Caste in iron

While the unacknowledged apartheid of caste continues to blight India in many everyday ways,open caste wars are proliferating in Haryana,much like Bihar of a few decades back. Khap panchayats and their atavistic,cruel judgments are only one manifestation of the way caste relations continue to choke Haryana. A Jat social structure,the khap is a cluster of several villages and castes in Haryana,it continues to enforce medieval injunctions against mixed-gotra marriage,and it does so with social intimidation and violence. Young couples who dared to fall in love have been killed in cold blood,their families ostracised. And yet,it is only as recently as last month that a sessions court awarded a fitting punishment to such acts. And yet,khap leaders were defiant,insisting that caste honour transcended state law. Public officials and enforcement officers condone the structural injustice of these systems,explaining it away as a custom,an age-old tradition in the region. This is fed by the worst kind of political complicity parties have tended to slice and dice the state by caste,into exploitable votebanks. Given how feeble real panchayati raj institutions are,it is in their narrow interest to keep the distinctions sharp,and their electoral mobilisations effective. In fact,the Haryana government has even defended khap panchayats,claiming that prosecuting them under the Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act 1967 would be a rash step,and would destabilise law and order. Identity assertions have become more and more raucous in Haryana,encouraged by a cynical politics.

No matter what the police weakly mumble about providing security,there is no answer to the anguished question these Dalit villagers ask: where were the police when members of their community were burnt to death? For two days,the police dawdled,knowing full well that this violence was anticipated. Caste violence clings on in Haryana because it suits everyone to keep this polarisation politically potent. Unless the states political formations realise the danger of perpetrating old oppressions for short-term electoral benefit,the situation threatens to spiral entirely out of their control and management.