INDIA’S UNTOUCHABILITY ABOLISHED
How hard life must’ve been for the untouchables. In India there was a social order called the caste system. This order had existed for thousands of years in India. There were 4 classes not including the outcasts, Dalits. These were Brahmin on top, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudra. The Dalits (untouchables) were not included in society. This was the biggest problem with this system. The untouchables were despised and prevented from aspiring for a better life. They were abused, raped and humiliated. It was a dark time for them. Luckily there are people in the world to stop this sort of torture.
Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India changed all this. He made the l untouchables a fifth, lowly class with the name Harijan, or "children of God." Though it was still the last caste, Gandhi fought to have equal rights and freedoms as anyone. He battled to abolish discrimination and violence against them. Though Gandhi was of the upper caste, he had felt compassion for the untouchables.
Gandhi studied law at University College in London and became a barrister, a lawyer. He tried unsuccessfully to practice law in India, and then he went to South Africa to work for a British firm. It was there he experienced prejudice for the first time. As a member of a higher caste, he had always been treated with respect in India, but in South Africa they looked at his dark skin and treated him as an inferior. Due to this discrimination he became an advocate for the rights of all Indians. He had found his life's calling. In protest he did not fight, but rather resisted peacefully. He was put in prison many times because of his civil disobedience.
“Albert Einstein, said of Gandhi, "Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."
Together Mahatma Gandhi and many other humanitarians raised their voices to abolish the injustice. Slowly it was evident change was occurring. People realised without national unity the country would not progress in the economy. This idea played a significant role in weakening the system. Gandhi held campaigns to abolish untouchability. Soon these untouchables began to protest in defence of their rights and freedom.
In 1960 finally the caste system was abolished. It was eradicated and there was no level of dignity only equality. However much of the scars remain even until today. Women are still raped of the lower class and degraded. It has left many Dalits broken and depressed.
By Taajwar Khalique
CRIMES AGAINST THE DALIT'S
The people in India known as the Dalit's are treated extremely poorly where they are abused terribly. "Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch. India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place.
Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits Statistics compiled by India's National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched.
No one believes these numbers are anywhere close to the reality of crimes committed against Dalits. Because the police, village councils, and government officials often support the caste system, which is based on the religious teachings of Hinduism, many crimes go unreported due to fear of reprisal, intimidation by police, inability to pay bribes demanded by police, or simply the knowledge that the police will do nothing. "There have been large-scale abuses by the police, acting in collusion with upper castes, including raids, beatings in custody, failure to charge offenders or investigate reported crimes," said Narula.
That same year, 68,160 complaints were filed against the police for activities ranging from murder, torture, and collusion in acts of atrocity, to refusal to file a complaint. Sixty two percent of the cases were dismissed as unsubstantiated; 26 police officers were convicted in court. Despite the fact that untouchability was officially banned when India adopted its constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits remained so pervasive that in 1989 the government passed legislation known as The Prevention of Atrocities Act. The act specifically made it illegal to parade people naked through the streets, force them to eat feces, take away their land, foul their water, interfere with their right to vote, and burn down their homes.
Since then, the violence has escalated, largely as a result of the emergence of a grassroots human rights movement among Dalits to demand their rights and resist the dictates of untouchability.
By Anthony Rourke
NEW HOPE FOR DALIT'S, AS INDIA ATTEMPTS TO MOVE FORWARD
After years of abuse, discrimination and civil rights abominations, the future for the Dalit's is finally looking up. The Dalits fall outside the four-fold caste system that gives them the lowest and outcaste status. Although much of the legislation legally enforcing the caste system has been abolished, much of the discrimination is still prevalent in todays society. However, across the world, many people are standing up on the untouchables behalf to assist in the journey to equality, without forcing the Dalits to risk prosecution for speaking out.
This global movement siding with the untouchables has had a huge effect on the Indian government, showing them that their cultural system is dated and has no place in our new evolving world. This has resulted in new precedents such as the The Constitution of India, which guarantees equality of status to all citizens, irrespective of their caste, race, religion, descent, place of birth and residence. Yet a lot of society is having more trouble adjusting to this change.
In theory and legally the Dalits are as much an equal citizen as someone from any other caste, yet the Brahmins, top of the caste system, believe that the castes were formed by their god Brahma, creator of the universe (where people belonging to different castes then function as per the source of their origin) and that no law can govern their religion.
Many Dalits still face discrimination in society such as issues in gaining employment, areas where they are allowed to eat, public services that they are allowed to use like the police force and most importantly inter-caste marriage, which is forbidden by most parents of high caste families.
Other countries have been doing all they can to help eradicated this civil rights issue, and the Indian government has come along way in its support for the Dalits. Now the issue rests on the shoulder of those whose hatred for the Untouchables is so deeply ingrained, that they refuse to relinquish their discrimination, despite all suggestions of equality. For India to move forwards as a country into the new world, its people must uproot civil rights issues permanently and embrace all castes as equals.
By Jack May