Apartheid

Apartheid

The caste system in India is a long standing and deep rooted social hierarchy that organized people by birth, occupation, and social status.

Its 2026 right we as Indians have evolved in past lets say 100 years we have gone through invasions, monarchy, and we have seen and suffered enough but it never seems to be enough for us as people to change something that's clearly hurting someone or in our case a large amount of Indian population. I am not picking any stance here but intrigued and curious about it being from a Muslim family that never discusses about caste or any kind of separating regime I was introduced to caste system in my last semesters of college and boy! I got confused. i was introduced to this classification criteria through a friend, a Brahmin friend its not like I had never heard of the terms like caste or brahmin or Dalit its just I never took it seriously or paid attention to it . I was told how the Pandeys, Jhas and Mishras come under brahmin category noble educators by birth and how much blood and purity matters to them, they surely cannot marry outside their caste and they must not marry within the same gotra. I was like so much rules just for choosing a partner its like you can have a chocolate just make sure its Cadbury and please son no nuts. My peculiar mind couldn't stop thinking about it as if its some sort of prophecy dawned upon people with no prophets involved. I started surfing the internet on this topic and as you know that in this age somehow whatever you search for automatically appears all over your phone some sort of hypnosis or whatever, what i got to know was disgusting heart wrenching and absolutely violation of human rights on an extreme level.

There have been killings, rapes , kidnappings in the name of caste system in India. Back in the day people were denied rights like education healthcare and even water for being of a lower caste . The more i looked into it the more my heart ached.

One of the most infamous recent caste atrocities occurred in Mirchpur village in Haryana on 21 April 2010. Tensions began with a trivial dispute: a group of young men from the upper-caste Jat community, including Rajinder Pali (a Jat youth), reacted violently after a dog barking incident triggered a confrontation with a young Dalit boy named Yogesh. The altercation escalated and was followed by a large mob attack on the Dalit Balmiki settlement. A mob of hundreds of Jat villagers set fire to homes in the Balmiki (Dalit) colony, ransacked property, beat residents, and burnt alive a 70-year-old man (Tara Chand) and his 17-year-old disabled daughter.

Perpetrators: Young men from the Jat community of Mirchpur, with Rajinder Pali named in reports as one of those involved in instigating the conflict. More than 250 Dalit families fled the village. In 2018, the Delhi High Court convicted 33 individuals for their roles, with 12 sentenced to life imprisonment and others receiving terms of varying length.

The Khairlanji massacre was one of the most brutal attacks against a Dalit family in recent Indian history. On 29 September 2006 in Khairlanji village, Bhandara district, Maharashtra, members of a dominant caste mob murdered members of the Dalit Bhotmange family.

Victims: Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange (44), her daughter Priyanka (17), and sons Roshan (23) and Sudhir (21) were murdered.

Perpetrators: A mob principally composed of villagers from the Kunbi (OBC) caste carried out the violence. Fast-track court convictions included Gopal Binjewar, Sakru Binjewar, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Jagdish Mandlekar, Prabhakar Mandlekar, and Shishpal Dhande. Three others (Mahipal Dhande, Dharampal Dhande, and Purushottam Titarmare) were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

After Surekha filed a complaint over a land dispute, a mob attacked the family home, dragged them out, and killed them. They were paraded and abused before being hanged or murdered. The accused were convicted of murder; initial death penalties were later commuted to life imprisonment by higher courts.

On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman from Bhulgarhi village in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh was allegedly kidnapped, gang-raped and brutally assaulted while working in a field. According to her family:

She was in a field with her mother and brother plucking grass when four men attacked her from behind, gagged her with her dupatta (scarf), dragged her to another part of the field, and sexually assaulted and brutally assaulted her, leaving her severely injured.

The attackers were reported to be from the dominant Thakur (upper-caste) community of the area, which created an immediate caste angle to public outrage.

The four men arrested in connection with the attack were:

Sandeep Singh, Ramu, Lavkush, Ravi

They were charged with gang-rape, attempt to murder, and offences under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to police records, Ravi and his father had a prior history of violence against the victim’s family, including assaulting her grandfather years before.

She was first treated locally, then moved to Aligarh Medical College in critical condition.

As her condition worsened, she was transferred to Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi for better care.

Despite medical treatment, she succumbed to her injuries on 29 september 2020.

One of the most controversial aspects of this case was how the victim’s body was cremated . Her body was brought back to Hathras from Delhi late at night. Family members allege that the police and local officials prevented them from seeing her face, and cremated her body at around 2:45–3:00 am in an open field, even though her parents wanted to perform proper Hindu last rites in daylight.

This handling sparked nationwide outrage, with protests and criticism of the UP police’s conduct from civil society, political figures, human rights activists, and media.

Arrests: Police arrested the four accused (Sandeep, Ramu, Lavkush, and Ravi) on charges including gang-rape and attempt to murder under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Hospital Transfers: After initial treatment locally, the victim was eventually moved to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi.

Superintendent of Police (SP) and other police officers involved were suspended due to criticism of how the case was handled, including delays in action and mishandling of the body. Her body was burnt by police in front of her family by the police officers thus showing what the government stands for justice for a girl that too dalit what a joke.

After all this extremely violent content i consumed i decided to look at the history and The caste system did not arrive one morning like a law carved in stone. It crept in slowly through habits, beliefs, fears, and power — until it became one of the most enduring and painful social structures in human history. To understand its origin, we must first understand that caste was not born as cruelty; it became cruelty over time.

In its earliest form, Indian society was organised around work, skill, and responsibility, not birth. Ancient texts speak of varna, a word that roughly meant “category” or “function.” People were broadly grouped according to what they did: those who taught and studied, those who governed and protected, those who traded and farmed, and those who performed service and labour. In theory, this system was fluid a person’s role could change based on ability, learning, and effort.

But societies rarely remain theoretical.

As generations passed, what began as a division of labour slowly turned into a division of people. Occupations became hereditary. Skills were passed from father to son, mother to daughter not because of destiny, but because access to education and opportunity narrowed. Over time, work stopped being a choice and became a sentence.

Religion did not create caste but it was used to sanctify it.

Certain interpretations of sacred texts were selectively emphasized to justify hierarchy. Ideas like purity and pollution entered social thinking. Physical labor, sanitation, leatherwork, cremation work essential for society’s survival was declared “impure.” Those who did this work were pushed outside village boundaries, denied touch, denied entry, denied dignity.

What was once social convenience became moral judgement.

Caste was no longer about what you did. It was about what you were allowed to be.

Every rigid hierarchy survives because it serves someone.

Dominant groups benefited from caste because it guaranteed free or cheap labour, social obedience, and unquestioned authority. Violence, social boycott, and humiliation were used as tools to enforce boundaries. Over centuries, caste stopped being merely social it became psychological, teaching both the oppressor and the oppressed where they “belonged.”

The tragedy is not only that people were oppressed, but that oppression was made to feel normal.

British colonialism did not invent caste, but it froze it.

Through censuses, rigid classifications, and legal codification, colonial administrators transformed a complex, evolving social system into fixed boxes. Communities that once had internal diversity were labelled permanently as “high” or “low.” Colonial power exploited caste divisions to govern more easily, deepening inequalities that already existed.

What had once shifted slowly over centuries was now locked into official records.

It is important to say this clearly: Dalits did not accept caste quietly.

From Bhakti saints to anti-caste thinkers, from local rebellions to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s constitutional revolution, caste has always been challenged. Dalit history is not just a history of suffering it is a history of resistance, thought, courage, and refusal.

The Indian Constitution formally abolished untouchability, but laws cannot instantly erase centuries of conditioning. Caste survived not because it was legal, but because it lived inside social behaviour, marriage practices, language, and silence. At its core, caste is not about tradition. It is not about religion. It is not even about history.

Caste is about control over bodies, labour, and dignity.

It decides whose life is grievable, whose pain is doubted, whose death becomes a statistic. It tells some people they are entitled to respect and others that they must earn what should be automatic.

The caste system was created by human choices, sustained by human fears, and enforced by human violence. That means it can also be dismantled by human courage, empathy, and honesty.

Understanding its origin is not about assigning ancient blame it is about recognizing how easily social organization can turn into social injustice when power goes unquestioned.

But there are still questions that are arising inside me are we allowed to let go caste or we are just replacing it by class in rich or well to do society ?

Does caste system only affects the poor population or even the ones with respectable jobs are under its impression?

Do we unknowingly take pride in caste in small small things like saying i am a vegetarian is a dietary choice but saying i am a pure vegetarian is taking pride in it and assuming that you are just better than everyone just because you follow a certain diet or in the case of caste system assuming you are better than everyone else just because you are born in a self proclaimed section of the population who supports apartheid.