10. THE VILLAGE

This mammoth land with mammoth social, religious and economic cruelties land cannot be described without any mention of its inhuman, callous, insensitive, brutal and cruel villages. They are the epitomes of servility and disparaging wretchedness. The cowardly villages, with stinking caste system favoring elites, are spread all over. It is a shining proof of the glorious heritage of this spiritual land which mocks at the sunken faces of the lower strata; it mocks at their humiliation; it laughs at servile bowed down heads; it exploits them with Dharmic claws. And nobody cares. The villages are different in sizes; some are large and some are small. There are under populated and overpopulated villages. Some have housing clusters adjoining each other and some have disjointed housing clusters. The villages are imbibed with casteism that is the soul of the Hindu Dharma. The thrashed psyches of the Untouchables are buried under it. Their personalities are suffocated, their lives unbearable, their conditions hellish, their dignity tattered, their shadows polluting, their bellies empty, their selves insulted, minds uneducated, and they are followed everywhere by the insulting high caste eyes. And all this, is, under the name of divine, pure, sacred  and eternal Sanatana Dharma. And the mainstream is proud of its heritage. The born-insulted have never experienced the pride. They are the worthless human beings.
A large part of population lives in rural areas - a little less than seventy percent. These villages, where the worth of certain human beings is equal to trash, were considered the epitome of self-sufficiency. The villages were thought to be stable, and, without any violence - peace reigned grandly in the favor of upper castes. The roaring railway engines pierced the calm, peaceful and serene soul of these villages, during the British period - it is alleged. The cruel roar of cruel engines harbored the voices of modernity that played the havoc with the independent ancient Varna Dharma, tormenting and gashing the soft and pure psyches of believers in superiority by birth. Earlier the people in the villages were perceived to be mutually cooperative while living in natural peace and harmony. They lived in a kind of innocence - away from the manipulative materialism of the West. And everything was in contrast to that except enforced tranquility. In such a system, everybody was well adjusted to his position in the eternally exploitative caste system. The social, economic and religious powers of the twiceborn were unchallenged - across the generations. The fort of the caste system was unassailable for thousands of years because of isolation and insulation of its villages where the wretched caste system thrived and thrived and thrived... The Untouchables were (or is it "are" and not "were") not supposed to take the breath properly for the fear of breaking the social equilibrium. The engines came and people buried under the crass social system started to take some breath, which caused unbearable and excruciating pains to the pious defenders of the Varna Dharma. Their souls creaked and ached.
Anyway, it was quite a merciful system where the lower castes lived at the mercy of the compassionate and pure upper castes. They were born in this system; and they accepted it as their true living condition, which was not far away from reality. It was a fait accompli. Their honor was ground to dust. It still is. The lower caste people lived a life resigned to their fate, and, a permanent piercing downward social thrust. Their cruel, twisted and wrenched destinies were written by the pious lawmakers, years ago, in the time unknown. The powerful towered above the wretched ones. The life, absolutely, produced no upward bounce. The life was quite lifeless for the Untouchables. Allowing the upward bounce would have been stinkingly aDharmic. Any summons from the high caste people created the trembles in the impure hearts. The trembling spread from head to toe. The skin shrank sensing terror. The fear along with uncertainty engulfed them and their families. The fear instills wisdom in impure people. The divine retribution fear, the fear of going hungry, the physical fear and  the fear of paranormal power instilled the wisdom - the wisdom to be servile and be resigned to a condemned fate. The usefulness of servility dawns upon them very early in life - an Untouchable child is well prepared for servility in an environment of terror, ever lurking fear and the insults round the corner. The frightened legs move hastily with all the strength they could muster to the safe destinations and follow the orders. The fear takes a special liking for the frail, famished and utterly defenseless people. It fuses with them fully. And anything that can separate them is prevented by the closed gates policy of the Hindu society. Help them? You must be insane! Keeping them condemned was totally rational. And it was the sacred aim. The Hindu society cannot be said to be irrational when it comes to the interests of the elites. It is a righteous society!
 Everybody knew his place in society and behaved accordingly. The lower caste people showed deference to higher caste people who showed it to still higher caste people. Contempt moved piously in the opposite direction. The Untouchables prostrated or crawled on the ground on which the upper caste people moved. They walked with their eyes downcast, head bowed down, shoulder stooped, meek gait, and sunken and hungry bellies, and torn out clothes; so that the Dharma was maintained. Their upright posture hurt Dharma; so it was avoided scrupulously. Contempt and hatred flowed downward and respect flowed upward. In this exchange the time stood still across the generations altogether. It is a dharmic way of exchanging pleasantries - few kicks at the backsides of the Untouchables. The insulting eyes follow them across the generations. And ears are ever ready to hear the expletives. The contemptuous looks also easily moved across the generations. The time stood still. The still time cuts across the generations. The still time needed a stiletto which arrived in the form of a railway engine.
It was a time of eternal exploitation and eternal bliss for the permanent dharmic exploiters across the generations. It was eternal Varna exploitation. At the bottom of society were the Untouchables who lived at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village. Or otherwise they lived in the areas which were least beneficial. For example, in the flood prone areas, they live on lower land; the higher castes live on high land. In water scarce areas, they live far away from the water source; the water abundant areas are occupied by the high castes.
Tempering with the soft and velvety temper of the higher castes can cause a terrible storm in their self-discipline. One should be mindful of it. The frowning pure faces are not good for the Untouchables. They start quivering when they face such frowning faces. The elusive, impure and malicious impure people with their wretched karmas dare to raise their heads against the pure and pious people with untraceable accumulated virtuous karmas of previous lives! There is no match - the pure would win.
These people with slandered status dare to slander the people who have reached the sublime heights by crippling others! This ingratitude has no limits and should not be tolerated. They better know about our famous tolerance otherwise thick blood flowing on earth would be used to remind them of reality. The harsh gates of hell wait eagerly for the impure people who dare to slander us.
You impure people should kneel. Kneel and kneel, and drop your honor at our feet; it is righteous behavior for you. Behave properly. These lowly are fit to lick our shoes; after all we are the pure people. How can you forget your culture and tradition? A rotten man has rotten roots. But one should not forget his roots. After all, a rotten root is still identity and deeper it is better it is. You squalid fellows, you are not destined to rise up in life. You never had a stomach for this. The knowledge, the knowledge - you are never going to get it in the traditional India.
Any elegance refuses to creep in any transaction between the Untouchables and the pure people. The hidden contempt for the condemned people is all too evident no matter how sweetly the upper caste people speak. The transactions are embedded with pure silent malice. And lower strata people cannot afford malice against the pure people and pure dharmic intentions of the pure people.
Their compassionate souls cringe with pain at the mere sight of any Untouchables. The gashed hearts and slashed minds would not allow them to sleep. The damage caused by such mental torture should be compensated. Their well-disposed sleep should return. Their pure hearts should not be spiked. The cries for help from the Untouchables drive spears through their hearts. The spears long enough to penetrate the mighty Himalayas. The high caste people with high morals and ethics take the pain of savagely beating Untouchables for the cause of Dharma. It is their sacred caste duty. And it is highly ethical and moral also. Due to the sacred and unadulterated priorities, the impure blood flows on the earth mingled with the dirt.
These lowly creatures should not be ashamed of taking birth in servant castes. Their crooked accumulated karmas are responsible for this. Nothing is personal about it even though the alleged karmas are not traceable and not linkable with the present life. It is all unknown. After all, who could fathom the divinity and especially the divinity that dances at the chanting of the mantras?
The people lived like the masters and the servants. The slavery was avoided because of the captive labor and the barred entry of the impure Shudras and the polluting Untouchables in the houses of the upper castes. The purity had to be maintained. This encaged labor could be summoned at the whims of the upper castes. There was no escape from the system for the Shudras and the Antyajas. If an Untouchable wanted to escape from caste system then he could go nowhere as caste system and the untouchability is, unofficially, pan-Indian phenomena. An Untouchable remained Untouchable wherever he went. And if he had to require the conjugal bliss then he had to come back to Untouchables of his caste who were known to him. Without his caste identity no conjugal bliss was possible for him; nobody was willing to marry a person with unconfirmed caste identity. Even the conversion to another religion was useless because the earlier converts (who were generally from high caste relative to him) refused to provide him a girl in marriage; the casteism had been exported to other religions also. The Shudras and the Antyajas need not be kept in invisible chains because they were already crippled. The higher and lower Varnas were like the eternal masters and their eternal obedient servile servants. Any objections please! The servants were generally kept at a safe distance. The consideration of purity kept them separate from each other. The castes were internally closely knit but were not the disparaging societies. The higher ones lorded over others. There was little violence in the village – not needed because of servility of empty bellies. The land owning castes usually maintained a private army of musclemen who were tillers on their land. The violence, anyway, was unnecessary because the Shudras and Untouchables were not allowed to carry the arms; it was a demilitarized society where the lower strata had no right to defend themselves. They could not create rivers of blood where as the Kshatriyas had free license to create the rivers of blood. As there were no Kshatriyas in South India the role of Kshatriya was played by the land holding Shudras. These Shudras (land holding - the pseudo-Kshatriyas) are called dominant castes that played the role of Kshatriyas of saving the Dharma; their dastardly caste Panchayats decided everything for the still lower castes and the Untouchables - we call these people as the pseudo-Kshatriyas. They could kill anybody except the Brahmans. Creating a river of blood is not necessary to force the defenseless people into submission; only a threat could do; and coming from the weapon holding people the threat was real. The general population was demilitarized. The disarmed local population was standing meat for any army. Therefore, the villages after villages moved away, along with their born-brave people, from the path of coming and returning armies. The village came back to its original village when the army left. This avoided the outside contacts; the pure and innocent villages remained untainted (?) from the onslaught of any foreign army! Sense of loyalty to the local ruler? What sense of loyalty! Well, as a sign of loyalty to the local ruler the villages ran away, with its Kshatriyas etc., and refused to face the armies! After that, everything continued as if though nothing had happened. These tactics made the villages insulated where the caste system thrived under the ghastly institution of Panchayats. The villages remained the same and essential the caste system in villages remained the same - this isolation made the caste system to flourish as any outside interactions were avoided and the village layers stayed in equilibrium with each other be exerting equal average pressure on each other. A demilitarized society served the purpose, silently. The meekness in lower strata is a Dharmic virtue. Only the Kshatriyas, the soldiers and the land holding castes were allowed to carry the arms. Any conflict between the land holding castes and the lower castes would have been one-sided show of arms. The demilitarized population contributed significantly to a stable and harmonious society. The three ancient, stable and still existing civilizations; India, China and Japan have one thing in common. The general population in all three civilizations was demilitarized. This, by and large, prevented the successful rebellion by general population. The lack of arms and land or any kind of any other asset hardly provided the Shudras and the Untouchables with any force or motivation or platform to rebel. They had to face the enemy with bare hands, empty bellies and without any support from anywhere. Their curled up sagging bodies ready to meekly answer any call from the masters make for a perfect picture - hardly any rebels.
In absence of weapons, how did the Shudras enter into a serious argument with each other? Both the weak parties used agriculture equipments and bamboo sticks for such purposes. Entering into a serious argument with the Kshatriyas was beyond their capabilities. God created bravery and rulership of the Kshatriyas needed a disarmed population to lord over! Hardly strange! The population had to be weakened to affirm the strength of the Kshatriyas. The amazing bravery, it was. The lower castes willingly acknowledged their servility because of the crippling handicaps imposed on them by the Vedic Dharma; over a period of time this servility became inductive behavior; this was inducted in lower caste children since childhood through observing the behavior of their seniors – in this way the traditions were developed. Only when they grow up, they know the real cause; they come to know that their forefathers were right. They did not have much alternative. Bare handed it was difficult to rebel against the armed people on whom they depended for their sustenance. The lower castes did not dare to show any violence because they knew the horrible consequences of such an act. The retaliation would have been swift, cruel and murderous. Any show of violence was a self-defeating proposition for the dependent people living in the mud huts, hovels and wearing torn clothes. Thus, they avoided violence. All the low caste people lived peacefully under the fear. Speaking one's mind out! You must be joking! Tell me it is not true, no? It is a joke only and nothing less.
The sole aim of the Untouchables was to minimize their wrenched sufferings. To be in dire strait is a normal existence for an Untouchable. The miseries; eternal, manmade, predestined miseries follow them even in their mud huts. The miseries follow them while they work on others' land. The miseries of being born insulted. The misery of watching their women being dishonored under the great culture of the great land pierced their numb minds. The miseries followed them while they walked. The miseries of half-filled bellies; the miseries of being denied water to drink; the miseries of wearing the ragged clothes; the miseries of watching the whole family being insulted; the miseries of watching their whole community being insulted – it is a hot river of the never-ending miseries. The twisted pains, the twisted miseries, the twisted sufferings, and you call it a human life?
The miseries existed prior to birth and will exist after death. The lowest stratum is always predestined to swim in the swamp gutter of the miseries - all this indicates what a great Dharma it is? If anybody talks too much then the his miseries would be wrenched. Further, the sufferings would also be wrenched so do not talk too much.
The powerful did not, actually, use the violence frequently but always kept it ready in their armor - wrenching the miseries was usually enough. The weak could not resort to violence. Therefore, the violence was minimal and Dharma was happy. It was an eternally Dharmic situation - across the generations. Apart from each other, the Brahmans chanted the mantras and the skinners tanned the skins. And never the skin tanners crossed, willingly, the paths of the pious, pure, powerful and paranormal lawmakers. They deliberately kept away from the Brahmans; desired by the Brahmans; safe for the Untouchables. There was smooth and rampant treading of crippling casteism on the lives of lower caste people which did not create any backlash but only ineffective and silent murmurs, silent cries and silent sobbing which were not destined to go beyond their mud huts.
And this was the innocence that was broken by the roaring steam railway engines. It is alleged! Indeed, the chilling innocence was killing.
In an Indian village, the segregated people of different castes are found who live separately. Hate and respect move in the opposite directions. All the innumerable castes in India are not found in a single village. From outside one can never guess the caste nature of an Indian village. From outside it looks like a random cluster of houses. However, there is a strong caste pattern in this apparent randomness - the divine pattern which defeats this seemingly randomness. There are many adjoining clusters of houses in the village. There are clusters alongside the clusters. The people belonging to a given caste live in the houses or huts that are clustered together - the helmet. Sometimes there is a considerable distance between clusters of houses. The high caste people live in the important area of the village which is usually the middle of it. Their houses are usually big and large. Other castes live around them and in clusters. The Untouchables usually live at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village. The inauspicious people live in the inauspicious direction - a simple harmonious condition. Such positioning meant that they absorbed all the bad vibrations coming from the inauspicious southern direction. This direction is considered inauspicious probably from the Rig Vedic days when the settlements of the Vedic people were prone to violent attack from the southern side where the natives of the land lived. Considering the history of this land, the northern direction should be the inauspicious because all the attacks on land come from there.
The Untouchables, generally, have their small mud huts in an isolated corner as an indication of their poverty and isolation. These hamlets have mud huts with hardly anything inside them. They have hardly anything to sleep on; few torn and ragged clothes to put on, few old cooking utensils and a small box. And a constant worry of how to keep the impure bellies full next day. This small box can hold inside it more things than they can ever hope to accumulate in their lifetime. The earning abilities granted to them by the sacred and pure Varna Dharma can easily be dwarfed by a handful of grains - and they desperately seek a handful of grains. An altruistic perfectionism! They were awarded the eternal penury. This should not come like a bolt from blue to the reader. The moist eyes will have no effect here. The Untouchables have been living under these conditions for thousands of years. And the heritage glows and glows.
The segregation is a natural characteristic of the caste system. Castes themselves are segregated groups of different endogamous people. There is hardly any intermingling; even they do not take the food together - a strong show of disparaging disunity! The area of one caste starts at the end of wall of the last house of a cluster of another caste. These areas never intersect each other though many areas may be adjoining. The people belonging to a given caste hardly talk to people from another caste in real terms because they have nothing in common to talk about. Any talk should be only on the caste basis otherwise it has to be salutations and their acceptances. All socialization among different castes is only pretension because those who cannot eat together cannot talk together. Any conversations among different castes are need based only. The high castes with high morals and ethics show a disparaging behavior in relation to lower strata and the lower castes are not so far behind when dealing with still lower castes. There is complete dissociation as they do not take part in each other’s social functions. Only religious, ritual, economic transactions take place between them. The lower strata cannot address upper strata by their proper name, only honorifics (in English these could be: sir, my master, my lord, the compassionate food giver) are allowed anything else results in the process of showing them their rightful place in the righteous manner. And that results in holy violence and few broken bones of Untouchables.
In this great cultural heritage and purity, the underground sacred stream of hatred and contempt flows freely. These streams come over ground when the two castes meet together. The steam of respect moves in upward direction. The hate and respect never cancel out each other. The environment in the village usually appears to be cordial and friendly; everybody goes around doing his job according to his place in the social and economic system. Each caste is a society in itself; insulated and isolated. It is logical because for the marriages they do not need other castes. The absence of relations means insulation. This insulation and isolation provided the purity in society, exactly the disconnected bloodlines. People are separated from each other in their hearts, minds and blood. The Indian villages are actually a net of different villages in which the aspirations of the Untouchables are throttled. As far the social connections are concerned, the Indian villages are not independent. The social society is pan-villagic because people marry outside their village. Thus, the people are connected to the people of same caste in other villages through paternal relations.
People from different castes do not have any affinity with each other. A man from a given caste is friendlier with a man from same caste and not with a man from a different caste. The same caste men from different villages are treated like kith and kin by each other. In fact, caste is an extended kinship that cuts through the village limits and goes beyond. And it is simply because of extended blood ties. The village people can always be undermined to favor the caste - anyway that is the rule. This loyalty to caste is maintained from place to place, from cities to cities, from villages to cities and even to foreign countries. The Indian Diaspora is known for its castiest nature. Anyway, the caste has been exported to Muslim and Christian populations in India. It might be due to the fact that the high caste people who converted insisted on maintaining their high castes status. The Muslim ruling class also insisted on keeping itself separate and higher than the native converts.
In any group, the moment the caste identity of a man is revealed the feeling within a group undergoes a metamorphosis. It changes to affinity if the person is from the same caste and to contempt and hatred if the person is from a lower caste and to respect if the man is from an upper caste. The caste space is the actual place where one mentally and emotionally lives. The village is the physical reality. The village is not an emotional and mental construct to which one can relate to and have loyalty to. The attachment in the villages is mainly to their caste (extended blood ties) and the caste cluster of houses and to their piece land, if they have any; other things are irrelevant. The Indian Diaspora maintains its loyalty to caste; it is inherent in their well-honored roots.
 The Untouchables are segregated outside the village, and, prohibited from taking part in any the village social functions. If they are allowed then they are allowed in such way as to confirm to their insulted status in society. Their major contribution is the unpaid labor for which they are paid with leftovers in a separate corner. Glorious! Is it not? Nobody can accuse the high caste people of treating the Untouchables as human beings. Try it!
The land was held or controlled (as representatives of the state) by the high castes but all the people depended upon it for their survival. The land holding castes owned the lifeline of the village. The land was held by the high caste people and tilled by the Shudra tillers who are the forever-servants in Hindu society. In South India the land was held by the dominant castes (pseudo-Kshatriyas) among the Shudras in the absence of the Kshatriyas. The casual labor was provided by the Untouchables; they were the eternal polluted bottom of the glorious heap - whether in South India or North India. They provided lowly paid labor and worked from field to field.
People from different Jatis provided different equipments and services to be used in agriculture. They were mainly ironsmiths, carpenters and leather workers. The carpenter and blacksmith provided the plough. The leather workers provided the large water carriers made of full size buffalo skin for carrying the water from well to fields, along with the shoes. The potters provided the pots to be used in the homes. In exchange they were given their share at the time of reaping the crop. Those who were not directly related to land got their share directly from land owning castes in exchange of their services. Sometimes the artisans were given a small piece of land to till to provide its services to the entire village.
All got their shares does not mean that they got equal shares or enough food. If you expect enough food then you are making grotesque expectations form Hindu society because that would corrupt the Dharma and force it to make grotesque faces. Your demands scar the face of the Dharma. The share was usually fixed for every Jati. The share they got was barely sufficient for survival. It was a fine show of non-cruelty by the landed castes; it goes by the name of mercy and responsibility of the upper castes; it resulted in half starving low castes; empathy goes to the dustbin. It is difficult for a fully bellied man to adjust to insulted status, so they were kept with half empty bellies to facilitate the smooth march of the wheels of exploiting Dharma. The food was not sufficient for the Untouchables and the Shudras. Sometimes they had to eat the bread made out of fodder or grass. Sometimes they had to eat the grains cleaned out of cow dung. Glory of glories! This cow dung grain was given in wages and not free. Glory does not seem to fade away. It insulted the lower two strata but added fine shades of superiority to the personalities of the higher Varna people. Such a spiritual treatment was never seen; nothing like freezing and demeaning inhumanity or a burning desire to humiliate the lowly human beings; but simply an ancient river overflowing with eternal compassion for the two lower strata; and a cool, calm, soothing, self satisfying breeze flowing in the superior and purer clusters of high caste houses; there the ethereal selves walked a dozen feet high in the air with ever broadening radiant smiles; the quiet jubilation knew no bounds; after all their superior selves could force the Shudras and the Untouchables to eat the grains cleaned out of cow dung. Such a show of unsaid eternally tormenting superiority was quite common in the Hindu society. This goes to show that there was more than sufficient food to feed the animals of high castes but not for the human beings. Human beings? I must be joking if you go by the treatment met out to lower strata. It is a fine piece of Varna exploitation. What a gracious animalistic treatment!
 Did anybody say anything about the exploitation of human beings in the materialistic Western societies?
Frequently, the Untouchables had to go to the houses of the upper castes and take the leftovers at the gate itself like the servile servants or beggars. They move from house to house and get it wherever it was available; - the permanent Varna exploitation in an eternally pious, pure and sacred Dharma. They were grossly underpaid, which forced them to go to the houses of permanent sacred and pure exploiters to beg for the food with servility. Sometimes, they had to compete for the food directly with the animals like dogs and cows in an utter show of equality with animals in a dharmic manner - this destroys the absence of the notion of equality in Hindu Dharma - animals and low caste people were equal - thus equality was there. Was it not?
The Untouchables were required to take out the carcass of dead cows and other animals out of village, and throw it, at a far away place. However, they were forced to eat the meat of the dead cow out of poverty. They could not afford to buy the meat of a butchered goat. This was the meat of a cow that was not butchered or slaughtered; but the one that had died due to old age or some kind of disease. It came for free. It was the carcass. The carrion was left for them out of dharmic pity; watch for the over abundance of pity here. And for this, they had to compete with the vultures and kites, a grand and predestined event leading to equality between them. This equality is evident in the glowing faces of the upper castes.
Of course, the Varna Dharma does not know anything about humanity or equality. Does it? Why should it? Find a reason man!
The harsh insulting voices in the ears persuade the Untouchables to develop the servility in them in order to survive. The burning polluting eyes run the fear of being gauzed out. The courage is throttled by the poverty.
The atrocities against the Untouchables were not very infrequent even when they had to bear the eternal insults along with economic and social crippling in order to survive. What a fearless society! The brave upper castes in the villages were not afraid of anything! They were not afraid of anything except the invading armies; then their bravery tucked its tail between the legs and ran away, hurriedly. The invisible hanging sword of atrocities deters the Untouchables from making any noise or move. The sacred sword of atrocity was always hanging over the heads of the Untouchables. Whoever dared to go against the confirmed rules of the dharmic society was punished severely along with his Jati people in that particular area. The Hindu society does not differentiate much between a man and his Jati – told you a man and his caste are the same. A man is judged according to his heredity group. The crime of man from one of the lowest Jati is the crime of his Jati; the punishment is collective with an aim to teach the exemplary and cruel lessons, whose effects could be sustained, to these people. Of course, the high castes can commit no crime; whatever they do is all for the benefit of society and Dharma. Actually, the unsafe and insulted Untouchables have faced the Hoodlums rule (goons' rule) for 2500 years; a small period of jubilation for the upper castes; they earnestly desired it to be interminably extended; just to make the life easy for higher strata. They are not satisfied with ninety nine percent of the bread they want the whole bread - they want it till eternity. The more the atrocities were committed on Untouchables, the more pious were the upper castes, and more was the dharmic content of society. Their hands are smeared with blood but they are clean and pure because smearing them for the cause of Dharma is a sacred act. This is the beauty of the caste system. Committing atrocities is a finely devised way to increase the dharmic contents of society. The grisly and self-gratifying details are left to those who play like instruments into the hands of pious lawmakers - earlier the kings used to be among their puppets. One more noticeable and crucial feature is that the lawmakers rarely move a finger in these cruel atrocities - look, no hands; and they get away with it. They sleep well, soundly and peacefully; their conscience is clear – very scruples people. Why bother? Why lose sleep over worthless people instead, it is a time for celebrations. And you know there are no grisly acts in a pious and pure society. Are there? What you see is a thousand years law and order problem; a simple problem that is solved at local level; totally unconnected to any other issue. Local inhuman laws and local inhuman customs, you know. It all local and small; it is not a big deal in Hindu society. Therefore, mind your own business. Leave it to pure and good people who are the grand masters in compassion in this quagmire. We, the pure people, are never bogged down by the trivial problems of the worthless people.
The dirty hopes of these despicable people of escaping from the atrocious caste system will be hanged to nearest tree or tied around its trunk, and burnt alive. What a marvelous, fabulous and awe-inspiring scene that would be! After all, we are high caste people with high morals. Nobody can beat us in ethics and morals! Got it? We sleep soundly! We have no problem in getting nice and satisfied sleep! Guilt feeling? What is supposed to be that? And they grin from ear to ear.
At the time of atrocities, the most trusting things are legs. With the help of legs, they make a valiant run to escape and save their life from the brutal people. What the people, without any means to defend themselves, are supposed to trust? They depend on their legs in hope to run fast to avoid a broken leg or two or a dead body. It is a competition between busting and crumbling legs, and the will to live. The drizzling fear turns into a pour. The running legs gather some more power. But if they fall then the deadly end may be near. The mortified wounds stay in a stupor that is clearly reflected in hapless eyes when the blows come. Anything can win but the Dharma always wins. A savage thrashing is enough to clear the clouds of gloom from the pure faces.
Their retrograde desire of not having trembling knees must be expunged from their minds. Having impure knees which tremble at the sight of the pure people is a desirable attribute in this traditional society.
As far as the leftovers are considered, it looks like that there was a pact between the high castes and the Untouchables that if the Untouchables did not compete for the food with the animals like cows and dogs then the high castes would break their heads. Or the Brahmans were given a boon by the almighty God that the Untouchables would compete with the animals to get food from them. How sensible it is! This very soothing element of Varna Dharma sinks deep down the hearts of lawmakers and others. The consequences of not competing with the animals for food were self-destructive for the Untouchables. They should treat all the crumbs we throw at them with respect. After all, the dogs treat these crumbs with respect! Do you, the impure people, not have as much as understanding as the dogs? What a disgrace! Also they should treat the insults we throw at them with respect. That is the way the world should work - the righteous way.
If they did not depend on the leftovers and the cow dung grain, they could have starved to death. Additionally, any violence from the weak people was immodestly punishable - may be the punishment was modest because being holy it upheld Dharma. If few heads were broken and brains splattered on the streets, it hardly mattered. The atrocities committed in past and present are the proofs of highly cultural and spiritual attitude of the highly spiritualized people. The hatred flowed like an overflowing Amazon. Amazingly, the hatred is borne out of purity. Any doubts? This hatred infuses the environment. In India, one moves in this hate infused climate so long, that, one begins to be acclimatized. But, remember you are always moving in a hatred fused environment. Hatred, hatred, hatred, …
The purity is repulsive of impurity. The purity repulses away the impurity; it also shrinks away from impurity. That is it, the repulsive force of hate. Period.
Next, we will see the traditional human treatment of Untouchables in the innocent villages. Some people consider the villages as innocence personified, far away from the bad effects of the exploitative modern materialism. Of course, the inhuman villages are devoid of any element of humanity, but even after that they are considered to contain an inbuilt pure, pious and ancient innocence. Strangely, this pseudo-fact can be easily digested by the Hindu activists and the intellectuals - it nourishes them, adds a layer of lard over their bodies and minds. The use of the idea of “innocent villages” is to sustain the cultural superiority and hide the reeking wounds and the warts of the isolated village society which piously crunches away the tattered dignity of Untouchables. The disappointment eagerly awaits those who are looking for any sensitivity or humanity in the Indian villages. You might come with some hope and might leave with a feeling of wretchedness. The traditional Hindu society is a crunching machine that crunches away any element of humanity.  
 The Untouchables do not have the reach up to the common village well. This keeps the standing water in the village well pure. They have to have their own well or they have to use any other source of water. Animals like dogs and buffalos may share this other water source - see the equality - no room for complaint is left to the dogs and the buffaloes! According to the Rig Veda the water is a great purifier; however, the touch of an Untouchable can pollute the standing water. Now what happens when the purifier is polluted?
Then, these evil famished people have a heinous thought of drinking water from the village well. The village well! How vile and impure are the thoughts of the impure people! What a devious way of thinking! These conniving Untouchables want to quench their thirst for water by drawing water from the village well! These deceptive rascals are on a treacherous mission. Their thinking is poisoned. Their minds are vitiated. They are misguided. They are our brothers but do not ask for water; they can share the water with the dogs, cats, cattle and pigs etc. Sacrilege it should be if they draw water from the village well. Sacrilege and pure sacrilege, these people should care for our purity and sensitivity. Look at our sensitivity. Out of our sensitivity we keep them out of villages and majestically treat them with crumbs and expletives – the legendary sensitivity and compassion. Or the coercive methods can be used to extract our pound of flash. These impure and polluting people are totally crude, insensitive and insensible; few kicks or a savage thrashing should push back the sense in them.
Their venomous thoughts must be buried at all costs. It does not matter because all the cost would be borne by the Untouchables. An atrocity is in order. No mean shade. Everybody lives happily after. Only some people are left with crippled limbs; there are some bodies lying here and there; and all of the Untouchables have fled the village. Thanks to the untraceable, unknown karmas and the man created divine Dharma. The people with dark karmas have dark lives and future. But even with the stupendous lack of evidences all the dark karmas are confirmed! Nothing strange about it.
The delighted hearts jump several feet in the crowning glory. They have just set the things right. A minor aberration in the form of an atrocity has just taken place bringing the harmony in the system. How beneficial is this, only pure minds can understand! Its understanding is not meant for the foolish people. The use of force and other methods are a part of dharmic ways of creating harmony; these forces force the behavior of the lower castes in harmony with their low status.
Back to polluted water now, we are. If the basic need of life, the water, is polluted then it can play havoc with Dharma of people in general. Everything will be thrown out of gear. Anybody using polluted water would get polluted. Many would use it. Then the Dharma of many people would get corrupted or destroyed or infected. This would result in lowering of dharmic and social superiority of the concerned people. The dharmic content of society would go down. How aDharmic! How sinful! Some would still be pure and some would be impure. The people belonging to the same caste would no longer be equal because some would be pure and some would be impure. Their understanding of each other would get adversely affected. They would not know how to treat each other. Nobody would be sure about Brahmans' purity for reciting Vedas and worshiping the gods. Nobody would know who is high and who is low. There would be total dharmic confusion. This sinful chaos should stop at once! There would be nobody pure enough to teach Dharma and complete the rituals. If highs become low then what would happen to lows. It would be total chaos if allowed to happen; the order, the divine order would break down. It would be catastrophic down to the last pore of Dharma; a greater tragedy than that cannot happen; it is a catastrophe. Thus, the Untouchables should be kept away from village well water to maintain the social fabric, social stability and harmony - nothing personal about it; it is to maintain peace and stability in society - a much wider cause then the cause of the heathen Untouchables. Dharmically ruined life of an Untouchable should not ask for more. He has got four limbs. And that should be enough of a possession! Do not get greedy; see, all this world is Maya, reserved, for the pure people! And the low castes shall have none of it.
What one should expect of people who are denied water, food and clothing? And then a slandering campaign is always on against these people across the generations. Dharma Shashtras are the standing proofs of this slander.
A look at the Untouchables and pure hearts are torn asunder. The fear of pollution is, almost, terrorizing. These torn and soft hearts must be sewn. Bring some thread and needle! Or the blood of the Untouchables should be enough?
The Untouchables are still searching for their crimes, which caused this exclusion, forcing them to use the water shared by the animals. Nobody is coming forward with any proof. However, the Untouchables dare not approach the village wells, not meant for them, as few splattered brains here and there do not matter. Few bloodstained bodies lying here and there on the ground assure the high castes of their superiority, and the purity of their Varna, and their ability to defend the Dharma. The flash of Untouchables looks good only when it is torn and crushed in the cause of Dharma. The blood flowing on the earth is merely dirty red thick water that comes dirt cheap. It waters the dharmic roots, and the compassionate tree of Dharma grows few inches taller. This would assure the souls of tormentors thousands of years in heaven for such brave and dharmic deeds against the totally helpless people. A resounding and self assuring success is achieved. Even some of them would get the Moksha straight away within this life. Sanatana Dharma would be eternally thankful to them. No, that is wrong; the Brahmans can never be thankful to any Hindu; see it was their (the tormentors') Varna job they were doing - so the pious people are not obliged. The impure souls of the heathen Untouchables would be separated from their impure bodies, and, would take the birth of jackals, dogs, lizards and insects etc. in their next life as a due punishment for taking the water from the high caste well, resulting in violation of Dharma. The heavens had never been happier.
Therefore, the Untouchables have to search for another source of water other than the upper caste wells. They may have to tread for miles altogether but they would do it even if it were scorching sun. They have to avoid the death at the hands of Dharma defenders. They have to minimize their sufferings.
 Then a few people going without water is immaterial; Dharma is supreme. Otherwise, the bitter trenches are dug in the hearts of pure people. The horrendous wounds they cause are unimaginable. The trivial sufferings of pure people are more important. The pious thinking is totally impervious like a thick stone.
This infallible and supreme Dharma suddenly developed paralysis when it faced the Muslim invaders and the British colonizers. It immediately went into a mode of capitulation and submission. Egoless cooperation with such adharmic people - the cow-eaters! The Cow-eaters!!! The divine superiority abjectly mingled with the dirt and nobody objected but everybody objected to the use of the village well by the Untouchables; perfectly logical; only the weaponless people with half-filled bellies could be shown Dharma but not the adharmic people backed by full armies. The village well cannot be used by Untouchables though Dharma can be buried under the feet of Muslims and British. The priorities were clear-cut; rule of Dharma in case of the Untouchables, and subordination to Muslim rulers and British colonizers; a clean and crystal clear piece of thinking; knowing which side of the bread is buttered; bending with the wind and hunting the hare.
The smirk on pure faces grows and grows until it is thrown away by the sight of an upright Untouchable. Spontaneously, a huge frown sticks to their faces. Dharma is in danger!
You wicked fellow, by not getting up in the presence of higher caste people, you tear asunder our psyches, and the divine forces should now show their divine face to heal our psyches through various means that may also mean beating you to the pulp. The elegant and aesthetic means like burning down their homes, breaking their bones, killing them with impunity and dishonoring their women would be used. A very sensitive society, indeed! Do not say you were not forewarned. And do not say we are not civilized! You have no right to complaint! Indeed, you have no right at all! Got it! The pain which our minds suffer is beyond ordinary sensitivity. All these rascals are trying to trample upon our honor by raising their voices and walking on the streets in our presence.
And should an Untouchable stand up without servile attitude? The heavens would creak. It would be quite contrary to dharmic ways. An Untouchable is supposed to talk, walk, wear, eat, sleep and behave his insulted Jati. Or his divinely allocated permanent social station in the life. Who is he to interfere in this cosmic plan laid out by the pure people? All his acts should be in perfect alignment with his lowest status/station in society. It is quite painful and mentally destabilizing for an upper caste to see an Untouchable getting out of this alignment. It cruelly wrings their minds. Their soft minds are battered by such acts of Untouchables which are above their station in life. The perfect geometry of alignment of the caste with the behavior has to be maintained. No cracks should appear therein; it looks dharmically ugly; and no high caste aesthetic man can tolerate that. Harmony is harmony no matter what. The way of living of an Untouchable should be in harmony with his insulted status. Otherwise, it makes pious high castes maniacal and emotional wrecks. It makes them stupendously angry with a perfect degree of righteousness. It is sufficient to send them in a maniacal mind set, causing grave injuries to Untouchables and total destruction of their huts. They are very sensitive! No? Nobody can ever accuse them of not being geometrically aesthetic. And they cannot also be accused of not believing in harmony. The low caste tyrants go around, smartly dressed! It is a cruel piece of tyranny which excruciates the soft and delicate minds of the upper castes. This tyranny brings grief to Dharma. Therefore, it must be stopped. Now a dazzling piece of bravery should appear in the form of an attack on the defenseless Untouchables caste people. And the grief in the hearts of high caste people is brought to an instant end.
Whenever they find that the Untouchables are going out caste geometry alignment or breaking the harmony between their heredity status and behavior; they take the appropriate and righteous actions. These simple, effortless and trouble free acts are arson, killing, burning the thatched huts of Untouchables and raping their women. Should one take it seriously? Seriously? You must be joking! Please spare some compassion for the tradition and the glorious honor of the upper castes. If it pierces your brain then spare your compassion for the lawmakers. That is the way it should be - traditionally and unofficially. This does not mean sparing your compassion for cruelty embedded in the Dharma Shastras - not, at all. We, the upper caste people, tell you that cruelty in Dharma Shastras is a piece of fiction.  Evidence? What evidence? What stupid evidence? Are you going to believe our Dharma Shastras or the mountains of evidences? The worthless evidences of worthless people, you are going to believe them!
The desire of impure people is hanged on the nearest tree. O' impure man, look closely, it is there and hanging. If you still do not see it, then please, please and please, see it. Otherwise, you may find yourself hanging there.
The upper castes do not see any meaning in seeing a well-dressed Untouchable. They think it is purposeless, and, the particular Untouchable is aspiring for too much, unnecessarily getting out of alignment with the dharmic social structure and thus tormenting their pure mind and genetic system. Why should they not do the job they are born for or made for? It is an affront to upper castes and their dignity. It wrecks their pure hearts and minds to pieces; here you will hear the sound of broken hearts and cracked minds - all upper castes! And all this happens because some Untouchable has done the dark deed of wearing the decent clothes. The order must be restored. The tattered clothes should be back only then these pierced minds will come to a tranquil state. Any Untouchable ought to be satisfied with getting two square meals a day; filling his belly should be the highest ambition for him. That is the limit imposed on him by the Varna Dharma. If he is dressing himself well then he is crossing the ethical limits; it is unethical to hurt the dignity of the higher castes; no Dharma-abiding Untouchable should do it. It is demeaning for higher castes to see a polluted man going around the village in decent clothes. By wearing decent clothes, he is being indecent to others. The decency incorporates indecency. The honor of the Untouchables implies dishonoring the high castes. And the dishonor of the Untouchables means honoring the high castes. Some Untouchable has been indecent enough to wear the decent clothes? Now he has to be fixed for that. His forefathers never dared to do it. No high caste can bear such social indecency; it is a matter of honor. The Untouchables were never in a position to face the wrath of the upper castes and they are still not. It is not for him to fill the gap in clothing between him and the upper castes; he is supposed to know his wretched place, his insulted self, his twisted Karmas. He shall not dare to come out of his wretchedness. Otherwise, breaking few bones of such a recalcitrant Untouchable is quite satisfactory to righteous, moral and ethical high castes. Thrashing badly an Untouchable is like thrashing the wheat to get the best out of it. It takes them out of an agitated state of mind caused by the clean clothes of a recalcitrant Untouchable. The tattered and dirty clothes are to be brought back if Dharma is to be saved. The respected higher caste people are humiliated by the sight of stood up and non-servile Untouchable. And if there are many such Untouchables then the humiliation gets compounded. See, these heathen people are so cruel; they go to any length to humiliate the pure people.
The Varna Dharma morality dictates that the Untouchables shall behave their divinely ordained guttered status. The Untouchable shall not indulge in such acts which offend upper castes, and, that is dharmically final and settled. He shall never try to become equal to an upper caste; that is the bare bone essential. He shall never indulge in the unethical act of hurting social sensibilities of his superiors. He shall willfully submit to all the humiliation heaped upon him, his family and his Jati. He shall always be servile to the upper castes. He shall possess no ego. He shall not study. He shall not walk in an upright posture. He shall not talk back. He shall never assert himself. He shall never enter into temples. He shall endure with the insults heaped on his womenfolk. That is the culture. It is not short of commandments.
He has committed the involuntary and ghastly crime of being born in an Untouchable family and goes on to compound his sins by wearing a decent set of clothes, and, thus treading upon the dharmic and sensitive egos of the upper caste people. Very sensitive people! He ought to be taught a lesson and he will be. It will be an enduring lesson. It should set up such a cruel example so that it prevents other Untouchables from following the same anti-social path of dishonoring the upper castes by trying to become honorable. The depth of the example should enter downright into their minds. He is guilty of tearing the delicate and meticulously built social fabric of society where preponderant servility of low castes passes as a proof of social harmony. He is guilty of challenging the social authority. He is impurifying society by trying to mix his polluting self with others. A nice piece of ruthless thrashing, at least, would be forthcoming, in order to maintain the divinely ordained Varna Dharma. This should make him to desists, in future, from any such anti-social act amounting to interference in the cosmic order. He shall not wear away from the path God set for him. He should wear only old, unclean and torn out clothes. He shall extend all his servile cooperation in maintaining the Varna Dharma or it should be extracted from him. The punishment also assures the high caste people of their great dharmic heritage. A river of such assuring and soothing feelings runs through the psyches of the upper castes. If the punishments were not deemed to be sufficient then dishonoring their womenfolk would be next in order; the order of subordination should be maintained. And they shall be the mute witness to this; cursing their helplessness, destiny and their twisted Karmas. Only their non-existent and unknown Karmas are to be blamed for dishonoring of their womenfolk; nobody can be held responsible for this; especially when the high caste people are not answerable to low caste people. And they are the people of high morals and high ethics; they sleep soundly with a clean and clear conscience. Social responsibility? What is supposed to be that? You do not know it means keeping people traditionally subjugated, empty bellied and dishonored! Sometimes, the upper caste people do not need any flimsy reasons, for committing, this highly cultural dastardly act. This dastardly act has long been culturalized in the Hindu society. Since ancient time, there has been no law and order as far as the Untouchables are concerned - for them it has always been a lawless society. It has been a Goon's rule for them from the very beginning. They are like the preys to be hunted upon by the dharmic people, the righteous hunters. This helps in spreading the fragrance of the Varna Dharma.
Anyway, the higher castes laugh heartily at tattered dignity and tattered clothes of the Untouchables. The twinkle in their eyes, the gleam on their faces and the smug smiles which never stop tell the true story.
 When it comes to the Untouchables, the Hindu society acts like a thrasher. It thrashes everything out of him - pride, ego, desire, ability and capability to name a few. The only thing he can remember is his guttered destiny.
An insolent Untouchable is an eyesore to high caste people. Any insolency on the part of Untouchables plucks the egos of the pure people and roasts them alive. These cruel insults would not allow the pure people to eat, talk or sleep; a fit case for persecution. And this persecution would definitely come when the time comes for it. You can be sure about that.
And wearing sleepers is also a great offence. It is out of touch with their social status. This simple act is also an absolute act of insubordination. Thus, it is punishable by the dharmic high caste people. Anybody can take the unofficial law into his hands to save the Dharma which amounts to saving the Varna Dharma. The Untouchables have to take off the sleepers, if they have any, when passing by upper castes or their houses. They cannot wear them in their presence. There should be no quarrel with that. They have to appear totally helpless with a bare minimum covering on their bodies. Any Untouchable assertion is dharmically prohibited; such assertions are the cause of appearance of blisters in Dharma. The minds of higher caste go into a painful spin, the fragile and ultra sensitive minds. Nobody should doubt that! For a proof, one should look at the harmony which prevails in the Hindu society, and, which threatens to break down with every Untouchable assertion.
And taking an Untouchable groom on a mare during a marriage procession can play havoc with the mental peace of the upper castes. It is a pure disaster. The man, who is supposed to go barefoot and wear unclean, old and torn clothes, dares to ride a mare which is the sign of a ruler, and brings so many people to show it off! From such a height, he dares to look down upon the upper castes - dare to make en eye contact from the top! He can never raise himself to their heights. And going through the cluster of houses of upper caste where he is not supposed to wear the sleepers! It is pure sacrilege. It may cause serious law and order problems for the Untouchables. It seems that the heathen people have slapped the upper caste people right in the face; anybody superior to them doing it would have been all right; but the Untouchables??? They are not allowed to get away with it though the beef eaters were. However fleet footed they might be in the face of invaders (remember the full village moving away from the route of any coming army), the status and Dharma are, now, in danger. Therefore, the mentally tortured upper castes decide to save Dharma by taking recourse to arms. A brave display of bravery takes place. Please shade the rivers of tears in the cause of endangered dignity of the upper castes; display your sensitivity; and make it look like real. The violence erupts against the unarmed people. The troubled conscience of upper caste people does not take rest until the blood of unarmed Untouchables flows on the earth like polluted thick red water. Few Untouchable dead bodies are sufficient to give the feelings of serenity to their agitated conscience. So some of the heathens are killed; and, this continues until all Untouchables have run away to save their lives. Some people miss the good old days prior to the entry of the railway engine - where everybody knew his righteous place. After killing, they safely go to their large houses while the cries of bereaved people can be clearly heard from the small Untouchable thatched huts. The honor of upper castes has been saved and they are satisfied; a sense of eternal bliss prevails; the tinge of a smile, the tinge of an achievement, the tinge of serving the dharmic duties and the tinge of serenity are there, all of them; you can stop your tears now; anyway; these capable men never needed your tears. The heathen people cannot play with their honor. The gaping hole that was about to appear in the delicately woven fabric of Dharma has been embroidered with a few corpses. They cannot be accused of not being aesthetic. Everybody on the side of Dharma heaves a sigh of relief. The twangs of pains on the faces of Untouchables are equally matched by the radiant smiles on the faces of the tormentors, the protectors of the divine Varna Dharma. The Brahman lawmakers appreciate themselves in an appreciating way; the self-satisfied grins spread on their faces, and the silent appreciating glances are exchanged which never seem to stop. And Dharma would surely appreciate the deathly silence in the Chamarwada caused by the mighty Karma hypothesis and the divine Varna Dharma.
 However, all this, fabulous display of bravery, is, reserved to be used against the helpless, weak and unarmed people who can barely manage to eke out a measly living. None of this fabulous, legendry and god created, inherently superior and unbeatable bravery, was on display when it met with the Muslim invaders and the British colonizers. Then their righteous mightiness disappeared into unknown places with its tail tucked deep inside. At that time, they gladly adjusted to their subordinated status; not an iota of an effective unbeatable born-bravery was on the display. All the bravery was trampled upon by the foreigners with ridiculous ease. Hindus could, only, rule over a disarmed, unclothed and hungry population. Only a handful of foreigners were needed to bring this ancient and mammoth civilization down to its knees, and, that too, with effortless ease. Absolutely at that time the question of their honor or honor of their womenfolk did not arise. The Muslim warriors who came without women acquired families here meaning they married or took the Hindu women by force as wives. For the first time the upper caste Hindus realized the feeling of their womenfolk being dishonored and God did not come to their help as given in the sacred Gita; strange, it is.
The much acclaimed permanent threat of the divine retribution, when the sacred and pious people are insulted, never materialized. The pious people with the paranormal powers ran away to the rural side.
The question of honor or Dharma, wonderfully, did not arise at that time. How wonderful! How fantastic! How brilliant! Actually, the concept of immutable Dharma became malleable instead of being permanent or divine or eternal. The mighty cow-eater non-Hindus could easily play with this divine Dharma - Karma or no Karma, Varna or no Varna. This malleability or a tendency to capitulation enabled this immutable Varna Dharma to survive. They opted for submission to avoid further damage. Had they taken a brave and rigid stand at that time then the Dharma would have been destroyed totally. The authority of Muslims was submissively acknowledged; the number of supplicants increased. Therefore, it was not desirable for the Muslims to push the servile Hindus too far. The sheer arrogance of higher Varnas got completely reduced to dust. Their exalted pride crawled on the ground like a worm. At that time, the eternal Dharma went to pieces in the dirt, and nobody effectively objected to it. God created unbeatable intelligence, God created unbeatable bravery, which were used with killing effects against the Untouchables refused to essay anything other than complete, abject and crawling servility. A paralysis developed in the innate superior unbeatable qualities. After all, God created them to rule; they turned out to be miserable failures. Dharma survived by accepting the meek position of servitude and subordination. The divinely ordained intelligence and bravery hid themselves under the dust raised by the mighty hooves of the horses of the Muslim invaders. These unbeatable and immutable qualities readily mingled with the earth on which the foreigners treaded with their mighty boots. The half-baked bravery and half-baked intelligence were kept in reserve to torment the landless, hungry, weaponless, isolated Untouchables living in the small mud huts without any viable means of subsistence. Keeping people in utter poverty had its divine benefits.
And getting education also qualifies to be a major offence. One reason is that it involves sitting of high caste children with the Untouchable children which pollute the upper castes. One should know this dharmic fact. This can make all the high caste children impure which require bathing at home or risk the spread of impurities in other members of family, and thereby in whole of the village society - very dharmic society. This can pollute the whole of the village, endangering the pure, sacred and innocent Dharma. Secondly, it goes against the major rule of the Varna Dharma of subordination of Untouchables to the higher Varnas. The education enables the Untouchables to fill the gap between themselves and others. Thus, it is a major move toward their emancipation. And high castes do not like them to get nearer; the lower down they are, the better it is. The education among the Untouchables jeopardizes the entire Dharma. However, the education to them is considered purposeless especially when the traditional education specialists in other Varnas are available. Only the higher three Varnas are eligible for education. After all, there should be labor specialization! You heathen man, do not you even know that? You should limit yourself to the manual labor. The Untouchables are deemed to be fit only for their respective ancestral occupations like the leatherwork, scavenging etc., and at best for doing the agriculture labor or lower level unskilled work. This is the maximum talent they are supposed to possess, and, not the awesome and overwhelming talent of cramming the Vedas. They are supposed to be unfit for any higher-level work like education. There were the golden times for Brahmans when the molten lead was poured into the ears of impure people who happen to hear even a single word of the sacred and divine Vedas. Such times of non-competition are looked upon by the upper castes with nostalgia. Tears after tears are shed for disappearance of such dharmic times. These tears come straight from the cores of pious, pure and innocent hearts. It hurts them as if some arrows have pierced their compassionate and soft hearts - the hurt feelings are very deep. These are not shallow like the broken bones of Untouchables or their hungry bellies. If Untouchables are allowed to study then it is an indication that the civilization has since degenerated to the abysmal depths. The education is not supposed to be the part of the life of these lowly people, and, it should not become one. Horrors of horrors - it enables the polluting people to argue with the pure people! The mighty Himalayas having famed Mount Everest should tremble at the mere thought of it; they should tumble down. The sacred river Ganges would totally dry up if aDharma persists.
Also, getting the education means going to school, which means encroaching on the dharmic monopoly of the high castes. This encroachment is strongly resented in the village society. It is needless to say that the schools are deemed to be meant for the upper caste people only. It is getting to be repetitive but the crippled lives of people from the lowest stratum have been integral part of the Hindu civilization for 2500 years and that requires to be told repeatedly. The people from the lowest stratum are supposed to follow their traditional jobs only for which they are supposed to have birth-attached appropriate talent. They should not cut off themselves from their traditional roots of their cultural heritage. What is a man without roots? The crippling roots! In addition it was Dharma which their ancestors followed faithfully. And they should do it likewise. In getting education they are supposed to be flouting the rules by which their forefathers lived. They are going against the way of living of their forefathers thus going against their culture.
Then there are meaningful ways devised to prevent them from attending the schools. In grand and glorious tradition of separation between Jatis the students from the weakest section of society are made to sit separately. They are also not allowed to draw water from the school taps for the purpose of drinking for the fear of contamination. They have to wait for somebody from upper caste to open the tap so that they could drink water, and, who would close it afterward. Further, to add insult to injury, the teacher never misses a chance to scold or punish them in a humiliating manner in front of the class or the school on flimsy grounds. The other students of the school never miss a chance to beat up them; it is a part of social beating that the Untouchables have to take; if the Untouchable students cannot take it then they have to stop going to school; Dharma prevails. Nobody bothers. It is logical to insult the already insulted people after all that is what they had earned through all their previous lives. The cruel scolding is repetitive in nature which insults the student continuously. The scolding or corporal punishment is always caste exemplarily. The insults are added after insults as if though the ever present insults in their lives are not enough. The more they are insulted the more soothing it is to others. Rubbing the salt into wounds seems to be a favorite pastime of the upper castes - however crude or sophisticated it may be. The clouds of insults always hover over the heads of the Untouchables ready to pour furiously, anytime. At times, the punishment can be corporal and so severe and so frequent that the student stops going to school; Dharma prevails. Even the social insulting is sometimes sufficient for them to leave the school. Had it not been for the British and their egalitarian outlook the Untouchables would have never got the education. The British with an attitude of superiority about their educational system overrode the dharmic and social objections of the upper castes in allowing the lowest stratum to enter the schools. They did the greatest damage to the sacred, pure and divine Varna Dharma by forcing the upper castes and the low castes to sit together in schools. Not even the Muslims did try that with the Hindus! Anyway the people whose Dharma got contaminated must have gone straight to hell or must have taken the birth of jackals, lizards, insects, worms and other lower level form of lives.
 Just out of context, there are people who consider the Vedic Rishis to be superior to Newton and Einstein on the grounds best understood by them. They agree with each other and live in eternal bliss; they nod to each other in affirmation of each other's opinions. The explanations they offer are restricted to themselves which are not to be told to the lower strata people or anybody else. They also, illogically, consider the Vedic education to be superior to modern education. Anyway, the explanatory powers of Vedic knowledge are worthless. And this man, Newton, must have gone to the hottest place in the hell, where his fireproof soul would have burnt, for telling that the earth is holding the moon; and also all those who follow him and all the Indians who learn such things. And the men who landed on the moon must go to hell for defiling their Moon god. That is their faith which moves the mountains or the weaklings.
And in the rural areas there is a system of two tumblers. It is matter of preventing the contaminations of different castes through touch. It is a matter of keeping away the clean from the unclean. It is such a good cause and people object to it? What the world is coming to? The village restaurant is a small dingy makeshift arrangement of dirty wooden work. It is akin to a shanty. All broken, uneven and unequal pieces of wood are joined together to give it a semblance of a room. The gaping holes are covered with the dirty and torn clothe pieces. No cleanliness ever enters there but they keep the clean separate from the unclean – considering their filthy surroundings, it is not a mean task. One set of tumblers is meant to be used by the higher caste people. There is one more lone tumbler to be used by the lowest stratum. A member of the fifth stratum has to drink the tea in the tumbler marked for the Untouchables. After that, he has to clean it and keep it back. Then another fifth stratum member can repeat the process. If there are many of them then they have to drink the tea in sequence. No staff from these dingy and dirty restaurants would ever touch this tumbler and neither would clean it. The higher caste people would not drink from this tumbler to maintain the sanctity of their higher social status and Dharma. Such loftiness lies within them due to their lofty status! It is an indication of the wisdom of the ancient seers who categorized the people into different disparaging compartments and made their dwellings and other things separate to keep the pollution at bay. However, the new generation of the lowest section of society does not believe in such wisdom, they are infused or contaminated with the ideas of the modern world and considers it to be inhuman thereby questioning the entire philosophy of the Varna Dharma.
The high caste people are always ready to shed the blood if their Varna Dharma is destroyed or corrupted. The only condition is that it should not be their blood. They have the glimmer in the eyes with a cruel streak. This blood should belong to the weak and poor Untouchables who are not in a position to retaliate. If it is somebody stronger then they rapidly develop the tolerance with electrifying speed and claim the greatness about their tolerance and spread such claims. For them, the bread is buttered on both the sides. The unbeatable divine bravery, intellect and arrogance evaporate into thin air and transform into tolerance and pliability because the only alternative is the death – the supplicants were produced. However, when it comes to the fifth stratum, they are effectively able to show them their place in society and make them to behave in a degrading manner. They maintain the eternal ways of their grand cultural heritage.
A twinkle in the eyes of Untouchables creates gashes in the heart and minds of pure people and their eyes burn with righteous anger. You can even see the flames. You might discover that ferocity of purity is not just fiction. For this mental torture, the responsible should be punished. And punishment is given - few corpses.
The police are deeply disinterested in filing the report and taking any action. A self induced paralysis develops in the police force when it comes to taking any action in any case of atrocities on the weak and isolated people. After all it amounts to taking action against their extended kith and kin, and people of their own status or people who are having the same solidarity with the Varna Dharma. A complete farce is carried out which starts from filing of the report which lasts till completing the investigation. The final report generally is that the atrocity actually did not take place or the criminals could not be identified because of want of any witnesses. After this charade which may last up to court hearing, the culprits are usually honorably discharged. However, highly feigned seriousness runs throughout the course. And the Varna Dharma runs deep down in the Hindu society - needless to repeat. It is deeply embedded in the psyche of Hindu society. You can see the official system of India trying to impart some justice which is held in bondage by the strong traditional forces. Or you can view it, the victims being torn apart under the water by the crocodile of tradition and the official system beating the waters with sticks so as to show that they are doing, all they could. The crocodile wins most of the times while the official system is beating the waters; nobody dares to face crocodile in Dharmic waters. Everybody nicely goes through the motions until all the requirements have been satisfied.
The collective nature of caste should be seen in this context when the conflicts take place. It is pure atrocity. In any conflict between higher caste people and the Untouchables, all the people belonging to the particular Untouchable Jati in the area are collectively punished for the supposed fault of a single man. This fault may be like raising the voice against the injustice or walking in an affronting manner or not getting up in the presence of higher castes or trying to assert their rights given by the Constitution of India. This group oriented punishment helps in preserving the purity of caste system by teaching the weakest group a solid lesson, and dharmic justice must prevail. Their economic boycott follows after the violence against them. Only the physical violence is not deemed to be sufficient against them. The threat of death due to total starvation must also hang over their heads. The Untouchables are generally landless laborers who have to work on the fields of land holding high castes to make a living. In any boycott, no farmer would give them any work on his fields. No shopkeeper would sell them any grocery item or anything else. They are also not allowed to cross the high caste fields to go to work. Therefore, they cannot earn and cannot buy anything to eat. The alternative is to go hungry or temporarily migrate to some other areas where their relatives live. Or capitulate before the high castes. Physical subjugation is not enough; they have to be broken down mentally. The famed, cruel and ghastly Panchayats play a critical, pure and pious role in it. They decide and regulate this boycott. Any high caste person defying the boycott is fined by the Panchayat; and the threat of his ostracization looms large over his head. The ghastly and dastardly Panchayats are the grand upholders of the grand inhuman tradition of suppressing the lower castes and the Untouchables; they keep them in their insulted place. All this happens for the divine cause of maintaining the pure and divisive order in society. The social harmony has to be maintained. The absence of social harmony stings the senses of pure people which when stung retaliate with all the cruelty at the command. Hang the humanity, equality, honesty, sensitivity fairness, sympathy, and empathy etc. - totally worthless things in the traditional Hindu society.
After exhaustive and deep mediation, the wise people of scriptures reached to the conclusion that the shadows of Untouchables have polluting qualities. For this awesome piece of fiction, they made the rule that the polluting shadows of these lowly people should not fall upon the pure people. Really? The wisdom of these people cannot be questioned; they were the seers! Their pious integrity can vouch for that. The thousands years of wisdom weighed down heavily in their favor, and, onto the shoulders of the lower strata - crushing them. Dharma should not suffer. It should not be turned turtle.
In the not so old days of Hindu Peshawa raj of the Marathas, the Untouchables were not allowed to walk on the streets of the Pune city in morning and evening. This was to avoid the falling of polluting shadows on caste Hindus of the city. In the evenings and mornings the shadows become larger, and their chances, of falling on the Brahmans, increased manifold, and that would have polluted them and their sacrosanct selves. The tender heart and minds of pure people creak at the mere thought of polluting shadow falling on them. Only ignorant people do not know that the shadows can be polluting only an obtuse belief in the scriptures can reveal this knowledge - no proof is needed. Pity thyself if you lack the sacred knowledge that no proof is needed. The shadows of the lowest stratum are infused with impurity and possess contamination stings. Even the pigs could have figured it out!!!
 Then there are people who still yearn for those times when everything was in its proper place, when the movements of polluting shadows were under control. These are the people who think that India is going to dogs because of not following such logical traditions. The blisters on their minds are clear from the rage on their faces. The cure is needed at once. The sublime thinking, which banned the entry of the Untouchables in the temples, needs a cure at once. The things are set right by getting the legs and bones of Untouchables broken at once. Complete sublime thinking!
Do not be anxious and weep for few bodies. We are only setting Dharma right which was getting out of alignment with its divinely ordained structure because of the people whose bodies are lying on the ground - no compromise with the weaklings. Some more punishment should not mean anything and more punishment is what they need! Few smelling bodies are immaterial. In fact, these smelling bodies fortify the Varna Dharma fort. They should be satisfied with the gruel they get! Getting too big for their boots is bad for them. It may have disastrous consequences. They learn it right from their births but sometimes they are needed to be taught a lesson in caste etiquettes for which the traditional Hindu society is a fine school. We can enforce the discipline if required. One should not be without etiquettes to live a civilized life. And, as a matter of charity, compassion and sensitivity we teach them the true etiquettes. For this, they should be thankful to us while lying in beds with few broken bones and crying due to unbearable pain. And we laugh heartily and sleep well. It is our birth-attached right. We can laugh at them as and as when we want. We can insult them as and when we want; our conscience is clear like clear water of a sacred lake - never doubt that. Anyway, their caste name is a standing insult. The time stands still till eternity.
The still time needs stilettos!
Then these crippled people brew malicious thoughts of freedom, equality and choice? They should do with whatever the pure people throw at them. Choice of what? Their lame duck destiny should be enough for them. All their malicious thoughts should be killed and they be crippled so that they writhe in pain and crawl on the ground.
The lower strata people should not fight with their guttered destiny; their guttered destiny which is our sacred creation; the best so far. They should let the untraceable karmas do their duties. Karma laughs at their stupidity. The Varna Dharma guffaws at the remarkable idiocy. Humanity weeps at the ruined lives.
Dharma would surely appreciate the deathly silence in the Chamarwada caused by the mighty Karma hypothesis.
In some places, the Untouchables were required to carry a small earthen pot around their necks so that they could spit in it to avoid contaminating the streets on which the uppity-nosed high castes walked and spitted. However, the spitting of high caste did not pollute the streets; their spiting was unhygienic but not polluting. There is a difference between pure and clean; one can be clean but still impure; and unclean but still pure. Some aspects of Hindu religion are fathomless - the basic logic stands on its head but nobody cares! There is rationality in irrationality. This kind of irrationality enabled them to serve the self-interests and serving self-interests is rationality. Somebody still has to isolate any polluting substance in the saliva of the Untouchables and which is not found in the saliva of the high caste people. Still, somebody has to find out the reasons for which the saliva of upper castes could not pollute the streets of Pune while that of Untouchables' could. In some places, they had to tie a broom around their waists to automatically sweep the streets that became polluted by their walking. For the Untouchables the veritable hell was in this world only; others had to die to see it - just see how lucky Sanatana Dharma made them! Miracle of miracle! The Untouchables could see the hell in this life! For them the arrangements to live in hell are made here itself - the eternally condemned Untouchables! Otherwise, who would go to such an extent to do this for them? Is it the law of Karma or something else? Whatever it was, it was made by the pure, pious, paranormal and powerful lawmakers. In some places, they had to wear a black thread around their necks or wrists for quick identification by the upper caste people who then could keep safe distance from them. They could only talk to Brahmans from a distance so that their polluting breath did not touch them. Dharma is great. Long live its ashes.
High caste people are not known for being callous, brutal, malicious, sly, vicious, cold blooded, inhuman, malevolent, pitiless, ruthless, manipulative, cripplers etc. How can these attribute touch the pure people? It would be an affront to accuse them having all these attributes. But the facts of society tell somewhat other story. The pathetic conditions of lower strata tell a different story if you do not bring the untraceable and false Karma hypothesis in between. Is there anybody to prove that it is true? The compelling interests of Dharma require that the lower two strata remain in humble, hungry and crouched position.
In the Hindu society the humanity has been mortified for 2500 years which is a period not worth bothering about. These 2500 years have seen the Hinduism rising to celestial height while dealing with the Untouchables.
Nobody can accuse the high caste people of treating the Untouchables as human beings. This rootless and whimsical accusation will, simply, not withstand any impartial inquiry.