On September 14th 2020 a 19 year old Dalit woman was gang raped and murdered by 4 men. She was severely injured and died 2 weeks later at a hospital in New Delhi, the capital city of India. The woman succumbed to her injuries on the same day that another Dalit woman this time aged 22 also died in a separate gang-rape incident. Amid the nationwide uproar and protests over the two incidents, police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where both victims hail from are to hand the 19 year old’s case over to the (Federal) Central Bureau of Investigation and that two men implicated in the 22 year old’s case ‘may be tried in a special ‘fast-track court’.
Dalits or ‘Untouchables’ are outside of the ancient Hindu caste system, which divides Hindus into rigid social hierarchal groups. The caste system is comprised of 4 main categories: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and the Shudras. Outside this system of social stratification, are Dalits who face caste discrimination and bias in all areas of life. In both rural and urban communities of India, the caste system often traps individuals into fixed social orders and leaves so called lower castes vulnerable to various forms of discrimination.
The deaths of these two young women have put into sharp relief the existing caste system and the plight of Dalits and lower castes and on the countless cases of sexual and other forms of violence against India’s Dalits, who make up over 200 million of India’s population. Infographics flooded social media last month with hashtags such as #DalitLivesMatter when news broke of the two gang-rapes and the susceptibility to abuse of India’s caste system. In an era of increasing social media activism, voluminous information about Dalits and their struggle made its way onto Twitter and Instagram leaving readers shocked and often questioning why such an outdated system was still in place.
One of the most shocking examples of discrimination that frequently takes place as a result of this system is sexual violence against Dalit women. Sexual violence in India is widespread, and largely due to the patriarchal nature of India’s society. In a country where marital rape is non-criminalised, it comes as no surprise that women face a socio-political gender bias which excludes women from society and increases gender disparities. Women from marginalised groups however, (such as Dalits) are unfortunately not marginalised by the politics of gender alone. In fact, it is those who exist at the ‘intersection of gender and caste’ that suffer the most discrimination.
Caste, class, and urban and rural divides are more than just a string of circumstances that contributes to their discrimination. The intersection of gender and caste reveals the legitimate links between such factors and cases of sexual violence in India. Different levels of social exclusion arise from the intersection of two or more of these factors, so when looking at caste based sexual violence it may be useful to use the feminist process of intersectionality to identify the structural obstacles individual women experience. For example, women from rural areas of India generally face far more layers of discrimination than their urban counterparts. This is often due to poverty, lack of job skills, childcare, and other obstacles that contribute to routinised forms of oppression- including (but not limited to) sexual violence. This, compounded with a caste system which is commonly exploited to take advantage of those from lower caste groups often exacerbates the vulnerability of rural, Dalit women.
Dalits in Uttar Pradesh have a history of fighting against oppression from those of upper castes and Dalit women have always been an easy target. In the case of the 19 year old, the 4 men who were responsible were Kshatriyas, the second highest of the 4 social classes. Also known as ‘Thakurs’, this group holds a disproportionate amount of political representation in Uttar Pradesh along with Brahmins (the group at the top of caste system). A result of this is that the exploitation of caste-power doesn’t start and end with the rapist alone. In fact, the use of caste to reinforce power and authority can be identified within local authorities and the judicial system. Asha Kowtal, general secretary of All India Dalit Mahila Adkhikar Manch (a prominent Dalit women’s rights group) told Al Jazeera “We know so many cases where the family of a Dalit rape victim first goes to the police station, but they are chased away”. The systemic prejudice against Dalits not only costs them their lives, but slows down police investigations, reinforces caste- based politics, and maintains a social hierarchy that often protects those from upper castes.
Due to the the complex nature of intersectionality with respect to gender, caste, and class it becomes particularly important to contextualise cases of sexual violence in India. Rape is a weapon of control, and a caste system that perpetuates the abuse of power and control over others presents a complex link between caste and gender violence. This link makes the multiple layers of discrimination Dalit women face more clear, and sadly more disturbing.
Conversations surrounding the discrimination of Dalits in India cannot start and end with social media campaigns, but instead must be incorporated into social justice agendas by people from all over the world. We cannot separate the persecution of Dalits in India from the persecution of Muslims in India, nor can we separate the persecution of Palestinians in Israel from the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar. The process of intersectionality will continue to aid conversations and form solidarity movements, which I hope will eventually result in long-lasting and meaningful change across all borders.
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Fourth Floor is a West London based collective dissecting the world and promoting young creatives across the globe.