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Guruammal, 26, was a member of India's despised Dalits (formerly known as untouchables). As such, she possessed fewer rights than almost anyone on earth. Working the fields, she earned the equivalent of 44 cents a day. But Guruammal and her husband were glad for the work. She was four months pregnant, and the family would need every bit they could scrape together.
Dalit Freedom—Now and Forever
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One day in December, the police raided her village. The superintendent called Guruammal a pallachi, a caste name for a prostitute, and unzipped his pants in a sign of utter disrespect. Later that morning, Guruammal complained to another official about the superintendent.
The next morning, the police were back, and they were looking for revenge. Guruammal's husband hid under the bed. The police broke down all the doors of the villagers' homes and arrested 53 men, but the superintendent was looking for Guruammal. Finding her in her nightclothes, the police called her a pallachi again and began beating her. The superintendent dragged her, naked, for 100 feet. A 60-year-old neighbor woman asked the officers to stop, and the police beat her, too, fracturing her hands. One of the village men gave Guruammal his wrap so she could cover up.
At the jail, Guruammal asked the officers for help, saying she was pregnant. They simply mocked her for the previous day's boldness and locked her up. After 10 days, she miscarried the baby. Fifteen days later, they let her go. No charges were filed against the officers.
Prisoners of the Hindu caste system, India's 250 million Dalits face such indignities on a daily basis. According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 100,000 crimes of hate were committed against Dalits between 1994 and 1996 nationwide—including many cases of murder, rape, and assault as well as lesser crimes. Many more incidents were not reported. Observers believe that with the rise of rightwing Hindu fundamentalists in India, such attacks are increasing in frequency. And apart from physical assault, Dalits face systematic social, economic, and religious exploitation. India's pernicious caste system dwarfs South African apartheid, both in scale and in effect. Apartheid is gone, but caste remains.
A new book, Dalit Freedom—Now and Forever, chronicles the Dalits' ages-long plight. Written by an Indian Christian and supplemented by commentary from notable Dalit leaders, it issues a ringing call not only for political liberation but also for spiritual liberation. And it makes the case that these two freedoms go together.
The Aryans, who invaded India more than 3,500 years ago, divided the society into four groups, or castes. Asserting that different groups came from different parts of the body of Purusha (the supreme personification of the god Vishnu), they made themselves the priestly class (Brahmin), followed, in order of dignity, by the warriors and protectors of Hinduism (Kshatriya), the business class (Vaishya), and workers who support the first three castes (Sudra). Outside the caste system are the Dalits, who are thus called outcastes. Hindu religion, enforced by the Brahmins (who constitute about 5 percent of India's people), makes these distinctions immutable. Education and achievement do not allow a person to escape one's caste.
The caste system is Jim Crow on steroids. While human-rights activists have campaigned against apartheid in South Africa and genocide in Rwanda, Sudan, and Serbia, they have had surprisingly little to say about caste in India. If divestment was the right approach in freeing blacks in Africa, why is it not in freeing Dalits in India, which is increasingly tied to the global economy? The upper castes reap almost all the benefits of globalization and thus would have to pay attention if economic sanctions over caste became an issue.
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