In the 24th year of the twenty-first century, Ajay Parmar, a 24-year-old man, whose fate made him born from the womb of some woman identified as Scheduled Caste under the law was mercilessly beaten by men born from wombs of women identifying themselves as upper castes, in one of the most economically advanced states of India, Gujarat. Though diminishing in occurrences over the years, such incidents justify the nomenclature – Dalit ( The Downtrodden) – which should be a matter of shame for any society in the world to be used for a fellow human being.
The crime of Ajay Parmar, an autorickshaw driver in the Sayebapur village in Himatnagar taluka of Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat was to upload a photograph of himself wearing a turban ( Safa) and sunglasses as DP on his Instagram account. “Aggrieved” by the trespassing limits of humbleness imposed by society and expected from people born in communities considered lower in status than theirs, four men confronted Ajay Parmar near Navanagar bus stand and assaulted him brutally for his offence.
“Man Beaten For Wearing Safa and Sunglasses” or “Man Beaten For Riding Horse”, could be the weirdest headlines only found in the spoof news internationally, yet they find their place in serious media regularly in India today, along with the news of Union Budget 2024–25 allocating USD 1,55,79,21,135 ( Rs 13,042.75 crores) for the Department of Space. As late as June 2023, exactly similar incident occurred in the Mota village near Palanpur, Banaskantha.
Such incidents are certainly traumatizing for the victims, but also showcase the ugly truth of the society we live in. It would be easy to condemn the culprits and move on, but it would take real effort to think of the culprits as actual victims of a frighteningly narrow mindset in an India that prepares itself to take a “quantum jump”, in the words of Prime Minister Modi. India would not leap further if she is saddled with men in their twenties so insecure of their identity to be tarnished by a random boy wearing a piece of cloth on his head and covering his eyes with cheap shades.
It is a sad reality that caste identity plays an important role in Indian society. Indian election exercise, a fabulous democratic exercise hailed the world over for its efficient management, is also a blatant display of caste equations. It would be not surprising that the assaulted person in the news today would be considering some other people as an inferior lot to his own. Such is the marvel of Indian society, which includes not only Hindus but Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians as well, that everyone gets to enjoy being contemptuous of someone perceived below.
While it is important to report and document the ugly reality, virulent protests and punitive actions against the perpetrators of such crimes would serve as a band-aid only. the real reform would come from making people understand that birth in a certain place is purely a matter of coincidence. You don’t have any hand in choosing the home you are born in, hence all men and women are equals, distinguishing themselves from others later, through the acquisition of knowledge and good manners. Till the time young men would continue to be beaten for wearing safas, sporting sunglasses, and fancying a horse ride on the day of their marriage, the debate on the validity of continued reservation on the caste basis will continue to rage on, with a slight tilting in favour of “Dalits”, literally meaning “oppressed or broken.”
The FIR in the incident dated July 17 has named four accused namely Kirpalsinh Rathod, Manusinh Rathod and his son, Hitendrasinh Rathod and Shukalsinh Rathod.
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