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In the land of Guru
Nanak untouchability continues to be rampant, with elite Jats dominating the
economic-social-political landscape of the State. A series of atrocities on
dalits after the Talahan (Jalandhar) incident in April 03, has resulted in
growing dalit resistance across the State.
The latest has been
the Hasanpur incident in Sangrur district. Near the pond at Hasanpur, on one
side lie the houses of the Jat landowners and on the other lie those of the
Dalits who work on their fields. Through this pond runs an invisible line: the
landowners live on the northern bank, the dalits on the southern. On Oct.11 that
line was breached sparking off the most violent caste clashes since April.
Twenty people were injured, mostly dalit women, when they got together to stop a
Jat farmer from ploughing the dry bed of the pond, he had taken on lease from
the panchayat.
Tension has been
simmering for the past one year. The common land around the pond, which had been
used freely for generations by the dalits began to be usurped by the Jats.
First, ganging up with the Jats of 12 neighbouring villages they built a
gaushala (for aged and ill cows) on this land. Then in April this year, the Jat-dominated
Panchayat, decided to lease out this common land. Although dalits also bid in
the auction the land was handed over to a powerful Jat farmer, Jagtar Singh. As
contradictions intensified the Jats imposed an economic blockade on the dalits,
refusing to employ local dalits on their fields. Dalits continued to use the
land. On Oct 10 the Jat leaders complained to the local police about Dalits
using the pond land. The next day Jat leaders gathered at the community gurdwara
and called for action against dalits. Fighting then broke out when the dalit
women were injured. Later a deal was struck, with the Jats being forced to
accept most of the Dalit demands.
But the Hasanpur
incident is only one of many that are occurring throughout Punjab. Again in
early October Jat landowners opened fiire on dalits in a field in Sahipur Tanda
near Patiala, injuring five dalits. The dalits were ploughing Jat-owned land in
defiance of a boycott, called after the village elected a dalit sarpanch. A
month before the Patiala outrage, Jat farmers in a village in Hoshiarpur
district, called a boycott against dalits after a dalit woman candidate defeated
a Jat in the local elections.The distict of Jalandhar alone has seen seven
clashes since April. And so the incidents go on and on.
Today, in Punjab,
caste discrimination is blatant — socially, politically and economically. In
most Punjab villages, in defiance of the Sikh scriptures, there are two
gurdwaras; one for dalits and one for Jats. Jats dominate the bulk of the
Panchayats and other political life of the people; dalits have little say.
Although dalits comprise over 28% of the population of Punjab, only 7 to 8% of
the government’s Plan expenditure is geared to their welfare — half of them live
below the poverty line.
Though dalits are
fighting back against this centuries-old discrimination, the struggle should not
turn into a dalit vs Jat battle; but a battle of all democratic forces against
those specifically practising caste discrimination and atrocities. The ordinary
Jat peasantry must be educated to give up any such practices and not ally with
their caste fellows to terrorise dalits, or even remain silent observers.
Particularly, the powerful peasant unions must get out of their deep-rooted
economism and be in the forefront to resist these attacks on dalits.
Particularly those unions with revolutionary leadership must show the way. It is
only then that the impending caste conflagration will turn into a class
conflict, targeting the elite Jat farmers and state machinery, which are the
chief instruments of oppression in the region.
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