A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate India.
[This article by me has appeared in Tehelka.]
On September 3, Siddharth Gajbhiye finally paid the price for helping dalits in a clutch of villages in Bhandara district near Nagpur in Maharashtra. A dalit himself, Gajbhiye is a police patil, an associate of the police hired on an honorarium, and has political connections in the Congress. This gave him some leverage to be of help to the sprinkling of dalit households who lived in constant fear of the upper castes. One such family was that of Surekha Bhotmange, 45, who tilled her five-acre plot in Kherlanji village, along with her husband Bhaiyyalal, growing cotton and rice. In 1996, two acres had been taken away as ‘easement area’ to build a road, so that neighbouring farmers, who belong to the Powar and Kalar upper castes, could take their tractors across to other villages. Now they wanted more of their land for a water pathway, and Gajbhiye was helping Surekha resist that, despite allegations that he was doing so because he had sexual relations with her. Gajbhiye and Bhotmange were in fact cousins, belonging to the Mahar caste, the same as Ambedkar’s, and were practising Buddhists in the Ambedkerite tradition.
On September 3, a mob beat up Gajbhiye, the ostensible reason being his alleged illicit relationship with Surekha Bhotmange. Gajbhiye filed a police complaint against 15 men from Kherlanji village, 12 of whom were arrested. Surekha signed on the FIR as one of the witnesses and identified the 12 in a police parade.
Twenty-six days later, on September 29, as soon as the 12 men were released on bail, they were taken away in a tractor by their relatives. They got drunk and went to the Bhotmanges’ hut threatening to finish off the entire family. Then they went looking for Gajbhiye and his brother Rajan, an engineering student. On not being able to find them, the drunken group returned to the Bhotmanges’ hut and broke down the door. It was 5.40pm, Surekha was preparing the evening meal and the head of the family, Bhaiyyalal, was not at home. They dragged out Surekha, their 17-year-old daughter Priyanka, and two sons, 23-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir. Although Roshan was blind and Sudhir a graduate, they not only helped with the farming but also brought home extra money by working as labourers. Priyanka was more ambitious — a Class XII topper and an NCC cadet, she wanted to join the Army. Her mother had recently bought her a bicycle. But all dreams came to an end in a few harrowing hours.
The mob didn’t realise that Bhaiyyalal Bhotmagne and Siddharth’s brother Rajan were just a stone’s throw from their hut and had seen the four victims being dragged away to the village chaupal, Priyanka strapped to a bullock cart. By now, men allegedly from the entire village of about 150 Powar and Kalar families had collected. Some shouted to the sarpanch to allow them to sexually assault the women. They raped the women and killed all four, even as their womenfolk looked on, mute spectators to a form of justice reserved for castes lower than theirs. One woman, Sudha Dhenge, reportedly did protest but was slapped into silence. She now says she was never there.
Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. In the meantime, Sudhir managed to contact the police from his mobile phone, but his phone had been smashed. Its pieces are now circumstantial evidence. Roshan and Sudhir were beaten up, their genitals mutilated, faces disfigured and their bodies tossed in the air, before they lay dead on the ground. Hiding behind a hut, Bhaiyyalal helplessly watched his family’s gruesome end. There was no one to call for help. Kherlanji had only two Mahar families; the rest were either perpetrators or spectators. An hour later, a village meeting was called and a diktat issued: no one was to say a word about the massacre.
Siddharth Gajbhiye called the Andhalgaon police station, some six kms away, at 6.15pm, asking for help. As a frightened Bhaiyyalal escaped to another village to save his life, the four bodies were thrown at different places in the periphery of the village. Head Constable Baban Mesharam reached Kherlanji at 8:30pm and got wind of the incident, but did not follow official police protocol to register the report. The next day, when Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange went to the police station and filed an FIR, sho Siddheshwar Bharne did not believe him. It was only when the police patrol started flashing reports of the discovery of mutilated dead bodies on the wireless the next day that he filed an FIR. Constable Meshram and sho Bharne both stand suspended.
Photographs of the bodies of Surekha and Priyanka taken by the police showed sticks and rods in their genitals. By the time they reached the post-mortem table, the sticks had disappeared. A gruesome photograph of Priyanka Bhotmange’s body, with just a piece of cloth covering her genitals, is not being printed by Tehelka.
The post-mortem report by Dr AJ Shende on September 30 said that there had been no rape. “Doctors were managed and the police bribed,” Rashtrapal Narnaware, Surekha’s nephew, alleged in a statement to the fact-finding committee of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a regional farmers’ organisation. The bodies were later exhumed and the report of a second post-mortem is awaited. Bhandara’s police superintendent Suresh Sagar says that only if the post-mortem establishes rape can he include the charge in his investigation. The vjas is pushing for a third post-mortem as the due procedure specified by the NHRC has not been followed, and medical evidence of rape may never be established.
Thirty-eight Kherlanji men are in jail as accused, but Kishore Tiwari, president of the VJAS, says that some of the main perpetrators are still free due to political pressure. Apart from various sections of the ipc, the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, has also been applied by the police. “In cases where a mob is involved, the Atrocities Act has it that the entire village could be fined to the tune of Rs 10-20 lakh,” says civil rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves. The VJAS claims that there is an attempt to cover up the incident, and has filed a case in the Bombay High Court against the state police. “For years, Surekha had been trying to file a case against the grabbing of the two acres of land,” says vjas lawyer Vinod Tiwari, “but the police never filed the FIR.”
VJAS president Kishore Tiwari first read about the incident in the rural Vidarbha supplements of the Marathi press, which blamed it on Surekha’s ‘illicit relationship’ with Siddharth. Tiwari e-mailed journalists all over India and managed to get some Mumbai newspapers to report the massacre, but his e-mails to Delhi-based journalists were ignored.
On October 2, when lakhs of Buddhists from all over the world had converged in Nagpur to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Dhammakranti — Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism — the organisers kept quiet about the massacre lest the issue go out of hand in such a large gathering. The Maharashtra government has paid Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakhs, although according to the Atrocities Act the compensation should be Rs 2 lakh for every member of the family killed. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange only wants the perpetrators to be hanged.
Tags: Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, Bhandara, Bhotmange, caste, Dalits, feudalism, Khairlanji, Kherlanji, Maharashtra, Mahars, moral justice, Priyanka Bhotmange, Surekha bhotmange
[...] Register « Meherban, kadardan… Dalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords » [...]
Pingback by Their motives and mine at National Highway — November 3, 2006 @ 6:44 pm
[...] Update 7: My story. [...]
Pingback by Photographs from Kherlanji at National Highway — November 3, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
I understand that your heart is bleeding for justice. So, what are you saying, is this a law and order problem or something deeper? If the latter is true, have you investigated the fact that it was an OBC on Dalit action?
Reply: Unlike other reports, I found out the names of the castes of the perpetrators rather than just calling them ‘upper castes’. Yes, Powar and Kalar are both OBC castes.
Comment by Barbarindian — November 3, 2006 @ 6:54 pm
As an addendum to my first question, given that the vast majority of atrocities on Dalits are being committed by powerful OBC landlords, what is your stand on OBC reservations?
Reply: Caste violence perpetrated by OBCs and others is part of the problems with caste system. Reservations are based on the idea of representation. OBCs have been kept out of the ambit of education by the caste sytem and need representation in what we call the mainstream. Taking OBCs along in India’s economic rise is important, just as it is important to take dalits along, and just as it is important to make sure that Dalits are not subject to violence. The three are different projects.
Comment by Barbarindian — November 3, 2006 @ 7:03 pm
Final question, sorry to flood your blog bro:
Would you support death penalty for the perpetrators?
Reply: NO
Comment by Barbarindian — November 3, 2006 @ 7:15 pm
[...] Shivam has a detailed report on the Kherlanji massacre. [...]
Pingback by DesiPundit » Archives » The Story of The Massacre — November 3, 2006 @ 9:45 pm
It really bothers me how few people have expressed outrage at this incident. We as a society have become insensitive to violence or even worse condemn it only when it happens to our ‘mirror images’ like Jessica lall & Priyadarshini mattoo. Even Barbarindian seems to be concerned with scoring points rather than expressing outrage.
I know the debate going on about death penalty but there has to be someway of doing more harm to the Psyche of the preperators of such crimes than what a life sentence can do. In absence of it, these people deserve to die.
Reply: Very clever of you to have linked to your post rather than just your blog in your name above. So it’s not just me who’s desperate for hits :)
Comment by Harman — November 3, 2006 @ 10:24 pm
@ Barbarindian : This incident says that OBC Castes need education. Being dominant in a village by virtue of being the majority caste / rich may be just a factor. Education is more important.
How to educated these guys, any ideas??
Reply: Your question is to Barbarindian but here is my take: Amongst other ways (spending more of the budget on education and health, improving the quality of education in government schools, making access to private education easier, etc.), lowering the merit bar a bit in higher education to help them integrate faster with modernity. Just as the merit bar was once lowered for the upper castes.
Comment by Bruno — November 3, 2006 @ 10:56 pm
Shivam,
I am glad to see that MSM is finally picking the story up. Thanks for tirelessly pursuing this.
Reply: Please do ask any journalists you know to cover the story or to urge their organisations to do so.
Comment by Corporate Serf — November 3, 2006 @ 11:12 pm
Thank you for publishing this story. I hope you will publish many more like it, since many such incidents certainly happen daily, and get swept under the carpet. We seriously need to deglamourise the myth of superpower, 21st century India. We could be the universal nuclear power and have 20 per cent growth, adn this could still be happening. Unfortunately, a lot of us will just shrug and find excuses why the present development model is still all right.
Reply: Thanks. Please do ask any journalists you know to cover the story or to urge their organisations to do so. Yes, there are many more such stories, waiting to be uncovered…
Comment by Anita — November 4, 2006 @ 12:06 am
I really think this needs to be told to as many people in the blog world as we can. So I am posting a link to this post in my blog. I hope you don’t mind. If you do plz reply so I’ll remove the link.
Reply: Why would I mind dude? I must be jumping with joy at getting more attention, hits and the prospect of writing assignments, and my superb ability at being able to exploit dalits, for whom I have no respect, just to further my own agenda! If you know what I’m talking about!
Anyway, do spread the word about the massacre.
Comment by pranay — November 4, 2006 @ 1:20 am
[...] Shivam Vij has written a post with comprehensive information on the Kherlanji massacre A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate India. Posted by krishnan [...]
Pingback by Blogbharti » The complete information on the Kherlanji massacre — November 4, 2006 @ 2:10 am
[...] Register « Dalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords [...]
Pingback by The Buddha Cries at National Highway — November 4, 2006 @ 2:42 am
[...] Shivam has the entire story of the Khairlanji Massacre. Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. In the meantime, Sudhir managed to contact the police from his mobile phone, but his phone had been smashed. Its pieces are now circumstantial evidence. Roshan and Sudhir were beaten up, their genitals mutilated, faces disfigured and their bodies tossed in the air, before they lay dead on the ground. Hiding behind a hut, Bhaiyyalal helplessly watched his family’s gruesome end. There was no one to call for help. Kherlanji had only two Mahar families; the rest were either perpetrators or spectators. An hour later, a village meeting was called and a diktat issued: no one was to say a word about the massacre. [...]
Pingback by Khairlanji Massacre « Polite Indian — November 4, 2006 @ 3:22 am
Shivam,
I think enough has been said about it in the blogosphere and maybe now you can do away with the sarcasm (I am referring to the reply to Pranay’s comment)
Reply: Oh, may be I can…
Comment by Polite Indian — November 4, 2006 @ 3:35 am
I agree with polite indian…
Reply: I agree with you…
Comment by pranay — November 4, 2006 @ 1:33 pm
[...] After reading Shivam’s posts on the atrocity in Kherlanji, I was looking for more information on crimes against Dalits. I happened to find some information online, and it also has the ‘virtue’ of being quite official: it’s from our government itself. So, let’s look at some data from Chapter 7 of the report titled Crime in India - 2005 issued by the National Crime Records Bureau. [Link via Ravikiran Shinde’s Open letter to Rajdeep Sardesai]. [...]
Pingback by Crimes against Dalits at How the Other Half Lives — November 4, 2006 @ 2:15 pm
my sincere request. dont waste your time commenting on confused blog. leave them.
MSM represents the 90% of the public opinion ( i mean people living in major cities and towns) . most of the news papers/news channels doesn’t cover this incident as it doesn’t increase their TRPs.
as we all know, india bloggers are well educated and be the one who read these top news papers for their daily news feed. it takes some time for these bloggers to understand the other side of india shining.
as long as these bloggers are not affected by poverty and caste abuse. its hard to convince them about these issues (as men are the least affected by sexual abuse, we can see how hard it is to make men to undestand the trauma women undergoes)
Comment by p — November 4, 2006 @ 6:32 pm
Shivam,
This is the sort of incident that shakes one to the core, and chills ones bones. Isn’t there something we can do? Pressurize the authorities to see that justice is done? Send letters to the President, CM etc.?
Comment by Shashwati — November 4, 2006 @ 7:50 pm
[...] மஹாராஷ்டிரா மாநிலத்தில், ஒரு தலித் குடும்பத்த்துக்கு நடந்த அராஜகம் பற்றி, தெஹல்காவில் எழுதிய கட்டுரையை, தன் வலைப்பதிவில் பிரசுரம் செய்திருக்கிறார் ஷிவம் . Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. In the meantime, Sudhir managed to contact the police from his mobile phone, but his phone had been smashed. Its pieces are now circumstantial evidence. Roshan and Sudhir were beaten up, their genitals mutilated, faces disfigured and their bodies tossed in the air, before they lay dead on the ground. Hiding behind a hut, Bhaiyyalal helplessly watched his family’s gruesome end. There was no one to call for help. Kherlanji had only two Mahar families; the rest were either perpetrators or spectators. An hour later, a village meeting was called and a diktat issued: no one was to say a word about the massacre. [...]
Pingback by கில்லி - Gilli » The complete story of Massacare — November 4, 2006 @ 8:26 pm
Prevention is better than cure.
A credible unemployment insurance (Rs 1000 pm) for everyone whether they work or not will prevent all socioeconomic issues in India viz dowry deaths, child labor, corruption, wage slavery, social exclusion, farmer suicides,etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Guaranteed_minimum_income#India
Comment by Known — November 4, 2006 @ 11:03 pm
Reading this story brings up for me the types of feelings I had when reading “the rape of Nanking” or seeing photos of the malai massacre in Vietnam. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to participate in atrocities like this. I live in the US which haas had more than its fair share of atrocities - literally hundreds of black people have been lynched over the past hundred years - not to mention the complete annihilation of the native population which continues to be celebrated in westerns. Most people outside of India (and apparently many inside India) do not know the extent of the violence that is perpetuated against Dalits. It is vital that stories like this are told. We may be a long way from understanding the source of human cruelty, but we have break through the denial and acknowledge how widespread it is before we can hope to really address it. Keep publicizing cases like this when they come up. We all need to call more attention to caste based violence.
Comment by gigi — November 5, 2006 @ 5:16 am
[...] Anything that will be a step towards stopping another Kherlanji from occurring again is welcome. [...]
Pingback by Shashwati’s Blog » Blog Archive » Goddess English II — November 5, 2006 @ 9:14 am
SocietyDalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate India… By Shivam Vij.
Pingback by india 2020 — November 5, 2006 @ 10:11 am
Shivam,
Well written. Hopefully, this issue will receive more coverage in time.
Keep up the good work!
Reply: Thanks, and I hope so too.
Comment by Ink — November 5, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
[...] (updated below)I usually do not participate in the partisan slugfests that keep occurring at regularly scheduled intervals in the Indian blogosphere. Not because I am against alienating people from either side ’cause seriously, I couldn’t give a fuck, but because I do not owe allegiance to any ideology in particular, and so, I find it hard to agree with anybody’s views in their entirety on any particular issue.But not this time. This is what happened. Shivam Vij posted pictures of the Kherlanji massacre of a Dalit family on his blog. The pictures included a graphic photograph of the raped and murdered girl containing partial nudity (or so they say, it has since been removed). This led to a number of people writing horror-stricken blog posts condemning Shivam’s “lack of respect for the dignity of the dead” in posting these pictures and accusing him of trying to attract hits and attention through this medium.Confused claims that pictures need not be shown and that wisely selected words should be enough to make people realize the horror of the crime. I disagree. Pictures are everything. Pictures put a face to the victim who would otherwise have just been a statistic. The actual sight of violence and bloodshed perpetrated by man on his brother / sister makes all the difference in overcoming the sterility of the printed word. The tremendous power of pictures in shaking people from their apathetic stupor is the reason why the Bush administration has banned pictures of coffins arriving from Iraq. It is also the reason why each time the American media depicts the violence and death occurring over in that blighted nation on screen, it causes the warmongering community consisting of Glenn Reynolds and his band of Bush cultists to protest about “liberal media bias”. And it was the poignant sight of a Michael J Fox swaying uncontrollably on television as he pled for public support towards stem cell research that caused people to take notice and changed a whole lot of minds. Pictures are much more powerful than words and that is a fact.Enter Gaurav Sabnis. He embarks on a blogpost with a couple of assumptions he peddles as fact with everything that follows in his post depending upon those “facts” for their meaning. Fact number 1 : Shivam is an attention-seeking journalist-whore. Fact number 2 : Shivam merely fakes his concern for Dalits and given a choice, he would not think twice before selling their mutilated bodies on the internet. No evidence is provided to back up these “facts”. Once these “facts” have been reported as fact, whatever he says later becomes impenetrable to refutation because of his fundamental preconceived assumptions regarding Shivam’s character.However, the fact (without the air-quotes) is that there exists considerable evidence that contradicts them. Anyone who is remotely familiar with the Indian blogosphere should know that Shivam has been an activist for the Dalit cause for quite some time, as he explains on his blog. Which is why unless someone actually provides me with some evidence to the contrary, I would give Shivam the benefit of doubt in this respect.Secondly, Sabnis, as well as other members of the anti-picture brigade claim that posting these pictures strip the dead of their dignity and that we should respect the privacy of the dead.What does that even mean? What dignity? Dignity is a quality that lives and dies with a living being. Once you die, along with your clothes, wealth and silicon implants, you also leave your dignity behind. Whose dignity are we then protecting?And let’s say, if you actually did continue to possess dignity after you were dead, wouldn’t your dignity be better served by raising awareness about the crime that was perpetrated on you, about the people who raped and murdered you who might get away scot free in the absence of a public outcry against their deeds? Wouldn’t you feel that way, if it were you who were the victim?Why, then, is Gaurav Sabnis foisting his own ideas about post mortem dignity on the dead? Isn’t he kind of, you know, stripping away their dignity by doing that?And before Sabnis asks me that question, yes, if it were my mother or sister who were raped and killed in that manner, if the government were not to come to my assistance, if my story were to be killed by the media, yes, fuck, yes, I would like their pictures to be plastered all over the media, over the blogosphere, dignity and privacy be damned. In fact, I would even be willing to pay for people to spread the word, just to raise awareness, just to get justice. And I would like my prime minister and every member of his cabinet to wake up and see those pictures first thing in the morning. I would like the nation to be ashamed of what its citizens are capable of. And that is me speaking for myself, not for the family of the dead, unlike Sabnis.Sabnis then writes a follow up post defending his earlier post, which he nonchalantly begins with the sentence : “Shivam Vij has removed the naked picture.” Nice job missing the point. That single sentence does more to illustrate the problem at the core of this business, namely, confusing violence with pornography. Sabnis sees the picture as that of a dead naked woman whereas the entire purpose of putting up the picture was clearly to showcase the savagery inflicted upon the woman and not the fact that she was missing her fucking top. Bizarre.Lastly, I want to point out Sabnis’ sentence in his later post where he says”I found Shivam Vij’s post distasteful, and conforming to the cheap attention-seeking, shock-inducing standards that seem to prevail in the Indian media nowadays.”Contrast this with Sabnis’ attitude a couple of weeks ago towards a brother of the so-called Cartel who wrote a post containing the following literary gem :”I think Tejal should set an example for the rest of us in ‘depreviledging’ systems by opening access to her arsehole. Everyone from Thakurs to Dalits to whites to blacks to barnyard animals to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants should be able to enter it at will. I see no reason why everyone should be a have-not when it comes to anal sex with Tejal, especially when she herself has the ability to make everyone a have.”And Sabnis’ comment on this post?”This is the best post ever. It is a splendid illustration of the sanctity of the owner’s rights over his private property. Unfortunately, many people do not have the capacity, willingness or maturity to grasp the succinctness of Aadisht’s argument.”So, to recap, Shivam’s posting of a picture of a raped woman on his blog in a post condemning the rape equals a manifestation of the “distasteful, and conforming to the cheap attention-seeking, shock-inducing standards” prevailing in the media. Aadisht.net’s post, critiquing a commentator using penetration of her arsehole as a prop, on the other hand, equals the best post ever written and anyone who would criticize all that talk about arsehole penetration (a living person’s arsehole, by the way, talk about being a pro-dignity crusader) lacks the maturity to grasp the intricate argument that nestles underneath. Oh, the hilarity.Note that I am not offering any opinion about utilizing shock value to raise awareness on an issue ’cause God knows I have indulged in it myself. However, I do find someone objecting to “attention seeking” and “shock-inducing” in one case while glorifying it in another kinda strange.But ultimately, all this ongoing bullshit will continue to be bullshit. People will continue to get offended by controversial pictures while losing the actual point that was being made. Other people will continue to lose sight of the point themselves while getting diverted into defending those pictures. And meanwhile, atrocities will continue to be committed, reported upon and forgotten.Update : It appears to me that anyone who has an opinion on this issue needs to first ask himself the following three questions :1.> Do you hate Shivam?2.> Do you doubt Shivam’s motives in posting the pictures?3.> How do you feel about posting such pictures in general?If you answered yes to the first two questions, you
should probably not bother asking yourself the third question, which actually happens to be the most important question of all. Unfortunately, most of who have commented on this issue so far have concentrated on answering yes to the first two questions and assumed that this automatically answers the third question. That is kind of stupid.Update II : Here’s Shivam’s entire article for Tehelka of which the pictures were a precursor. [...]
Pingback by The Renegade of Junk: The pictures — November 6, 2006 @ 3:43 pm
[...] see the picture. Why? Because that pinches us. That doesn’t allow us to forget. It’s all so sick. # posted by Bleddy Blogger : 4:10 PM Post a Comment Links to this post: See links tothis post posted by @ if (typeof BL_addOnLoadEvent == ‘function’) { BL_addOnLoadEvent(function() { BL_writeBacklinks(); }); } [...]
Pingback by Known Turf: Priyanka will not be avenged — November 6, 2006 @ 4:20 pm
[...] This is what happened to one Dalit family in Kherlanji five weeks ago. [...]
Pingback by nanopolitan: Atrocity in Kherlanji — November 6, 2006 @ 7:00 pm
shame on you india..and shame on those who proudly say maharashtra is a modern state, a state of progresive thinkers. And what about those so called mentors of dalit communities, where are those MARATHA COMMUNITY PEOPLE. this community is more responsible for these kinds of offenses.
All the time we were thinking that its BRAHMINS, who are playing all sorts of EVIL things against BRAHMINS, but its a true fact that the MARATHA community (the powerfull upper caste in maharashtra) is more in action whenever these evil atrocities happens, and since the people in power are MARATHAS (AS usual since 40 years), this matter will also get dumped somewhere.
recently these maratha community has created new religion saying that they will welcome all backword clases, but seein these examples, one thing is clear that, they just want to be in POWER, and whatever their words are saying, they keep HATRED for dalits in their hearts, whcih broke out on occasions like these.
so my message for dalits is ..dont even trust these MARATHA COMMUNITY …we not only have to fight against the BRAHMINISM (in cultural ways), but we have to fight against these MARATHA-POWERISM (with force against this ).
Comment by siddharth kamble — November 6, 2006 @ 8:58 pm
[...] Dark Side of India India is going to the dogs. Believe me. Despite making “progress” on IT frontiers, India doesn’t have a future ahead of it. Why? Because not a single Indian can say he is proud to be an Indian. If he does, then he is insane. There is absolutely no reason to feel proud of a country full of uncivilized, uneducated and inhumane people. This news article is the latest piece of evidence for this fact.”A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family.”The details are so gruesome that I won’t even dare to go into them. You can read the article if you are interested and have the heart to see what kind of animals live in this jungle called India.A total breakdown of law and order. Every f***ing beggar on the street thinks he can do what he want and get away with it. Who can blame him? All the political power has misplaced priorities, and justice is not a word in their dictionary.I really wish I was not an Indian. REALLY. [...]
Pingback by Dark Side of the Moon: Dark Side of India — November 7, 2006 @ 2:51 am
[...] It will be sixty years for India’s independence next year and all we can show is this. What’s even more unfortunate is that you have to campaign with the media to cover it!! Posted by bluespriite Filed in Gets my goat! [...]
Pingback by 60 years and still waiting « The Age of Aquarius — November 7, 2006 @ 11:21 am
//Amongst other ways (spending more of the budget on education and health, improving the quality of education in government schools, making access to private education easier, etc.),//
I am sorry for not being able to explain my point in the first comment itself.
What I wanted to say was “Improving education of the OBC is the need of the hour.” Just because OBCs are able to commit a murder and get away with that does not mean that they are “dominant” and “don’t need help”
Actually they are “underdeveloped” and need education. In addition to the factors mentioned above, Reservation in Education is also needed.
“Dominance” through crude violence by a community is not a factor to avoid reservation.
You can see this is Tamil Nadu. The Caste Clashes have come down considerably with increase of literacy rates
//As an addendum to my first question, given that the vast majority of atrocities on Dalits are being committed by powerful OBC landlords, what is your stand on OBC reservations?//
The stand is that OBC Reservations should be given TO PREVENT THESE ATROCITIES
Comment by Bruno — November 7, 2006 @ 3:42 pm
[...] While I’ve been busy writing silly blog posts to avoid working, another blog feud seems to have occurred. What I can gather is this. Shivam wrote a post about the Kherlanji Massacre, and put up some photographs. And what became the bone of contention? Whether he should have put up the photographs or not. [...]
Pingback by Vice-versa again « Canace — November 9, 2006 @ 2:54 pm
This is the case just like bandit queen phoolan devi,But in this case phoolan(surekha) has died. These culprits and their relatives would become police and Other govt qualified jobs and will remain the same in their inner mentality. Culprits should be hang out inthe panchayat not in the jail, so the other would realise the trauma which surekha and her family went through…
Comment by Indrani — November 13, 2006 @ 12:15 am
[...] A horrific story from Kherlanji, India (from an editorial in The Buddhist Channel):Like many Indians, their hopes of a good life were basic: a decent education, a life that was lived with self respect and a livelihood which disturbed no one. But in India, Surekha and her family were tortured for many years because they chose to live the "basic life". The reason – because they were Dalits, untouchables in the eyes of Hindu purists whose status are merely better than animals.On September 29, 2006, in the town of Kherlanji, near Nagpur - a new center of Buddhist movement in India - Buddhists Surekha and her daughter Priyanka were beaten, paraded naked and gang-raped in full public view for an hour before they fell dead.[...]We would like to appeal to the international Buddhist community to please use your connections and networks and forward this information to all Human Rights Organizations and Government and Non-Government Agencies. It is time that the suffering endured by the multitude of Dalits - the so called untouchable caste of India - be highlighted to the international community so that the voice of reason can be pressed upon the Government of India to put a "practical" stop to such inhumane act once and for all.For more information on how you can help, or to enquire about the Dalit situation, please contact the following:The Jambudvipa Trustwww.jambudvipa.org’Manuski’, Deccan College RdTel/Fax +91-20-2669 6812 / +91-98506 66479Yerwada, Pune411 006, IndiaThe Ambedkar movementwww.ambedkar.orgThe incident described is extremely sickening. What is there to say?The village where this incident occurred is variously spelled Kherlanji and Khairlanji. In wonder if it’s the same Khairlanji mentioned in this post?Here is a smattering of news articles and blog posts about the crime and the protests sparked by it:The Times of India: Just another rape storyAtrocity News: Kherlanji Buddhist family MassacredTehelka: Dalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords (Warning: graphic photos) India Daily: 4 Members of Dalit Family Gang-raped and Murdered over Land Feud in Maharastra (Warning: graphic photos)Times of India: Dalit killings - Nagpur to face another tense dayTimes Now: Dalit Protests SpreadDNA India: Nagpur police cane Dalit protestorsNDTV: Dalit killings: Protestors defy police ordersAsiaNews: Maharashtra - police disperse Dalit rally by forceAnd this map from Atrocity News showing the attacks on Dalits and Buddhists in India is simply chilling:There are 231 rapes and 51 murdered last year. The families are helpless, only hope is help from world community ! Every hour two Dalits are assaulted,Every day three Dalit women are raped,Every day two Dalits are murdered & two Dalit houses are burnt in India….”(Report of the Ministry of Welfare of the Government of India, 1992-1993)The government of India must be held accountable for these crimes, which are being committed by its own citizens against its own citizens.南無阿彌陀佛 [...]
Pingback by The Wrath of Buddha / 佛的憤怒: Buddhist Dalit family murdered in India — November 13, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
This is a great show by great Hindu cultural. Dr. Shendeji should get Bharat Ratna for this. The Orkut company must now be living in eternal bliss.
Comment by mynameisnobody — November 13, 2006 @ 9:10 pm
[...] I don’t believe in the public opinion. Because I know how it is formed and I am also a part of the public.Why do thousands of students join in IIPM when public opinion says that the institute is fraud. Why so many criminals are elected to parliament and are given right to rule us? Why do hundreds of villagers gather to rape and kill a woman?Our public opinion sucks. Our media really sucks. So it is possible that media may represent public opinion. most of the times public opinion is based on false allegations made in TV shows and News Papers.I don’t know anything about Manu Sharma or Jessica. I don’t know when Jessica was murdered. I don’t know how many are there in the party. I don’t know the names of witnesses. I don’t know how many has given the witness in the court. To say in one word, I don’t know any thing in this case. But still I feel Manu Sharma is guilty. Media is trying to influence me to believe that Manu Sharma has killed Jessica.What the fuck is this????Now Media’s job is not to loose in the hands of Ram Jethmalani. So, media already started saying that the jethmalani has taken case just because of the hype and popularity, and says public believes that manu sharma is guilty.In the interview Sagarika tries to create havoc saying, A young girl was shot in the presence of a hundred people.Is it ok to murder a young man??I don’t have any sympathy towards Jessica or Manu Sharma coz there are not of my kind. I came from lower middle class family. Money these people spent for one day can be used to run my family of five for one month. Even now, many of relatives and people in my village live on less than a dollar per day. I don’t care what happens to Manu Sharma.One more funny question by Sagarika is:But in this country where the high and mighty get away with so much, where witnesses are paid offDon’t these channels tune to your words if you pay them enough money.Just a small advice to media – fuck off!! [...]
Pingback by double trouble: Public opinion — November 14, 2006 @ 10:14 am
You can see this is Tamil Nadu. The Caste Clashes have come down considerably with increase of literacy rates.
Please see the issues of Frontline or any dalit
magazine to know the reality.Bruno is trying to
give a misleading picture.Despite reservation
and education OBCs continue to committ atrocities
against dalits
Comment by ravi — November 15, 2006 @ 12:54 am
why have they adopted violence? I don’t know much about the Naxalite movement so can’t write any more than this. But I’ll have you know, now that this little research question has popped in to my head I will pursue it. It came to my mind because of the Kherlanji massacres
Pingback by confessions of a hedonistic hobo — November 15, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
Shivam Vij has written a post with comprehensive information on the Kherlanji massacre A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate
Pingback by Blogbharti — November 15, 2006 @ 6:50 pm
[...] Where is the humanity in this? Is this the very land where apparently tolerance is ingrained in our very blood? Is this happening in the same country where the government is bending over backwards to build nuclear bombs and lobby for a permanent seat in the Security Council when the police cannot be depended upon to protect those who need it the most? This is human nature at its darkest. [...]
Pingback by The Kherlanji Incident at India Unplugged — November 16, 2006 @ 2:13 pm
[...] Saqi ki maut pe maikhana udaas hai, the comment was made by a leftist journo on Jessica Lall’s murder and I felt it was in a poor taste then.Agreed, she was serving liquor, but nobody had the right to belittle her. However, apart from the public outcry and the newspapers carrying the campaign for justice in the case and even going overboard on the issue, the entire national media seems to have ignored the Khairlanji (Kherlanji) massacre (in Bhandara district of Maharashtra).Only when the Dalit activists came out on streets, held protests and later stromed CM’s secretariat, did some papers and channels took cognisance of the heinous crime. Tehelka did carry a report recently by Shivam Vij that is available on his blog. Is it that the women who were ‘gangraped to death and raped even after they died’, don’t make news because they are no celebrity and the urban India is just not concerned! [...]
Pingback by EditIndia: Indian Media Journalism Website/Blog: Khairlanji massacre & national media — November 16, 2006 @ 5:54 pm
OBC is not a caste.OBC stands for Other Backward Class.People from the so called upper Caste who have lost either wealth or education due to the caste system come under this category.So naturally the origin of such mentality which was predominant in the so called upper caste in the past is still showing sighs of reccuring.Crush it now itself before it destroys entire nation.
Comment by Ankur — November 18, 2006 @ 12:10 pm
@ Ravi - Can you answer few simple questions
1. Has the atrocities against Dalits increased over the past 50 years or decreased over the past 50 years
2. As of today, where do you see more atrocities - TamilNadu/Kerala or Bihar/UP/MP
Answer Please !!!
Comment by Bruno — November 19, 2006 @ 3:52 am
one of the greatest shame of our times.Are we going to be mute spectators of this incident or are we going to record our protest.but the Indian media is very clearly setting the agenda that is to be debated by the Indian civil society.are we still going to keep discussing isuues like did Shoiab Akhtar slap Bob wolmer or really speak out on such issues pertaining to religious attrocites and inneficeint democarcy.
Even dalits and buddishts at high posts are not able to work on thier will, still they are pawns in the hands of Indian Fuedal Syatem.In the khairlanji case district SP belongs to SC category and the doctor and civil surgeon who performed the postmortem were buddisht converts.
None of the national leaders have spoken in lenght about this issue.May be they dont find spice in this.Vud this session of parliamnet discuss this issue……
Comment by Muthukrishnan — November 21, 2006 @ 12:08 am
The reason for this silence, is just not apathy, as one tend to beleive, and then go on to prescribe ‘education’ as a panacea. In a country where only 6 percent of the population is 10th pass, it is important to understand the opportunity structures that facilitate or constrain people to move out of poverty or backwardness.
Does our values that put knowledge above labor, has any role to play ?
The need for ‘education’ is more for us (the priviledged), We need more people like Shivam for educating us, Thanks!
Comment by santosh — November 25, 2006 @ 10:02 pm
backing down from her attacker and not cowering in fear. It is a testament to her strength and power that she lived long enough after being burned alive to be able to name her attacker once again. I hope that she and her family will see justice done. Sometimes these crimes just go away. I have a feeling this one will not. Update: My friend Amit suggested that I, and anyone else that feels like they should do something about this crime or other crimes like this could contribute to CRY
Pingback by MauriceReeves.com — November 28, 2006 @ 4:32 am
[...] 05:42 PM in News · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post 2 comments 1 · Shodan on November 27, 2006 06:28 PM ·happening w/ mind-numbing frequency. 2 · nvldxs on November 27, 2006 06:29 PM · Direct link Strange that an Australian newspaper has reported this. Is this so common-place in India thatIndian media does not consider this newsworthy ? Or did I just miss it in this morning’s news ? [...]
Pingback by For Shame. - Sepia Mutiny — November 28, 2006 @ 4:50 am
[IMG ] In the latest issue of Communalism Combat, Teesta Setalvad spoke to me about the attitude of the Indian media to issues of mass mobilisation and caste in the context of the recent killing of Dalits in Kherlanji in Maharashtra as well as of Tribals protesting their displacement by a big industrial project in Kalinganagar, Orissa earlier this year. One of my conclusions: “The reason I think Kalinganagar became a no-go area was because it came at the
Pingback by Reality, one bite at a time — November 28, 2006 @ 7:33 am
[...] i recommend you all to read this article wrtiiten by ShivamVIJ [b]Dalits, Like Flies to Feudal Lords[/b] A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate India. [This article by me has appeared in Tehelka.] On September 3, Siddharth Gajbhiye finally paid the price for helping dalits in a clutch of villages in Bhandara district near Nagpur in Maharashtra. A dalit himself, Gajbhiye is a police patil, an associate of the police hired on an honorarium, and has political connections in the Congress. This gave him some leverage to be of help to the sprinkling of dalit households who lived in constant fear of the upper castes. One such family was that of Surekha Bhotmange, 45, who tilled her five-acre plot in Kherlanji village, along with her husband Bhaiyyalal, growing cotton and rice. In 1996, two acres had been taken away as ‘easement area’ to build a road, so that neighbouring farmers, who belong to the Powar and Kalar upper castes, could take their tractors across to other villages. Now they wanted more of their land for a water pathway, and Gajbhiye was helping Surekha resist that, despite allegations that he was doing so because he had sexual relations with her. Gajbhiye and Bhotmange were in fact cousins, belonging to the Mahar caste, the same as Ambedkar’s, and were practising Buddhists in the Ambedkerite tradition. On September 3, a mob beat up Gajbhiye, the ostensible reason being his alleged illicit relationship with Surekha Bhotmange. Gajbhiye filed a police complaint against 15 men from Kherlanji village, 12 of whom were arrested. Surekha signed on the FIR as one of the witnesses and identified the 12 in a police parade. Twenty-six days later, on September 29, as soon as the 12 men were released on bail, they were taken away in a tractor by their relatives. They got drunk and went to the Bhotmanges’ hut threatening to finish off the entire family. Then they went looking for Gajbhiye and his brother Rajan, an engineering student. On not being able to find them, the drunken group returned to the Bhotmanges’ hut and broke down the door. It was 5.40pm, Surekha was preparing the evening meal and the head of the family, Bhaiyyalal, was not at home. They dragged out Surekha, their 17-year-old daughter Priyanka, and two sons, 23-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir. Although Roshan was blind and Sudhir a graduate, they not only helped with the farming but also brought home extra money by working as labourers. Priyanka was more ambitious — a Class XII topper and an NCC cadet, she wanted to join the Army. Her mother had recently bought her a bicycle. But all dreams came to an end in a few harrowing hours. The mob didn’t realise that Bhaiyyalal Bhotmagne and Siddharth’s brother Rajan were just a stone’s throw from their hut and had seen the four victims being dragged away to the village chaupal, Priyanka strapped to a bullock cart. By now, men allegedly from the entire village of about 150 Powar and Kalar families had collected. Some shouted to the sarpanch to allow them to sexually assault the women. They raped the women and killed all four, even as their womenfolk looked on, mute spectators to a form of justice reserved for castes lower than theirs. One woman, Sudha Dhenge, reportedly did protest but was slapped into silence. She now says she was never there. Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. In the meantime, Sudhir managed to contact the police from his mobile phone, but his phone had been smashed. Its pieces are now circumstantial evidence. Roshan and Sudhir were beaten up, their genitals mutilated, faces disfigured and their bodies tossed in the air, before they lay dead on the ground. Hiding behind a hut, Bhaiyyalal helplessly watched his family’s gruesome end. There was no one to call for help. Kherlanji had only two Mahar families; the rest were either perpetrators or spectators. An hour later, a village meeting was called and a diktat issued: no one was to say a word about the massacre. Siddharth Gajbhiye called the Andhalgaon police station, some six kms away, at 6.15pm, asking for help. As a frightened Bhaiyyalal escaped to another village to save his life, the four bodies were thrown at different places in the periphery of the village. Head Constable Baban Mesharam reached Kherlanji at 8:30pm and got wind of the incident, but did not follow official police protocol to register the report. The next day, when Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange went to the police station and filed an FIR, sho Siddheshwar Bharne did not believe him. It was only when the police patrol started flashing reports of the discovery of mutilated dead bodies on the wireless the next day that he filed an FIR. Constable Meshram and sho Bharne both stand suspended. Photographs of the bodies of Surekha and Priyanka taken by the police showed sticks and rods in their genitals. By the time they reached the post-mortem table, the sticks had disappeared. A gruesome photograph of Priyanka Bhotmange’s body, with just a piece of cloth covering her genitals, is not being printed by Tehelka. The post-mortem report by Dr AJ Shende on September 30 said that there had been no rape. “Doctors were managed and the police bribed,” Rashtrapal Narnaware, Surekha’s nephew, alleged in a statement to the fact-finding committee of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a regional farmers’ organisation. The bodies were later exhumed and the report of a second post-mortem is awaited. Bhandara’s police superintendent Suresh Sagar says that only if the post-mortem establishes rape can he include the charge in his investigation. The vjas is pushing for a third post-mortem as the due procedure specified by the NHRC has not been followed, and medical evidence of rape may never be established. Thirty-eight Kherlanji men are in jail as accused, but Kishore Tiwari, president of the VJAS, says that some of the main perpetrators are still free due to political pressure. Apart from various sections of the ipc, the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, has also been applied by the police. “In cases where a mob is involved, the Atrocities Act has it that the entire village could be fined to the tune of Rs 10-20 lakh,” says civil rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves. The VJAS claims that there is an attempt to cover up the incident, and has filed a case in the Bombay High Court against the state police. “For years, Surekha had been trying to file a case against the grabbing of the two acres of land,” says vjas lawyer Vinod Tiwari, “but the police never filed the FIR.” VJAS president Kishore Tiwari first read about the incident in the rural Vidarbha supplements of the Marathi press, which blamed it on Surekha’s ‘illicit relationship’ with Siddharth. Tiwari e-mailed journalists all over India and managed to get some Mumbai newspapers to report the massacre, but his e-mails to Delhi-based journalists were ignored. On October 2, when lakhs of Buddhists from all over the world had converged in Nagpur to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Dhammakranti — Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism — the organisers kept quiet about the massacre lest the issue go out of hand in such a large gathering. The Maharashtra government has paid Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakhs, although according to the Atrocities Act the compensation should be Rs 2 lakh for every member of the family killed. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange only wants the perpetrators to be hanged. to read the whole article http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html#comment-5308 to have a look at the photographs http://www.
shivamvij.com/2006/10/photographs-from-kherlanji.html[color=darkred][/color][size=18][/size]_________________Issues conecrned to humanity need to be discussed in this world, a few cant decided and this is an era where greater participation is required [...]
Pingback by www.countercurrents.org :: View topic - Indias shame KHAIRLANJI — November 28, 2006 @ 3:03 pm
[...] The horrific massacre of a Dalit family two months ago at Kherlanji. The excruciating social boycott of Dalits in Kadakol for the past four months because they ‘dared’ to take water directly from the village tank (rather than have two intermediate caste representatives pouring water for them, as they have done for centuries). Neither story made the front pages of our national newspapers. [...]
Pingback by Gladly Beyond Any Distance :: Caste… untouched. — November 28, 2006 @ 10:21 pm
and publicly gang raped to death.The girl who was raped and killed wanted to join Army…The militants in Africa may have their own justification for the attack but why should a village kill its own family?Mind is frozen after I read this article: http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html What makes a man do such evil? What makes a mob behave this way, like animals? Well even animals don’t cross their limits. And after all this, the men will still be free, and the wives won’t question them about a thing.
Pingback by Miss Divine — November 29, 2006 @ 12:45 pm
[...] Two months ago - on Sepetmber 29th - she was murdered. Now, she wasn’t just murdered - she was gang raped by a drunken mob before that. As Shivam’s harrowing post describes four victims …..dragged away to the village chaupal, Priyanka strapped to a bullock cart. By now, men allegedly from the entire village of about 150 Powar and Kalar families had collected. Some shouted to the sarpanch to allow them to sexually assault the women. They raped the women and killed all four, even as their womenfolk looked on, mute spectators to a form of justice reserved for castes lower than theirs. One woman, Sudha Dhenge, reportedly did protest but was slapped into silence. She now says she was never there. Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. [...]
Pingback by The Other Priyanka « POV — November 29, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
[...] 4 Members of Dalit Family Gang-raped Murdered over Land Feud in Maharashtra News Links 1. LINK 2. LINK \"Indian media is busy in Priyadarshini Matto case, Jesica Lal case, Sealing drive in Delhi and Champions trophy Cricket tournament since last one month. It seems the 247 news channel are not presenting the news but selling the news. They have become insensitive to a great extent. Let me give you an example. On September 29, four members of a dalit family were massacred in Kherlanji, a village in district Bhandara, near Nagpur in Maharashtra. The incident was reported first in some Marathi daily and the mainstream media did not provide any space to this incident. Some political parties organised a protest but it remained a mere ritual. DNA reported the incident on October 7 that Surekha, 44 and her daughter Priyanka, 18 were beaten and gang-raped in front of villagers for an hour before they fell dead. It is reported that sticks were pushed into their private parts. The male members were stabbed repeatedly and their private parts mutilated when they refused to do sex with their blood relatives. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, 50, a dalit farmer was helpless witness of this incident. DNA had another report on October 12 on the incident that only two weeks after the Kherlanji massacre, the Maharashtra Minister for Social Justice Chandrakant Handore gave an aid of Rs4.5 lakh to Bhaiyyalal who is the sole survivor of the Bhotmange family. Here is the detail of the incident and some pictures of the victims that can make your tears out even if you are a hard-hearted person. I advice you not to see the pictures if you are bit extra-emotional human-being. The Times of India has reported about this incident only on October 29. NDTV has reported this story on October 30 almost one month later of the brutal incident. Was the brutal murder of 4 members of the family and gang rape of Priyanka really not an issue to raise by the media? They say about themselves as the fourth pillar of Indian democracy and watch dog over the administration. Where were you? The story of dalit family massacre is not any worthwhile for you people. The channel like NDTV has reported the story only after one month and interestingly they did not said any thing during the news package about the date of the incident. And They say that they are the watchdogs\" [...]
Pingback by Canadian Desi Reading Topic: 4 Members of Dalit Family Gang-raped Murdered over Land Feud in Maharashtra — November 29, 2006 @ 10:39 pm
[...] The desperately sad truth is that things like this still happen today [...]
Pingback by BADMASH : Why? — November 30, 2006 @ 11:51 pm
[...] Zugegebenermaßen emotional überladene und zuweilen zu statistischen Verzerrungen neigende, dafür aber interessante Blogs von Dalits findet ihr hier und hier. (Ich hab mir mal die Freiheit genommen, die Links auf relevante Beiträge zu setzen, auch wenn die schon ein Stück alt sind.) [...]
Pingback by Daniela in Indien - Neue Dalit-Unruhen in Maharashtra — December 1, 2006 @ 12:29 am
Sivam, i’m a regular reader of this space. checked out yr article in tehelka too. I was a bit surprised on why there wasnt any outrage after this incident and many other similar incidents against dalits reported on a DAILY basis. why doesnt the 24\7 news hungry media not report this ? dalits are abt 15% odd percentage of the hindu population rite ? why dont they have a collective leadership.
today after the violence in mumbai and MH, the national media is outraged. they are asking why dalits are violent ? Do they really care abt how Dalits live or how many of them get killed or raped ?
Comment by bvn — December 1, 2006 @ 10:12 am
Shivam Vij,
Thanks a lot for covering this. You’re doing a good job.
Comment by Atlantean — December 2, 2006 @ 4:11 pm
I should have written about Kherlanji earlier, perhaps. Except that I did not know what to say.When Shivam first sent me the link to the story, it took four attempts to read it through to the end. With each reading, I’d be overwhelmed by a wave - something between frustration, nausea,
Pingback by Movies Review- all u want to know — December 3, 2006 @ 8:50 am
the fact that the right lens for viewing the current violence in Maharashtra is the long history of atrocities against Dalits? Is it so easy to forget — or hide — Keezhavenmani, Manjolai (and many others in Dravidian Land), Gohana, Kherlanji, Kadkol, Pipariy Since this jerk has criticised the recent violence in Maharashtra in these very terms, let me address Abi’s argument. First, the insinuation: We want to hide or forget something. Ah! Well, Abi just for the record, none of these
Pingback by Life is a street car named Desire — December 3, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
I fully agree with BVN. I consider Indian Media (TV) a new branch of prostitution. The are just out to sell anything that sells with little or no emotions involved. A look at any TV news channel is a windows to their immaturity, superficial knowledge of the subject, lack of preparation, subservient attitude, lack of committment and love for TRV rating rat-race.
Comment by dr. datye — December 4, 2006 @ 2:50 pm
ironically, it was never covered by the media till a month afterward.But I am quite sure most of you might not even have known about it. I didn’t. Something about what dalits are still going through in India. Tell me if this doesn’t wrench your heart. http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html Another example of the biased system- http://pranaytalking.blogspot.com/2006/05/this-sad-side-of-story.html Proud to be an Indian? Think again.
Pingback by Running in my head... — December 7, 2006 @ 2:30 pm
Khairlanji incident
Pingback by i am therefore i be — December 11, 2006 @ 4:50 am
http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html
Pingback by A Brush of Starlight — December 21, 2006 @ 1:12 pm
[...] I like how lately, every fucking jackass person with a keyboard and a voltage stabilizer will come up with an opinion about feminism and feel the urge to communicate it to the unenlightened uneducated masses. For example, this guy (via DP). Who thinks that feminism “preaches that women should compete with men in all walks of life in a bid to prove their point and outsmart men”. And then goes on to “prove” why feminism is flawed.I would like to take this opportunity to request people who think they oppose feminism to first be aware of what the fuck it is that they think they are opposing.As I commented at this guy’s blog, feminism is not about male-female competition. Fuck competition. In fact, when you think about it, feminism has very little to do with men. Feminism is about giving a woman the fundamental birthright over her own body, over her own life and her own destiny. Feminism strives to give women protection under the law (theoretically as well as practically). Feminism tries to make sure that societal norms will evolve to a point such that women will be able to live their lives as citizens who can be self-sufficient psychologically as well as economically.Feminism would like women to be able to move around freely without being molested by sexually starved men. Feminism would prefer that women be left out of caste warfare and that their genitals and souls not be made to bear the brunt of centuries old religious and social dogma. Feminism would also like women to be able to have control over their own vaginas and not be subject to the diktats of a bunch of righteous old men held hostage by the preachings of a hoary book of indeterminate vintage and relevance. And lastly, feminism would really love it if you didn’t kill your fetus just because she’s a girl. Instead, Feminism would plead with you to give birth to her, nurture her, educate her and see how she soars.Feminism is all that and more. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I haven’t covered most of it. But this much I can say with confidence : Feminism will not think less of you just because you decide to lug your girlfriend’s 80 kilo suitcase. No, Feminism will call that mere common courtesy.I realize, of course, that I could be one of those fucking jackasses people I mentioned, foisting his asinine opinions about feminism on the world. If such be the case, please do let me know.Update : As Falstaff points out correctly in his comment, contrary to what I said earlier, Feminism, or just about any other ism, would probably frown upon this particular instance of 80 kilo suitcase handling due to the blogger’s motives behind doing it, which is, to avoid the self-manufactured feeling of emasculation that might result, were he to allow his girlfriend to carry the suitcase. In short, it’s all about him and his insecurities and little to do with feminism. But the problem here is that far from this being the warped viewpoint of just one blogger, I think that this perception about feminism, about it being merely an instrument used by women to emasculate the male of the species, to make him feel less manly is a pretty common one. And it needs to be systematically eradicated because that is probably the most oversimplified caricaturization of contemporary feminism as we know it.Update 2 : Looking back, we could probably have done without calling people “fucking jackasses”. How about we chalk this one up to Samuel Adams Winter Lager, eh?Update3 : Strawfeminists and more straw-chewing chauvinists. [...]
Pingback by The Renegade of Junk: Before being against feminism, you need to know what it means — January 14, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
well i have decided what to do..i’m putting together a group of youngsters and no matter what happens if these guys r let loose they will be punished(the maximum)they will go through the same inhuman they had put the others through.
Its not just them but anyone who does things like this…we are putting together a forum were people canreport these kinda acts and justice will prevail and they will be PUNISHED!!!
Comment by punisher — January 20, 2007 @ 8:55 am
[...] You were kind enough to get into the nitty gritty of the whole Shilpa racism issue (a blown up hogwash), whereas it took you full 3 months to report the Kherlanji massacre, which happens to be a reflection of the worst form of racism: casteism in India. Had it not been for blogs, the story would have never been told. It finally did get reported, but the story is now lost in oblivion. [...]
Pingback by On Newsworthiness « Lagged — February 2, 2007 @ 10:39 pm
You have done a great job by publishing this, i’m going to write an article about this for my college magazine. Thanks a lot u have really opened my eyes.
Comment by sidz — February 13, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
The injustice done against the untoucheable people in India is beyond humanity.
All western people are warned of Hindu hypocricy. If Hinduism were such wonderful religion, why India was foreign-slave for more than 1000 years, and all Indians are begging to emigrate to West?
Comment by Vishvamitra Ramachandra Chatruvedi — February 25, 2007 @ 12:47 am
[...] see the picture. Why? Because that pinches us. That doesn’t allow us to forget. It’s all so sick. # posted by Bleddy Blogger : 4:10 PM beddy blogger: yes, it is. # posted by annie : 3:23 PMWhy do ordinary people, the ones we meet with “complaints about …”, sometimes turn into monsters? # posted by Sunil Bajpai : 1:25 PM I have no quarrel with readers of this blog who may haveIts at:http://jyothsnay.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/to-the-lost-child-priyanka-bhotmange/regards,Jai # posted by Anonymous : 5:10 PM By the way, the perpetrators were OBCs, a crucial fact youomitting here. # posted by barbarindian : 7:34 AM Post a Comment Links to this post: See links to thispost posted by @ if (typeof BL_addOnLoadEvent == ‘function’) { BL_addOnLoadEvent(function() { BL_writeBacklinks(); }); } [...]
Pingback by Known Turf: Priyanka will not be avenged — March 4, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Although there are mass conversions of Dalits to Buddhism happening every year in India, the Hindutva brigade tend not to see it because it shows the caste based atrocities in Hinduism. From the early days to the recent Khairlanji incident, there are many examples to show. So they mostly concentrate on the Christian conversion issues. The interesting thing is most of the tribal people who gets converted or goes to church (like in the case I mentioned above) are not even ‘
Pingback by Just Jo — March 29, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
[...] see it because it shows the caste based atrocities in Hinduism. From the early days to the recent Khairlanji incident, there are many examples to show. So they mostly concentrate on the Christian conversion [...]
Pingback by My thoughts on conversion and religion « The Great Indian Mutiny — March 30, 2007 @ 12:31 am
India slams European Parliament resolution on Dalits
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070203/43/6brg4.html
Comment by Sicilian — March 31, 2007 @ 4:01 am
[...] insults because I face them on a daily basis … as part of my life. As does half the country. The Dalits getting raped by upper caste landlords, the children denied admission in certain schools, the untouchables who [...]
Pingback by The Mad Momma: January 2007 — April 1, 2007 @ 8:07 am
[...] Such things still happen! :| Shame! [...]
Pingback by Red Soul — June 20, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
[...] has the entire story of the Khairlanji Massacre. Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and [...]
Pingback by Polite Indian | Khairlanji Massacre — August 4, 2007 @ 3:47 am
[...] P.P.S. This is just one of the many posts on the blogosphere about this terrible crime: http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html [...]
Pingback by Hindu Dharma Newsletter Issue # 8 « || Satyameva Jayate || — August 8, 2007 @ 7:43 pm
[...] Khairlanji Massacre [...]
Pingback by Polite Indian | Tolerant India or Violent India? — August 20, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
[...] Khairlanji Massacre [...]
Pingback by The Great Indian Mutiny » Tolerant India or Violent India? — August 20, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Conclusion…:
10% growth rate
Comment by Kartikey Sehgal — September 18, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
[...] did take time for the justice to be delivered but indeed a job done. The gruesome incident is probably only one of the many such that take place on a daily basis in the casteist society of [...]
Pingback by Justice finally « What do I say? — September 24, 2008 @ 3:11 pm