Most of the Dalits or the Untouchables belong to the low-caste tribes. Their fate is to face violence and forced ‘social distancing’ at the hands of the upper-caste Hindus.
by Ali Sukhanver
On Jun 22, 2020, the Contact Group of the OIC held a meeting which was attended by foreign Ministers of the Azerbaijan, Niger, Pakistan, the KSA and Turkey. The meeting was called to have a detailed discussion on the worsening situation of human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was inaugurated by OIC Secretary-General Dr. Yousaf.
The participants stressed the need of finding a peaceful settlement of the J&K issue. The Contact Group reaffirmed the continuation of support for the people of IOJ&K and called on the UN Secretary General to make India abide by the UNSC resolutions and engage in dialogue. India was also warned to halt security operations against people of IOJ&K immediately, respect basic human rights, refrain from changing the demographic structure of disputed territory and settle the conflict under relevant UNSC's resolutions. Such types of statement and warnings are nothing new as far as the OIC is concerned. If the OIC were active and effective, the situation would have been altogether different in the IOK. Expecting a dead horse to win a race is itself a folly.
It is not only the IOK where human rights violations have become a routine matter; throughout India all minorities are facing the same fate. Every day, countless Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits have to pass through a grind just because they do not belong to the Hindu community. Once proud of its secularism, India has become a land only for the upper-caste Hindus; others are not allowed even to breathe freely. This is purely an inhuman approach and it must have been discouraged but unfortunately the members of the UN Security Council appreciated this approach by electing India as a Non-Permanent member of the Security Council. The UN Security Council is one of the most sacred bodies responsible for maintenance of peace and harmony all over the world. Whenever there is a situation of anarchy or civil war or any other type of disturbance in any country, it is the UN Security Council which decides about the deployment of UN peace troops in the troubled area. The Security Council is a very sensitive body of the United Nations, so the member-countries must be those having an unblemished reputation. In case of India, the situation is altogether otherwise. Those who voted for India in UN Security Council’s elections were well aware of mistreatment and injustice; the religious and racial minorities have to face in India. By supporting India they have done nothing but lent a helping hand to extremism.
According to a report recently published in the Christian Post, the early quarter of 2020 had been a very frightening period for the Christians in India. Attacks on Christians and their places of worship in India continued to escalate in both number and severity in the early months of 2020 with 27 violent incidents reported in March alone. The report referred to a document prepared by the United Christian Forum which pointed out 56 threats against Christians as well as 78 incidents of violence against the Christian community between January and March of 2020. The UCF said that all these attacks took place in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Goa. In most cases, the attacks were perpetrated by mobs objecting to Christians holding worship services. There are countless examples of forced conversion of Christians to Hinduism. Hindu extremists are threatening the Christians that they would have to face serious consequences if they do not change their religion. Same horrible situation is being faced by the Sikhs and the Muslims too though they have never been an easy pill to swallow but the worst of all are the Dalits.
Most of the Dalits or the Untouchables belong to the low-caste tribes. Their fate is to face violence and forced ‘social distancing’ at the hands of the upper-caste Hindus. Even their shadows are not allowed to touch the people from more privileged castes but when the matter comes to the rape of a Dalit woman, the Upper-caste Hindu men try to ignore all that ‘untouchablity’. On 13th January, 2020 an article of Sumanti Sen was published in The Logical Indian which said, “Four Dalit women are raped every day in India. Every time a Dalit woman or a woman from any so-called lower-caste is subjected to sexual violence, it becomes clear that the prevailing structure of caste and the status of women in society are largely responsible for the violation of their human rights.” Unfortunately this all injustice, cruelty and suppression are being done under the supervision of the BJP. As far as Hinduism is concerned, it never promotes hatred and harshness on to those who are not Hindus but the BJP extremists are simply deforming the serene face of this sublime religious philosophy. Actual problem is neither India nor Hinduism; the problem is extremism and the rigidity demonstrated by the BJP and Mr. Modi. The countries which voted in favour of BJP’s India for Non-Permanent membership of the UN Security Council must have kept all these facts and figures before doing so.
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