In Tamil Nadu, untouchability is so deep-rooted that there are separate burial spaces for Dalits and upper castes even in some urban pockets. “Samarasam ulavum idame Nam vaazhvil kaanaa Samarasam ulavum idame… Jaathiyil melor enrum Thaaznthavar keezhor enrum bethamillathu Ellorum mudivil serndhidum kaadu Thollai inriye thoongidum veedu Ulaginile ithuthaan Nam vaazhvil kaanaa Samarasam ulavum idame…” (Here, in this place pervades equality Which one could not have seen ever in one's lifetime! Steering clear of caste discriminations Such as the high, the low and...

A Supreme Court judgment projects the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old immigrants and that pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present Adivasis, rather than Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of India. If North America is predominantly made up of new immigrants, India is largely a country of old immigrants, which explains its tremendous diversity. It follows that tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects are...

To ensure a free and fair trial, the Supreme Court has transferred a trial relating to mayhem of Dalits allegedly by Upper Caste Hindus in Haryana’s Hisar district in April to a special court in Rohini in Delhi. A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly ordered the transfer on Wednesday “to ensure that the trial is free from any fear or pressure from any quarter”. The...

The upper castes, it seems, are not the only ones who discriminate against Dalits. Three Dalit men in Rajasthan were fined R15,000 each by their Muslim sarpanch (village headman) for drinking water from a public tap on Wednesday evening in Randhisar village, 90 km from Bikaner town in the northwestern part of the state. The trio, Beer Balram Meghwal, Sattu Ram and Nandu Ram, has lodged a police complaint. “We were drinking...

Untouchability was not so much a sin as a calculated crime. But it is easier for everyone, even some victims, to treat it as a sin, for acceptance of moral culpability costs nothing. The recent walkabout (padayatre) of Basavananda Maadara Channaiah Swamiji, head of a Dalit matha (gurupeetha) in Chitradurga, in a predominantly Brahmin-inhabited agrahara in Mysore, and the cordial, indeed reverential, welcome he received highlight the changing formal perceptions about...