The death of a Dalit boy after a thrashing from his upper caste school principal has once again brought to the fore the old normal of deep-seated discrimination in Rajasthan. The victim’s family finds itself isolated as fellow villagers in Surana refuse to acknowledge a caste angle to the incident, reports Ishita Mishra
The death of a Dalit boy after a thrashing from his upper caste school principal has once again brought to the fore the old normal of deep-seated discrimination in Rajasthan. The victim’s family finds itself isolated as fellow villagers in Surana refuse to acknowledge a caste angle to the incident, reports Ishita Mishra
Two days before India celebrated its 76th Independence Day, a nine-year-old Dalit boy from Rajasthan’s Jalore district died at a hospital in Ahmedabad after allegedly being thrashed by his school principal.
The boy, Inder Meghwal, according to initial reports, was punished by Chail Singh, a Rajput, for quenching his thirst from a water pot reserved for the upper caste teacher.
The incident triggered a massive outrage, leading to the immediate arrest of the accused schoolteacher and drawing the national gaze upon Saraswati Vidya Mandir, a private school in Jalore’s Surana village, and the contentious earthen pot. Though the pitcher is nowhere to be found on the school premises, it has stirred the caste pot in Rajasthan.
Surana, a small village in Sayala tehsil, boasts visible signs of development — government and private schools, hospitals, electricity and metalled roads. The village, which has a sizeable population of Rajputs and Dalits, has managed to do away with ill practices such as child marriage and open defecation but caste discrimination is a different story.
While members of the upper castes here claim Chail Singh’s school never had a separate water pot for the principal, the Dalits too rule out any link between Inder’s death and caste bias.
“Chail Singh had hit the boy [Inder]. He accepted this fact and even gave ₹1.5 lakh for his treatment. The caste angle being added to the case is baseless. This school was the most affordable institution in the village where students used to get good education. Now the future of all these children is at stake,” says Devashi Walaram, the deputy sarpanch of Surana, who belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
The village has a woman sarpanch, Jaswant Kanwar, a Rajput, who is hardly visible in the ongoing controversy as she is nursing her ailing husband.
The denial of caste discrimination by the villagers has forced Inder’s father, Devaram Meghwal, to move out of their house in Surana. He along with his wife Pawani Devi and three sons are currently staying at his brother Parvat Kumar’s house on the village outskirts where the family has found support from activists, politicians and relatives.
Atrocities against SCs/STs
Rajasthan — the largest State in terms of geographical area of 342,239 sq. km — has a population of around 8 crore, including 89% Hindus and 9% Muslims. Among the Hindus, the Scheduled Castes constitute 18% of the population, followed by the Scheduled Tribes at 13%, the Rajputs at 9%, and the Brahmins at 7%.
Despite this massive presence of SC/ST population, Rajasthan ranks fourth — after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh — in the country in cases of atrocities against the community. As per data of the National Crime Records Bureau, the State recorded over 7,000 cases of crimes and atrocities against SC/ST community members in 2020.
The NCRB figures are just the tip of the iceberg, says Gopal, a distant relative of Mr. Devaram who is actively involved in getting justice for Inder. Mr. Gopal is also associated with a Dalit rights organisation, Bhim Sena.
“We cannot get a haircut in this village as the barbers, who belong to OBCs, refuse to touch our head. We have to go to other villages and sometimes to Sayala [the tehsil head office 25 km from Surana] to get a haircut. If this is not discrimination, what else is?” asks Mr. Gopal. The Bhim Sena, he says, is spearheading a fight for the right of Dalit grooms to ride a horse to their wedding — a usual practice for the rest.
In 2019, a groom from the Meghwal community in Bikaner was beaten up by upper caste men for riding a horse on his wedding day. The attackers even vandalised a vehicle in the groom’s convoy, forcing the family to seek police help.
Not just horses, even a sherwani can invite death threats, says Kantilal Meghwal, another Dalit man who had to seek police protection to be able to wear the outfit for his wedding.
“I got death threats from the Rajputs who could not accept the fact that a Dalit could wear such expensive clothes. Because I was aware of the law and my rights, I contacted the police. Not everyone can dare to do that,” says Mr. Kantilal, who works as a teacher at a government school.
Dalits in Rajasthan have been killed for even sporting a moustache, recalls Tolaram Meghwal, another member of the SC/ST community. Jitendra Meghwal, a COVID health assistant, was stabbed to death by two upper caste men in Pali district in March this year allegedly for wearing a moustache. While the police immediately arrested the accused, they denied any caste angle to the attack, calling it a case of old enmity.
‘Tradition, not discrimination’
The homes in Surana village can easily be identified on the basis of caste. No one needs the names. To get directions one has to ask, “Meghwalo/Harijan ko ghar kidhar? (Where are the houses of Meghwals, Harijans?)” and “Thakuro Kathe? (Where do Thakurs live?)”.
“But what is wrong in this system? Yehi pratha hai (this is tradition). It doesn’t mean that Dalits are being dominated here,” says Bhoor Singh, owner of Shree Dadaji Gau Seva Samiti, the biggest cow shelter in Surana. Mr. Singh claims that Dalits enjoy “equal rights and respect” in the village.
“I have Dalit friends and I invite them to family functions,” says Nayan Singh, another Rajput, while rubbishing the claims of caste discrimination.
The village has four big temples and all of them are open to members of SC/ST communities, says Manglainathji Maharaj, a priest at Dudheshwar Mahadev Mandir, the oldest temple in Surana. But there is a rider.
Parbita Harijan, 78, who lives near the Mahadev temple, says he visits the premises but doesn’t touch the idol. “This I do of my own will. I am not supposed to touch anything that is pious.” Asked why he should not touch the idols, he says that is what he has learnt from his elders.
“There is no discrimination. It is our custom. We are taught to do all this,” says Pakka, a Meghwal, who lives next to the house of Inder’s uncle on the village outskirts.
Raju, another man from SC/ST community, lives next to a big plot that was being used by the Rajputs to protest against the police action on Chail Singh. Hundreds of upper castes members gathered here on August 16 to submit a memorandum to Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief Govind Singh Dotasra, stating that all allegations of discrimination against the accused teacher were false and the boy’s family was playing politics over his death to extract money from the government.
Members of the upper castes protesting against the arrest of school principal Chail Singh in Surana.
| Photo Credit: Ishita Mishra
Mr. Dotasra has announced ₹20 lakh compensation from the Congress party funds to Inder’s kin and assured them of a fair investigation into the matter.
Mr. Raju and his family watched the protest from their house but stayed away from the controversy.
“Politics is for the upper caste, not for us,” says Mr. Raju, who works as a carpenter but is still called to remove carcasses of animals that die in the house of Rajput families. His mother is asked to clean the clutter left behind after wedding celebrations in upper caste households.
“I don’t find anything wrong in this. We ask them whatever money we want to clean the mess,” says Mr. Raju.
But are they invited to the weddings? “Yes, we attend their functions. We eat their food as well. But we can’t eat at their house. We have to bring food back to our home and eat,” he says.
Separate cremation grounds
In Surana, with a population of around 8,000, discrimination persists even in death as each community has a separate cremation ground.
“How can you call this discrimination? The same is being practised across western Rajasthan,” says Ran Singh, a Rajput.
Caste discrimination has become extraordinarily normal in Rajasthan as it is taught to everyone since birth, says Rajiv Gupta, a retired professor
Read More