Triple murder of Dalits fuels the ongoing caste tensions in rural India
Despite systemic discrimination being banned decades ago, a string of killings highlights the prejudice against those at the bottom of society
PUBLISHED : Monday, 01 December, 2014, 2:31am
UPDATED : Monday, 01 December, 2014, 2:31am
Agence France-Presse in Javkheda
Dalit villager Rajendra Aage and his wife with a picture of their murdered son, Nitin. Photo: AFP
Down a bumpy track in western India's rural flatlands, a small farmhouse marks the spot of a mysterious triple murder that has sparked protests as far away as New York.
Sanjay Jadhav, his wife Jayashree and their teenage son Sunil were found chopped up and thrown into nearby wells in late October, drawing shivers from some of their fellow Dalits - those formerly known as "untouchables" in India's rigid caste hierarchy.
They fear that the usually peaceful Javkheda village, where flower-garlanded portraits of the dead family hang on a wall, has become the latest example of deep-rooted prejudice against those at the base of society.
"We are in danger. It could be us tomorrow," said Sindhu Dharsalvi, a Dalit farm worker living in a small settlement of tin-roofed huts in the same Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state.
India banned caste discrimination decades ago, but suspicions around the Javkheda killings show the issue remains a toxic and highly sensitive one.
The deaths mark the third high-profile case of Dalit murders in Ahmednagar since early last year, when the body parts of three young male cleaners were found in and near a septic tank.
Several higher-caste men were arrested in that case, believed to have been motivated by an inter-caste love affair, and the matter is still in court.
"Dalits have completely lost faith in the government as well as the police. The question haunting them is: why are Dalits being murdered?" said local activist Baba Rajguru.
Whether the recent Javkheda deaths were in fact caste-related is a matter of speculation - despite 100-plus police officers working on the case over the past six weeks, the motive is unclear and nobody has been arrested.
Police suggest the culprit is probably from the Dalit community, while rumours point to an affair with a higher-caste woman, a property dispute or even links to communist guerillas. But the victims' Dalit status has drawn a stream of politicians, activists and journalists to the village, set amid jowar and cotton crops, where police are keeping watch.
Rallies have been held in Indian cities and in New York, where a global Dalit group submitted a petition to the United Nations chiding the "clueless" police and calling for Ahmednagar to be declared an "atrocity prone" area.
"If it doesn't get solved, the relationship between us and the Dalits is going to get worse," said Javkheda's village chief Uddhav Wagh, himself of the higher Maratha caste, in his spacious home.
Uneven progress has been made in loosening caste restrictions since India's independence in 1947. The constitution abolished "untouchability" - the custom of ostracising low-caste workers who were seen as "unclean", and who usually do jobs such as rubbish disposal.
Now known as Dalits or the "oppressed", the lowest caste has become a potent electoral force, regularly wooed by politicians.
Another Dalit killed this year was 17-year-old Nitin Aage, who was beaten and strung up from a tree. Police said he was attacked after being seen talking to an upper-caste girl.
"The upper caste people thought there was no point in talking to my son so it was better to kill him, which would also spread terror across our village," said father Rajendra Aage, who crushes stones to make a living.
He said despite a flurry of arrests and initial interest in the case, proceedings had stalled.
