7-year-old student beaten for touching plate reserved for upper caste.

Started by Valigarmander, January 05, 2016, 03:57:37 PM

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Valigarmander

http://www.siasat.com/news/dalit-student-thrashed-vomits-touching-upper-caste-plates-895839/
QuoteJodhpur: In a shocking incident, a lower caste Dalit student of a government school was beaten up by his teacher till he started vomiting for touching plates being reserved for the upper caste.

According to media reports, the episode happened on October 1, a day before Gandhi Jayanti in Government Higher Secondary School in Osian town of Jodhpur, when a seven-year-old picked up a green coloured plate (reserved for the upper caste) where mid-day meal was being served.

“I picked up a plate reserved for upper caste students mistakenly and started having the rice on it. When the teacher saw this, he started hitting me badly on my head. I started vomiting,” Ramesh, a Dalit, told TOI.

According to Dalit Adhikar Network, “the plates there are coloured red and green for Dalits and upper castes, respectively. The seven-year-old had to be rushed to Umaid Hospital in Jodhpur. His treatment went on for six days.”


Malaram, father of the Dalit student, was also allegedly beaten up when he came to pick up his son from school.

“The cook in the school noticed Ramesh picking up a plate reserved for upper caste students. He complained about this to the teacher, who bashed up Ramesh. He kicked Ramesh and pulled his hair. He thrashed him severely, and this led to some internal injuries in his ears, because of which he still fears going to the school. When I visited the school, the teacher thrashed me too,” said his father Mala Ram.

On Thursday a public hearing was held by Dalit Adhikar Network at Pant Krishi Bhavan in collaboration with Action Aid and Jai Bhim Vikas Sikshan Sansthan and it came to fore that separate plates were kept for Dalit students and those belonging to a higher caste.

A complaint has been filed against the teacher but police is yet to take any action against him. The district officer, elementary education, suspended the teacher and transferred him to Jodhpur. But the teacher is still present at that same school.”

Solomon Zorn

How sad to live under such a religion. But then they're all pretty nasty in some way or other.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
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Baruch

This is what you get when you take "kosher" too seriously, and not scientifically.  A Dalit with clean hands, is cleaner than a Brahmin with dirty hands.  This is why so many Dalits, over time, converted to Buddhism, Islam and Christianity.  Also Jains, Parsiis and Sikhs.  There was no way for a person of any talent to improve themselves ... other than impersonation of a higher caste.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Shiranu

An interesting note; the caste system as we know it today is only about 200-300 years old, being established during the decline of the Mughals... and as law and a real social practice dates only to the British Raj and their insistence on classification based on race and social standings. Laws restricting one from having jobs outside their cast really weren't around until the late 1800's and early 1900s.

Additionally the British Raj basically said "If you are from this caste you are a criminal!" and made it a self-fulfilling prophecy. To give a small quote...

QuoteThe colonial government prepared a list of criminal castes, and all members registered in these castes by caste-census were restricted in terms of regions they could visit, move about in or people they could socialise with. In certain regions of colonial India, entire caste groups were presumed guilty by birth, arrested, children separated from their parents, and held in penal colonies or quarantined without conviction or due process.

QuoteThe criminal-by-birth laws against targeted castes was enforced from early 19th century through the mid 20th-century, with an expansion of criminal castes list in west and south India through the 1900s to 1930s.[193][195] Hundreds of Hindu communities were brought under the Criminal Tribes Act. By 1931, the colonial government included 237 criminal castes and tribes under the act in the Madras Presidency alone.[195]
While the notion of hereditary criminals conformed to orientalist stereotypes and the prevailing racial theories in Britain during the colonial era, the social impact of its enforcement was profiling, division and isolation of many communities of Hindus as criminals-by-birth.

It's very much like what we see with African American communities; yes there is alot wrong within the community that is completely and wholly their fault... you can only blame the oppressor for so long. However to blame African Americans because of their culture as to why they have high crime rates is to ignore that a large part of their culture was influenced by Anglo racists who put them in situations where they were destined to fail and stay poor/uneducated/low status.

Hinduism is 2400+ years old... and the truly disgusting and inhumane caste system didn't really arrive until 200 years ago as the Mughal Empire collapsed and stratified the haves-have nots and Western racists came in and started interpreting the culture the way they wanted (and changing the laws to reflect it)... so we can only put so much blame on Hinduism.

History and anthropology are simply not black and white subjects; you have to view them holistically to understand the mechanisms that set up a system. And that said... it's been nearly 70 years since India has gained it's independence and I would have liked to see more change since then. But that is also only a few generations... large social changes (especially one brought about from within and not by foreign force) take time. It took the United States (which claimed to value all humans) 90 years to abolish slavery and 144 years (and the development of birth control) to to actually consider women "worthy" of being treated like men.

Just my more than 2 cents.

"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur