive sections
of the society to come forward to fight against such inhuman practices and
raise ideological and cultural struggle against the unscientific, inhuman
traditions ensuring the survival of the caste system. We demand justice for the
victims of the Bathani Tola carnage. Security
must be provided to the dalits of that area. Culprits should be punished. The
govt. should take action against Ranvir Sena and other such private militias
which are anti-democratic and anti-people.