You can relate to the first paragraph of this article only if you’ve watched the latest video story of Jayraj and Fenix by RJ Suchitra. What a gruesome death they both met. All the accused should be punished grievously.
Hello There readers’ I am a Dalit. And I hate how every Dalit issue becomes just a Dalit issue because we don’t talk about it in ANY LANGUAGE. So this article is in the voice and language of a Dalit. This article is to explain in details what happened to Viraj Jagtap during the early week of June, in Pune Maharashtra and how atrocities against Dalit are never acknowledged. This Dalit boy was completely innocent and this is what the UCs did to him.
This incident took place on 8th June 2020 in Pune Maharashtra. What exactly happened. Accused were 6 UC members of the same family. Viraj Jagtap was middle class Dalit boy who fell in love with a UC girl. As soon as the fact came to light, the girl’s family was dejected. Following is a series of incidents that took place on the night of June 8.
Viraj was on his bike when he was deliberately hit by a mini tempo driven by one of the members from the girl’s family. He was knocked down. He stood up and he started to run. They hurled him down. Hit him with metal rods and huge stones. As he fell, 4 men pinned him down on the road, other 2 hit him again with metal rods and smashed him with huge stones. Two out of those six were juvenile. While he was lying in blood soaked trousers, the girl’s father spat on him. Viraj was racially abused, the girl’s father made casteist remarks against him for daring to pursue his daughter.
Entire incident was narrated by Viraj himself before breathing his last on the hospital bed. Just like Jayraj and Fenix, viraj was also a hard working middle class dalit boy. Besides studying, Viraj ran a small transport business to support his family, his only family was his mom. This is just one case I have brought up. This is one Floyd in India. In India everyday a Floyd is harassed, suppressed, tortured and killed. But Indians are what fools? They don’t witness what happens around them. Though they condemn some of the brutal happenings but a Dalit is always disregarded. Who is this Floyd in India? Usually a Dalit. We raise our voices and condemn racism outside our own country ignoring the immense level of racism and casteism in our own backyard.
There are scores of cases against communal torture and harassment but I wish not to lay those cards on table because the extent of brutality is to a lesser degree and people were not dead. I believe it only matters when someone is dead. People don’t talk about it unless one is dead. And they never talk about it at all when one is a Dalit. I want to know how monstrous people expect a particular crime to be so that they demand justice for it or merely condemn it.
May I exhibit here few cases against Dalit atrocities which were effortlessly ignored during this pandemic from January 2020 from June 2020, if you will.
- 14th Jan, Dhanprasad Ahirwar age 24, burnt alive in Bhopal.
- 29th jan, Ananthu Mohan, age 24, stabbed to death in Tamil Nadu.
- 26th feb, Ramdas tupe, age not known, lynched to death in Aurangabad.
- 14th march, Bhimrao Gaikwad, age 17, beheaded in Aurangabad.
- 18th April, Kishore Ravidas, age 55, shot dead in Bihar.
- 27th may, Arvind bansode, age 32, found mysteriously dead in Narkhed.
- 6th June, Vikas Jatav, age 17 shot dead in UP.
- 8th June, viraj Jagtap, age 20, lynched to death in Pune.
India has a fair amount of such cases, enough for all of us to post on social media and demand justice.
I have come across few humans who deny the occurrence of such lynching reality, they are breathing under unusual kind of utopia where above mentioned horrendous crimes are no where to be found, and according to them we are living in 2020, here we are equal and at peace. These people with their mini brains are on the sea shore having a good time and screaming BLACKLIVESMATTER, assuming they are criticising racism and fighting for justice. Little do they know what’s exactly happening deep inside the sea, they prefer to stay away.
But the truth they fail to perceive, they themselves are being part of social injustice in reality by yelling BLACKLIVESMATTER on one side and excluding and neglecting the impoverished humans of their own society. How is this a fight against racism? Matter of fact is we all are part of this injustice. Denying the truth doesn’t change facts. Who will stand up for these impoverished Dalits? Only the Dalits will stand. The Dalits are fighting, their fight is real, however their fight and struggle is left out of sight by the society. The UCs take vanity in being born as and in a higher class, they take pride in doing so, do they know what exactly they are part of and what kind of brutality they impose on the underprivileged. They should turn around and look at the real world and be ashamed of what’s happening and who is initiating such crimes.
If this is not MARGINALIZING DALITS then what is?
Concluding here we Dalits know, a Dalit who is a victim has never got justice in the past, is not getting justice today and will not get justice tomorrow. But we will keep fighting and raise voice against injustice. We’ll make efforts to preach and practice buddhism. As quoted by DR. Babasaheb Ambedkar “I LIKE THE RELIGION THAT TEACHES LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY”
written by Sharaiu Taidae