I accept with great concern the grinding poverty which is the daily portion of a large majority of my fellow Indians. I cannot deny the poverty of my people. I refuse to be deceived by the glamour of the rich and famous because there is an even greater reality facing me in the slums, towns and villages of India. I want us to reach out to the poor and destitute of this land even as they commit suicide, sell their children, eat one meal a day, or sometimes starve and watch their children die because of a lack of medical care ~ Joseph D’Sousa (Dalit Freedom Now and Forever)
In February of 2010, I was given the incredible opportunity to spend six weeks in India, traveling across the nation with a television producer from Canada to investigate what was really happening on the ground. This experience impacted me in a way so deep and profound, that it has changed my life forever. Allow me to explain…
India is a land of dichotomies. I have witnessed opulence unparalleled by anything that my eyes have seen thus far, sandwiched right next to some of the most abject poverty imaginable. I have been wooed by the hospitality and warmth of the Indian people, only to be appalled by a newspaper story telling of yet another person murdered simply because of their socioeconomic background. I have been told time and time again, through media and press releases, that India is “shining.” Unfortunately, my experiences traveling around the nation of India have proven to me otherwise.
India is indeed an up-and-coming world power. This is not to be denied. With a booming economy and the world’s second largest population- some 1.2 billion strong and growing – India is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Traveling through Mumbai and Hyderabad, two of the booming, modern cities of India, one might see at first glance a progressive, modern society. However, buried deep below the surface of this “modern society,” ripe with technological innovations and modern commercial facilities, lies a system of government sanctioned oppression and discrimination so merciless and so thorough – so pervasive and so “normal” – that it has almost become invisible. Underneath this unrelenting taskmaster, some 250 to as much as 900 million people – known as the Dalits – struggle to survive from day to day, their life constantly being threatened by a system that views them as less than animals. This is the tragedy of our modern day. This is India’s Hidden Apartheid.
What do you know about “The Dalits” ?
Nothing? Me neither, until about four months ago. And, after traveling all throughout the nation of India, gathering story after story of merciless and systematic religious and governmental oppression, I am firmly convinced that the Dalit situation in India is THE human rights atrocity of our modern day. The only thing worse than the situation is the fact that the issue is almost completely unknown by the vast majority in North America! The Dalits are a group of people AT LEAST 300 MILLION strong (depending on how you categorize the various Dalit groups) that have and STILL ARE experiencing some of the MOST ATROCIOUS discrimination and subjugation in existence today!
If you want to talk about “Modern Slavery” and Human Trafficking – 80% of the “Modern Slaves” today are Dalits! They are the “Untouchables.” “However,” Indian government officials would (and do) say, “the practice of “untouchability” has been abolished in our constitution. It is now illegal, and no longer exists.” Oh that I wish this were true.
But friends, I have been seeing it EVERY DAY! I just interviewed a woman whose son and grandson were murdered by Upper Caste members from her village, all because they were Dalits. Her son was smart, and the Upper Caste villagers did not think that a Dalit like her son should be smart and so well spoken. So they dragged him into the woods and murdered him, then dropped his dead, mangled body off in his father’s shed.
When the father found his dead son in the morning, the upper caste members of the village quickly took him and burned him. In their words, they “conducted the funeral”. Hence, no evidence. NO justice. Does this sound unbelievable to you? Well it does to me too! But I have sat and listened to people from Dalit communities across the nation tell stories like these, and ones even more horrific, over and over again. The extent and level of oppression is truly unbelievable. The Dalit people are treated AND EXPLICITLY TOLD that they are sub-par human beings. They can’t drink from the same wells as upper caste members. They can’t go to the same schools. They can’t even use the same glasses in restaurants or coffee shops! AND, this is all happening in a “democracy”! I love India. A LOT. I love the food, the people, the landscapes, the architecture. BUT I HATE (and I KNOW that God hates) what is happening to the Dalit people!
“Do they live on the streets?” You might ask.
Some yes, and some no. In Calcutta, around 100 MILLION live in the streets! In other places, they might live just outside of major cities or in rural villages
“How do they know they are Dalits?”
Some can identify an individual as a Dalit by their complexion (i.e. darker skin, different facial features). Others can be identified by the father’s last name or occupation (Dalits are ONLY allowed by their society to have certain, VERY DEGRADING jobs). When parents go to send their children to school, they are forced to say what caste they are from, and this in another way that Dalits are identified and discriminated against. In fact, in over 30% of the PUBLIC SCHOOLS Dalit children are forced to sit separately from the other upper caste children during lunch! And, in over 20% of government schools, they are not allowed to drink FROM THE SAME WATER FOUNTAIN!
My brothers and sisters, this is THE human rights atrocity of our modern day! How did we know nothing about this?!
The answer is unfortunately not because of a lack of knowledge on the issue. Quite to the contrary, the Indian government makes it a high priority to cover up most of this information, keeping it from the public eye so as to not alert global public opinion and thereby jeopardize their chances of becoming a global leader. And how do they do this, you might be wondering? Quite simply actually. Brahmans, who are the upper caste of Indian society and comprise the top 4% of Indian society, are primarily the ones in top positions of media, government, foreign relations, and business. They are also the ones very directly benefitting from the caste system, and the resulting subjugation of the Dalit people. Their wealth, position of power and social dominance is at stake, and from 3,000 years when the caste system was instituted up until present, no mass movement has ever been initiated from within the upper caste groups to eliminate this horrible system.
God is so BREAKING MY HEART for these mercilessly oppressed people. We can’t talk justice and NOT TALK DALITS today! It is impossible. My heart is being broken (and ANGERED) at the horrible injustices I have seen here in India. Pray for me. Pray that God does ALL that He wants to do in my heart. Pray that He fills my heart with LOVE for the people of India, and HATRED for the EVIL I am seeing. I want both. “You who fear the Lord, HATE evil,” right? Back to questions …
“But I thought Gandhi did something about this issue – didn’t he?”
Yes and No. Interestingly enough, while Gandhi is revered in the West as an almost demigod figure, and elevated to the level of a human rights hero, he is not quite so highly thought of in the East – or at least in India. Joseph D’Sousa, in his book “Dalit Freedom Now and Forever” explains that while Gandi did work for the abolishment of the practice of “untouchability,” he neglected to address the greater underlying issues: the caste system. He writes:
I agree that Mahatma Gandhi was indeed a great soul … he was a true apostle of non-violence and a peacemaker of communities. His non-violent struggle for Indian independence was unparalleled in a human history strewn with violent struggles for freedom.” However, “Sadly, Gandhi’s legacy is marred because he did not adequately address the issue of the abolishment of the caste system itself Gandhi settled for dealing with only the principle sympton of the caste disease: untouchability. That was a huge mistake. So much so that the very word Gandhi created to give dignity to the Dalits, ‘harijan, is today one of the most derogatory words that can be used for the Dalit-Bahujan people (D’Sousa 77).
In stark contrast to Gandhi’s term “Harijan”, which means “Children of God,” the Dalit people have rejected this term, and given themselves the name “Dalit,” which means “Broken” or “Crushed.” They have chosen to give themselves this name to symbolize their current state of being oppressed, as well as to symbolize their struggle for liberation.
So THOSE are the Dalits. THAT is the issue and YOU are the solution. Will you join the Dalits in their struggle?
“Buy a Bracelet. Free a Slave.”