A Maharashtra village serves up ‘moral justice’ by gang raping and lynching a dalit family. That didn’t merit front page news in 21st-century, 10-percent-growth-rate India.
[This article by me has appeared in Tehelka.]
On September 3, Siddharth Gajbhiye finally paid the price for helping dalits in a clutch of villages in Bhandara district near Nagpur in Maharashtra. A dalit himself, Gajbhiye is a police patil, an associate of the police hired on an honorarium, and has political connections in the Congress. This gave him some leverage to be of help to the sprinkling of dalit households who lived in constant fear of the upper castes. One such family was that of Surekha Bhotmange, 45, who tilled her five-acre plot in Kherlanji village, along with her husband Bhaiyyalal, growing cotton and rice. In 1996, two acres had been taken away as ‘easement area’ to build a road, so that neighbouring farmers, who belong to the Powar and Kalar upper castes, could take their tractors across to other villages. Now they wanted more of their land for a water pathway, and Gajbhiye was helping Surekha resist that, despite allegations that he was doing so because he had sexual relations with her. Gajbhiye and Bhotmange were in fact cousins, belonging to the Mahar caste, the same as Ambedkar’s, and were practising Buddhists in the Ambedkerite tradition.
On September 3, a mob beat up Gajbhiye, the ostensible reason being his alleged illicit relationship with Surekha Bhotmange. Gajbhiye filed a police complaint against 15 men from Kherlanji village, 12 of whom were arrested. Surekha signed on the FIR as one of the witnesses and identified the 12 in a police parade.
Twenty-six days later, on September 29, as soon as the 12 men were released on bail, they were taken away in a tractor by their relatives. They got drunk and went to the Bhotmanges’ hut threatening to finish off the entire family. Then they went looking for Gajbhiye and his brother Rajan, an engineering student. On not being able to find them, the drunken group returned to the Bhotmanges’ hut and broke down the door. It was 5.40pm, Surekha was preparing the evening meal and the head of the family, Bhaiyyalal, was not at home. They dragged out Surekha, their 17-year-old daughter Priyanka, and two sons, 23-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir. Although Roshan was blind and Sudhir a graduate, they not only helped with the farming but also brought home extra money by working as labourers. Priyanka was more ambitious — a Class XII topper and an NCC cadet, she wanted to join the Army. Her mother had recently bought her a bicycle. But all dreams came to an end in a few harrowing hours.
The mob didn’t realise that Bhaiyyalal Bhotmagne and Siddharth’s brother Rajan were just a stone’s throw from their hut and had seen the four victims being dragged away to the village chaupal, Priyanka strapped to a bullock cart. By now, men allegedly from the entire village of about 150 Powar and Kalar families had collected. Some shouted to the sarpanch to allow them to sexually assault the women. They raped the women and killed all four, even as their womenfolk looked on, mute spectators to a form of justice reserved for castes lower than theirs. One woman, Sudha Dhenge, reportedly did protest but was slapped into silence. She now says she was never there.
Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked, beaten black and blue with bicycle chains, axes and bullock cart pokers. They were publicly gang raped until they died. Some raped them even after that, and finally, sticks and rods were shoved into their genitals. In the meantime, Sudhir managed to contact the police from his mobile phone, but his phone had been smashed. Its pieces are now circumstantial evidence. Roshan and Sudhir were beaten up, their genitals mutilated, faces disfigured and their bodies tossed in the air, before they lay dead on the ground. Hiding behind a hut, Bhaiyyalal helplessly watched his family’s gruesome end. There was no one to call for help. Kherlanji had only two Mahar families; the rest were either perpetrators or spectators. An hour later, a village meeting was called and a diktat issued: no one was to say a word about the massacre.
Siddharth Gajbhiye called the Andhalgaon police station, some six kms away, at 6.15pm, asking for help. As a frightened Bhaiyyalal escaped to another village to save his life, the four bodies were thrown at different places in the periphery of the village. Head Constable Baban Mesharam reached Kherlanji at 8:30pm and got wind of the incident, but did not follow official police protocol to register the report. The next day, when Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange went to the police station and filed an FIR, sho Siddheshwar Bharne did not believe him. It was only when the police patrol started flashing reports of the discovery of mutilated dead bodies on the wireless the next day that he filed an FIR. Constable Meshram and sho Bharne both stand suspended.
Photographs of the bodies of Surekha and Priyanka taken by the police showed sticks and rods in their genitals. By the time they reached the post-mortem table, the sticks had disappeared. A gruesome photograph of Priyanka Bhotmange’s body, with just a piece of cloth covering her genitals, is not being printed by Tehelka.
The post-mortem report by Dr AJ Shende on September 30 said that there had been no rape. “Doctors were managed and the police bribed,” Rashtrapal Narnaware, Surekha’s nephew, alleged in a statement to the fact-finding committee of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a regional farmers’ organisation. The bodies were later exhumed and the report of a second post-mortem is awaited. Bhandara’s police superintendent Suresh Sagar says that only if the post-mortem establishes rape can he include the charge in his investigation. The vjas is pushing for a third post-mortem as the due procedure specified by the NHRC has not been followed, and medical evidence of rape may never be established.
Thirty-eight Kherlanji men are in jail as accused, but Kishore Tiwari, president of the VJAS, says that some of the main perpetrators are still free due to political pressure. Apart from various sections of the ipc, the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, has also been applied by the police. “In cases where a mob is involved, the Atrocities Act has it that the entire village could be fined to the tune of Rs 10-20 lakh,” says civil rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves. The VJAS claims that there is an attempt to cover up the incident, and has filed a case in the Bombay High Court against the state police. “For years, Surekha had been trying to file a case against the grabbing of the two acres of land,” says vjas lawyer Vinod Tiwari, “but the police never filed the FIR.”
VJAS president Kishore Tiwari first read about the incident in the rural Vidarbha supplements of the Marathi press, which blamed it on Surekha’s ‘illicit relationship’ with Siddharth. Tiwari e-mailed journalists all over India and managed to get some Mumbai newspapers to report the massacre, but his e-mails to Delhi-based journalists were ignored.
On October 2, when lakhs of Buddhists from all over the world had converged in Nagpur to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Dhammakranti — Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism — the organisers kept quiet about the massacre lest the issue go out of hand in such a large gathering. The Maharashtra government has paid Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakhs, although according to the Atrocities Act the compensation should be Rs 2 lakh for every member of the family killed. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange only wants the perpetrators to be hanged.
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I understand that your heart is bleeding for justice. So, what are you saying, is this a law and order problem or something deeper? If the latter is true, have you investigated the fact that it was an OBC on Dalit action?
Reply: Unlike other reports, I found out the names of the castes of the perpetrators rather than just calling them ‘upper castes’. Yes, Powar and Kalar are both OBC castes.
As an addendum to my first question, given that the vast majority of atrocities on Dalits are being committed by powerful OBC landlords, what is your stand on OBC reservations?
Reply: Caste violence perpetrated by OBCs and others is part of the problems with caste system. Reservations are based on the idea of representation. OBCs have been kept out of the ambit of education by the caste sytem and need representation in what we call the mainstream. Taking OBCs along in India’s economic rise is important, just as it is important to take dalits along, and just as it is important to make sure that Dalits are not subject to violence. The three are different projects.
Final question, sorry to flood your blog bro:
Would you support death penalty for the perpetrators?
Reply: NO
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It really bothers me how few people have expressed outrage at this incident. We as a society have become insensitive to violence or even worse condemn it only when it happens to our ‘mirror images’ like Jessica lall & Priyadarshini mattoo. Even Barbarindian seems to be concerned with scoring points rather than expressing outrage.
I know the debate going on about death penalty but there has to be someway of doing more harm to the Psyche of the preperators of such crimes than what a life sentence can do. In absence of it, these people deserve to die.
Reply: Very clever of you to have linked to your post rather than just your blog in your name above. So it’s not just me who’s desperate for hits :)
@ Barbarindian : This incident says that OBC Castes need education. Being dominant in a village by virtue of being the majority caste / rich may be just a factor. Education is more important.
How to educated these guys, any ideas??
Reply: Your question is to Barbarindian but here is my take: Amongst other ways (spending more of the budget on education and health, improving the quality of education in government schools, making access to private education easier, etc.), lowering the merit bar a bit in higher education to help them integrate faster with modernity. Just as the merit bar was once lowered for the upper castes.
Shivam,
I am glad to see that MSM is finally picking the story up. Thanks for tirelessly pursuing this.
Reply: Please do ask any journalists you know to cover the story or to urge their organisations to do so.
Thank you for publishing this story. I hope you will publish many more like it, since many such incidents certainly happen daily, and get swept under the carpet. We seriously need to deglamourise the myth of superpower, 21st century India. We could be the universal nuclear power and have 20 per cent growth, adn this could still be happening. Unfortunately, a lot of us will just shrug and find excuses why the present development model is still all right.
Reply: Thanks. Please do ask any journalists you know to cover the story or to urge their organisations to do so. Yes, there are many more such stories, waiting to be uncovered…
I really think this needs to be told to as many people in the blog world as we can. So I am posting a link to this post in my blog. I hope you don’t mind. If you do plz reply so I’ll remove the link.
Reply: Why would I mind dude? I must be jumping with joy at getting more attention, hits and the prospect of writing assignments, and my superb ability at being able to exploit dalits, for whom I have no respect, just to further my own agenda! If you know what I’m talking about!
Anyway, do spread the word about the massacre.
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Shivam,
I think enough has been said about it in the blogosphere and maybe now you can do away with the sarcasm (I am referring to the reply to Pranay’s comment)
Reply: Oh, may be I can…
I agree with polite indian…
Reply: I agree with you…
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my sincere request. dont waste your time commenting on confused blog. leave them.
MSM represents the 90% of the public opinion ( i mean people living in major cities and towns) . most of the news papers/news channels doesn’t cover this incident as it doesn’t increase their TRPs.
as we all know, india bloggers are well educated and be the one who read these top news papers for their daily news feed. it takes some time for these bloggers to understand the other side of india shining.
as long as these bloggers are not affected by poverty and caste abuse. its hard to convince them about these issues (as men are the least affected by sexual abuse, we can see how hard it is to make men to undestand the trauma women undergoes)
Shivam,
This is the sort of incident that shakes one to the core, and chills ones bones. Isn’t there something we can do? Pressurize the authorities to see that justice is done? Send letters to the President, CM etc.?
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Prevention is better than cure.
A credible unemployment insurance (Rs 1000 pm) for everyone whether they work or not will prevent all socioeconomic issues in India viz dowry deaths, child labor, corruption, wage slavery, social exclusion, farmer suicides,etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Guaranteed_minimum_income#India
Reading this story brings up for me the types of feelings I had when reading “the rape of Nanking” or seeing photos of the malai massacre in Vietnam. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to participate in atrocities like this. I live in the US which haas had more than its fair share of atrocities – literally hundreds of black people have been lynched over the past hundred years – not to mention the complete annihilation of the native population which continues to be celebrated in westerns. Most people outside of India (and apparently many inside India) do not know the extent of the violence that is perpetuated against Dalits. It is vital that stories like this are told. We may be a long way from understanding the source of human cruelty, but we have break through the denial and acknowledge how widespread it is before we can hope to really address it. Keep publicizing cases like this when they come up. We all need to call more attention to caste based violence.
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Shivam,
Well written. Hopefully, this issue will receive more coverage in time.
Keep up the good work!
Reply: Thanks, and I hope so too.
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shame on you india..and shame on those who proudly say maharashtra is a modern state, a state of progresive thinkers. And what about those so called mentors of dalit communities, where are those MARATHA COMMUNITY PEOPLE. this community is more responsible for these kinds of offenses.
All the time we were thinking that its BRAHMINS, who are playing all sorts of EVIL things against BRAHMINS, but its a true fact that the MARATHA community (the powerfull upper caste in maharashtra) is more in action whenever these evil atrocities happens, and since the people in power are MARATHAS (AS usual since 40 years), this matter will also get dumped somewhere.
recently these maratha community has created new religion saying that they will welcome all backword clases, but seein these examples, one thing is clear that, they just want to be in POWER, and whatever their words are saying, they keep HATRED for dalits in their hearts, whcih broke out on occasions like these.
so my message for dalits is ..dont even trust these MARATHA COMMUNITY …we not only have to fight against the BRAHMINISM (in cultural ways), but we have to fight against these MARATHA-POWERISM (with force against this ).
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//Amongst other ways (spending more of the budget on education and health, improving the quality of education in government schools, making access to private education easier, etc.),//
I am sorry for not being able to explain my point in the first comment itself.
What I wanted to say was “Improving education of the OBC is the need of the hour.” Just because OBCs are able to commit a murder and get away with that does not mean that they are “dominant” and “don’t need help”
Actually they are “underdeveloped” and need education. In addition to the factors mentioned above, Reservation in Education is also needed.
“Dominance” through crude violence by a community is not a factor to avoid reservation.
You can see this is Tamil Nadu. The Caste Clashes have come down considerably with increase of literacy rates
//As an addendum to my first question, given that the vast majority of atrocities on Dalits are being committed by powerful OBC landlords, what is your stand on OBC reservations?//
The stand is that OBC Reservations should be given TO PREVENT THESE ATROCITIES
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This is the case just like bandit queen phoolan devi,But in this case phoolan(surekha) has died. These culprits and their relatives would become police and Other govt qualified jobs and will remain the same in their inner mentality. Culprits should be hang out inthe panchayat not in the jail, so the other would realise the trauma which surekha and her family went through…
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This is a great show by great Hindu cultural. Dr. Shendeji should get Bharat Ratna for this. The Orkut company must now be living in eternal bliss.
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You can see this is Tamil Nadu. The Caste Clashes have come down considerably with increase of literacy rates.
Please see the issues of Frontline or any dalit
magazine to know the reality.Bruno is trying to
give a misleading picture.Despite reservation
and education OBCs continue to committ atrocities
against dalits
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OBC is not a caste.OBC stands for Other Backward Class.People from the so called upper Caste who have lost either wealth or education due to the caste system come under this category.So naturally the origin of such mentality which was predominant in the so called upper caste in the past is still showing sighs of reccuring.Crush it now itself before it destroys entire nation.
@ Ravi – Can you answer few simple questions
1. Has the atrocities against Dalits increased over the past 50 years or decreased over the past 50 years
2. As of today, where do you see more atrocities – TamilNadu/Kerala or Bihar/UP/MP
Answer Please !!!
one of the greatest shame of our times.Are we going to be mute spectators of this incident or are we going to record our protest.but the Indian media is very clearly setting the agenda that is to be debated by the Indian civil society.are we still going to keep discussing isuues like did Shoiab Akhtar slap Bob wolmer or really speak out on such issues pertaining to religious attrocites and inneficeint democarcy.
Even dalits and buddishts at high posts are not able to work on thier will, still they are pawns in the hands of Indian Fuedal Syatem.In the khairlanji case district SP belongs to SC category and the doctor and civil surgeon who performed the postmortem were buddisht converts.
None of the national leaders have spoken in lenght about this issue.May be they dont find spice in this.Vud this session of parliamnet discuss this issue……
The reason for this silence, is just not apathy, as one tend to beleive, and then go on to prescribe ‘education’ as a panacea. In a country where only 6 percent of the population is 10th pass, it is important to understand the opportunity structures that facilitate or constrain people to move out of poverty or backwardness.
Does our values that put knowledge above labor, has any role to play ?
The need for ‘education’ is more for us (the priviledged), We need more people like Shivam for educating us, Thanks!
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Sivam, i’m a regular reader of this space. checked out yr article in tehelka too. I was a bit surprised on why there wasnt any outrage after this incident and many other similar incidents against dalits reported on a DAILY basis. why doesnt the 24\7 news hungry media not report this ? dalits are abt 15% odd percentage of the hindu population rite ? why dont they have a collective leadership.
today after the violence in mumbai and MH, the national media is outraged. they are asking why dalits are violent ? Do they really care abt how Dalits live or how many of them get killed or raped ?
Shivam Vij,
Thanks a lot for covering this. You’re doing a good job.
I fully agree with BVN. I consider Indian Media (TV) a new branch of prostitution. The are just out to sell anything that sells with little or no emotions involved. A look at any TV news channel is a windows to their immaturity, superficial knowledge of the subject, lack of preparation, subservient attitude, lack of committment and love for TRV rating rat-race.
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well i have decided what to do..i’m putting together a group of youngsters and no matter what happens if these guys r let loose they will be punished(the maximum)they will go through the same inhuman they had put the others through.
Its not just them but anyone who does things like this…we are putting together a forum were people canreport these kinda acts and justice will prevail and they will be PUNISHED!!!
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You have done a great job by publishing this, i’m going to write an article about this for my college magazine. Thanks a lot u have really opened my eyes.
The injustice done against the untoucheable people in India is beyond humanity.
All western people are warned of Hindu hypocricy. If Hinduism were such wonderful religion, why India was foreign-slave for more than 1000 years, and all Indians are begging to emigrate to West?
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India slams European Parliament resolution on Dalits
http://in.news.yahoo.com/070203/43/6brg4.html
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Conclusion…:
10% growth rate
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