By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
(Asian independent) The murder of Jagadish Chandra, a political activist from Uttarakhand due to his marriage to a Savarna caste Rajput girl is simply outrageous and crime against humanity. The state of Uttarakhand might not have much crime record but the caste discrimination and untouchability is still prevalent in the state and Dalits live a life under deep pressure as they are truly a minority in the state of Uttarakhand.
Dalit issues never become mainstream in the state and even the political parties desist from raising the issues. Social movements in Uttarakhand often keep the issue aside and would speak in a sweeping generalization way as if the mountains dont have a caste system or untouchability. You dont need to go to far, just visit about 30-40 kilometers from the state capital Dehradun to Jaunsar region which is actually ‘termed’ as Scheduled area for ‘tribes’ and you will find how caste discrimination is so powerful that Dalits are not even allowed to pray at the temples. There is so much resistance against Dalits entering into the temple that it would shame any one.
Almora district is one of the most powerful districts of Uttarakhand where various social movements emerged. The Dalit movement too emerged here under the stewardship of Munshi Hari Prasad Tamta who supported Baba Saheb in the round table conference but the brahmanical mainstream of Uttarakhand rarely speak about Tamta.
The Brahmin-Thakur binary of Uttarakhand ignores the rights of Dalits as an independent and autonomous community who can take their own decision and participation of Dalits-adivasis in the political, social and cultural life. Even the issue of reservation is highly sensitive in Uttarakhand and we have seen how the movement for separate states got momentum after the Mandal report was accepted to be implemented in Uttarakhand.
However, I would like to say here that this is not an incident confine to Uttarakhand and neither is the state different in terms of caste discrimination from rest of the country. The dirty fact is that India is united from Kerala to Jammu Kashmir, from Uttar Pradesh to Manipur, Megahalaya, Jharkhand to Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra, Tamilnadu, Panjab, Rajasthan or Uttarakhand or Himachal Pradesh.. There is one unanimity in India that we all suffer from caste prejudices and common cultural hatred towards the Dalits and Adivasis. We have recently seen how a Jharkhand Adivasi woman was tortured by a brahmanical elite of the state. Cases of violence against Dalits are happening everywhere but in most of the state they are open but in the state like Uttarakhand they are shuttle while the intellectual elite would suggest as if they are living in an alien world where caste discrimination does not happen and everybody live in great harmony.
Uttarakhand government must take strict action against the thugs and goons for killing Jagadish Chandra. All those friends who feel that a community or state should not be targeted should first learn to condemn it and campaign among the so-called ‘powerful’ communities to learn to respect and honor the decision of their youngsters.
Irony is that the girl who fell in love with Jagdish was living with her step father and her step brothers who never treated her with respect and probably treated her like a domestic servant. How powerful is the jaati concept that the girl who you dont want to treat better faces the resistance if she takes an independent decision about her life.
Almora Police must respond as to why it did not act when the girl complained that her life and that of Jagadish was in danger ? Chief Minister Dhami would do well to focus on such crime and order the police to act decisively. Will the people come up in the street for the honor and life for the girl who lost her husband ? Will the women of Uttarakhand rise up against this shameless and barbaric killing of a man named Jagdish just because he married the woman he loved ? This is caste hatred and we must condemn it and call for its total annihilations. All talk of a state as #devbhumi are bogus unless we clean our heart and embrace everyone without keeping in the prejudices based on caste and religion. Uttarakhand should not allow such caste violence to happen if it wish to be called a civilised state.
