In September 2020, a 19-year-old ‘Dalit’ woman was gang-raped and brutally murdered in Uttar-Pradesh by four upper-caste men, who are still scot-free. After her death, the victim was forcibly cremated by the police without the consent of her family, a claim denied by the police, as per various news agencies.

Why? Because she belonged to the ‘untouchable’ caste of India.

India’s caste system has been noxious and malicious since the arrival of the Aryans in India around 1500BC and up till now, caste based discrimination has been prevalent in all sectors of the country, especially education, health and services industry.

Reportedly, the Aryans stressed the superiority of the lighter-skinned invaders over the darker-skinned indigenous peoples of India.

According to the Institute of Business Administration’s Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts Dr Huma Baqai, India’s caste system has been entrenched in their history and the discrimination among the castes is still blatantly being practised in all sectors of the country.

“India’s constitution prohibits the discriminatory characteristics of the caste system, it does not allow this,” said Dr Baqai. “Unfortunately, it’s only happening because of the Hindutva groups,” she lamented.

Article 29 of the Indian constitution protects the interests of the minorities by making a provision that any citizen/section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same. Article 29 mandates that no discrimination would be done on the ground of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Unfortunately, according to a Muslim journalist in Delhi, Zeeshan Faisal Kaskar, discrimination is witnessed in all the fields in India. “There is not even a single ‘Dalit’ journalist in the top TV news channels, although the majority of them are quite qualified,” he said.

Reports suggest that the Indian caste system is historically one of the main dimensions where people in India are socially differentiated through class, religion, region, tribe, gender and language.

According to an Indian website, History Central, the Indian society has been divided into five castes:

Brahmins: The priestly caste. After their religious role decreased they became the caste of officialdom.

Kshatriya: Warrior caste. The Kshatriya class were direct descendants of the warriors that had conquered India.

Vaishya: The commoner caste that comprised the merchants.

Shudras: This caste represented the great bulk of the Indian population. Most of the Sudras were peasants, artisans or others who worked in manual labour.

Dalits (untouchables): Descendants of slaves or prisoners. The untouchables were given menial degrading work that no others would do.

India’s Dalits number around 167 million or one-sixth of India’s population. Despite constitutional and legislative prohibitions of discrimination on grounds of the caste they continue to suffer caste-based discrimination and violence.

They are the people who clean sewers and collect garbage. They are considered impure.

The GBH News Centre Senior Investigative Reporter Phillip Martin said, “When I first heard the term ‘untouchable’ I was amazed.”

He continued that even in the context of America’s racial history, and its racist dynamics, to hear people referred to as untouchable.

He stated that historically, caste-based discrimination in India is the highest in the world.

According to Kaskar, caste discrimination is witnessed more in the rural areas as mostly in India, the villages are divided along caste lines. “Even today, the lowest among Dalits live outside the village area,” the Indian-Muslim journalist told Bol News.

The former Minister of Law and Justice of India Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar also known as Baba Saheb Ambedkar campaigned against social discrimination towards Dalits, as per an article published by Bhim Rao Ambedkar College’s Assistant Professor Dr Tushti Bhardwaj.

The article revealed that through Ambedkar’s approach, he inspired Dalit Buddhist movement and founded Buddhist society. He himself suffered untouchability since his school days. He was not allowed to take water from the pot, rather someone, mostly peon, used to pour water from a distance if he wanted to drink water. He had to go without water if the concerned person was not available. He was made to sit on a sack which he was required to take back with him every day.

Dr Ambetkar was the architect of the Indian constitution and an advocate of human rights and social justice. As chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution of India he ensured equal rights to the minorities and ensured their basic rights.

Kaskar revealed that using ‘Manusmriti’ — a Hindu book which has explained the caste system from upper to lower caste, the upper caste always consolidated power, land and knowledge in their own hands. “Thus, the lower caste could never really be uplifted,” he said, adding that although many Ambedkaraite movements’ struggle for equality, even today, fundamental caste problems still exist.

It has been reported that the caste divisions in India were nearly absolute. People lived and died as members of a particular caste. Except in rare cases, marriages always took place within the caste.

According to various books and news agencies, the leaders of the Indian National Congress Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wanted India to be a secular country. They always promoted an inclusive society that would be majority Hindu but strive for harmony among all faiths.

Unfortunately, with the rise of the hardliners in the rank of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, the Hindutva, or extremist Hindu nationalism, emerged. And with this, prejudice against lower castes and minorities also increased.

According to Dr Baqai, caste-based discrimination is destroying societal factors and is also polarising Indian society.

Due to this prejudice, many also committed suicide in India, especially those who belonged to the untouchable caste.

For example a Dalit post-doctorate student from Southern India’s University of Hyderabad killed himself after alleged caste-based discrimination.

According to University World News, in January 2022, as many as 122 students at India’s top higher education institutions committed suicide during 2014-21, as per the latest government figures, which has revived claims of discrimination against students from marginalised and disadvantaged groups at elite institutions.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha, the country’s lower house of parliament, last month that of the students who committed suicide at top institutions, 24 belonged to scheduled castes, 41 to other backward classes, three to scheduled tribes and three to minority communities.

The activists and students from the Dalit community, who are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, revealed that caste discrimination has become very prevalent on campuses and in classrooms.

An Indian website Sabrang India revealed that 75,000 students committed suicides between 2007 and 2016 and the major causes were academic pressure and caste-based discrimination.

Speaking about the actions taken to stop this horrendous practise, Dr Baqai said, “Only private institutions have been talking about what the Modi government is doing, no other state is taking any action against it.” She further added, “Other countries see India as a pillar of their foreign policy, hence they cannot speak up.”

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