Killing Highlights Depth of India’s Caste Struggles
NEW DELHI—The grainy one-minute video, captured by a security camera, shows a man being hacked to death by cleaver-wielding assailants in a crowded market in the southern Indian city of Udumalaipettai.
Police say the images, shown over and over on Indian national television since the attack occurred on Sunday, capture the “honor killing” of a man belonging to one of the country’s so-called untouchable castes, who had married a woman from a higher caste.
As shoppers watched, the man, V. Sankar, 23, was killed by six men hired by members of the community of his wife, Kausalya, who goes by only one name, because they objected to their marriage, according to police.
The father of Kausalya was sought by police and surrendered Monday to authorities, police said. No arrests have been made, police officer Senthil Kumar said.
The couple met as students at an engineering college in the Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu state and married eight months ago, police said.
Mr. Sankar, from the Dalit caste, and Kausalya, 19, married in spite of objections from her family. Such was the opposition to the union that Kausalya was asked to put in writing at a local police station that she was of sound mind when marrying the man of her choice.
The public nature of the crime, which took place in front of a shopping mall, underlines how religious strictures run deep in India despite years of economic development and efforts to end the ancient caste system.
In the video, the assailants are also seen beating Kausalya then leaving on a motorcycle as passersby looked on. She is recovering from a head injury and in stable condition at a local hospital, police said.
The cleaver used in the attack was described as “what is used to cut mutton in meat stalls,” said M.N. Manjunatha, police commissioner of Tiruppur city.
“If this woman had not married this person, if she had chosen to go with the wishes of her family, this would not have happened. It is as much a put-down of women as it is of caste,” said Manu Sundaram, a spokesman for the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party in Tamil Nadu state.
Discussion of the issue of caste identity has gained traction across India in recent months following a series of protests, with some communities demanding affirmative action based on their social order.
The army and paramilitary forces were sent into the northern Indian state of Haryana in February as protesters from the Jat community set fire to railway stations and vehicles and breached the wall of a canal, temporarily cutting off part of the water supply to the country’s capital.
The Jat community, made up primarily of farmers, were protesting because they wanted the government to recognize them as a “backward class,” a designation that would give them a leg up in civil-service jobs, university spots and other benefits.
In similar protests in August, the Patidar community in the western Indian state of Gujarat fought street battles with police as they demanded affirmative action for their community, which is influential in the diamond and textile trades.
Kausalya belongs to the influential Thevar community that, despite considering itself an upper caste, successfully campaigned to be listed as a backward class in Tamil Nadu.
India’s government makes special provisions for those from socially and educationally weaker groups and it bars discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. In an effort to prevent discrimination, India has quotas for groups of people deemed marginalized, but the initiative has been so pervasive that more than half of India’s population are now listed as entitled to some sort of government benefit.
In spite of greater urbanization and social mobility, caste-based violence remains stubbornly pervasive, said N. Sathiya Moorthy, a political analyst specializing in Tamil Nadu with the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank.
Mr. Moorthy said the killing showed: “Nothing seems to have helped or changed how the politics of caste plays out. That’s a pity.”
Dalit man hacked to death in "honor killing," for marrying a woman outside of his Caste. No arrests have been made, police officer Senthil Kumar said.
The couple met as students at an engineering college in the Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu state and married eight months ago, police said.
Such was the opposition to the union that Kausalya was asked to put in writing at a local police station that she was of sound mind when marrying the man of her choice.
The public nature of the crime, which took place in front of a shopping mall, underlines how religious strictures run deep in India despite years of economic development and efforts to end the ancient caste system.
In spite of greater urbanization and social mobility, caste-based violence remains stubbornly pervasive. The killing showed nothing seems to have helped or changed how the politics of caste plays out. The Wall Street Journal
Link to Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/killing-highlights-depth-of-indias-caste-struggles-1457980925
The National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) in its “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” released on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture stated that a total of 1,731 persons died in custody during 2019 i.e. deaths of about five persons daily. These included 1,606 deaths in judicial custody and 125 deaths in police custody.
Torture is perpetrated to extract confession or bribes and torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Jammu & Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Kerala), hitting in private parts (Haryana), electric shock (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh), pouring petrol in private parts (Uttar Pradesh), applying chilly power in private parts (Kerala) beating while being hand-cuffed (Kerala), pricking needle into body (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), branding with hot iron rod (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), beating after stripping (Haryana and Assam), urinating in mouth (Uttar Pradesh), inserting hard blunt object into anus (Bihar), beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), forcing to perform oral sex (Gujarat), pressing finger nails with pliers (Assam), beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with both hands and legs tied (Madhya Pradesh), forced to do Murga pose or stress position (Haryana), and kicking in belly of pregnant woman (Assam).
Indian police officers in the town of Nagina chased a group of Muslim teenagers into an empty house. They grabbed them and took them to a makeshift jail. And then, the boys and community leaders said, the officers tortured them.
Four of the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 17, said that police officers used wooden canes to beat them and threatened to kill them.
Indian Police officers over the course of 30 hours terrorized them.
According to two of the boys, the officers laughed during beatings, saying, “You will die in this prison.”
More accounts are emerging of abuse meted out by police officers.
Almost all the violence has been directed toward Muslim residents. More people — at least 19 — have been killed!
Witnesses said that police officers opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition, broke into houses and stole money, and threatened to rape women.
Police officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill protesters.
The Indian police have become a lynch mob! Inidan police officers having been given the green light by senior officials to use harsh measures against Muslims.
A 20-year-old Dalit man was allegedly burnt alive over his relationship with a woman from another caste, the killing causing his mother to die of shock.
The victim was beaten up, kept hostage in a house and set ablaze.
Locals rushed to the spot on hearing his cries and took him to a local hospital. He was referred to a Lucknow hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way.
India : Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Telangana2018-09-20
A father attacked his 20-year-old daughter and her newlywed husband in the heart of the city on Wednesday, chopping off her left forearm and slashing her jaw. The incident comes days after a Dalit youth was mercilessly murdered in front his pregnant wife in Nalgonda district.
Police said the father was upset over the inter-caste marriage — the woman an OBC (Other Backward Class), her husband, B Sandeep (22), a Dalit. Sandeep and Madhavi Chary, in a relationship for five years, secretly got married on September 12, despite stiff opposition from her father.
Madhavi was left with a 12-inch gash on her neck and jawline and her left forearm barely hung by the skin. She was in a 10-hour surgery at the time of going to print. Sandeep, in another hospital, received 10 stitches to close the deep wound at the angle of his mouth; the attending doctors said he was in deep shock.
