The Village - 10

...The untouchables are still searching for their crimes which caused this exclusion forcing them to use the water shared by 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 purity of their Varna. The blood flowing on the earth is merely dirty red thick water that comes dirt-cheap. The flash of untouchables looks good only when it is separated from their bodies in the cause of dharma. This would assure the souls of tormentors thousands of years in heaven for such brave and dharmic deeds. Even some of them would get the Moksha straight away. The Sanatana dharma would be eternally thankful to them. No, that is wrong; the Brahmas can never be thankful to any Hindu; see it was their (the tormentors’) Varna job they were doing – nothing personal about it. The impure souls of heathen untouchables would be separated from their impure bodies and take the birth of jackals, dogs, lizards and insects etc in their next life as a due punishment for taking the water from high caste well, resulting in violation of dharma. The heavens had never been happier. So 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 is scorching sun. They have to avoid the death at the hands of dharma defenders. They have to minimize their sufferings.

Few people going without water is immaterial; dharma is supreme.

This infallible and supreme dharma suddenly developed paralysis when faced Muslim invaders and British colonizers. It immediately went into a mode of capitulation and submissive, egoless cooperation with such adharmic people – the cow-eaters. The superiority mingled with earth and nobody objected but everybody objected to the use of village well by untouchables; perfectly logical; only the armless people with half filled bellies could be shown dharma but not the adharmic people backed with full armies. The village well cannot be used by untouchables though the dharma can be buried under the feet of Muslims and British. The priorities were clear-cut; rule of dharma in case of untouchables and rule of foreigners in case of Muslims and British; a clean and crystal clear piece of thinking; knowing which side of the bread was buttered; bending with the wind and hunting the hare...

The Village -9

...As far as the leftovers are considered, it looks like that there was a pact between high castes and 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 untouchable would compete with the animals to get food from them. This very soothing element of Varna dharma approaches deep down the hearts of lawmakers and others. The consequences of not competing with the animals for food were self destructive for untouchables. They could have starved to death and any violence from the weak people was immensely punishable. If few heads were broken and brains splattered on the streets, it hardly mattered. The atrocities committed in past and present are the proof of highly cultural and spiritual attitude of highly spiritualized people. The hatred flowed like an overflowing Amazon, the hatred born out of purity.

Next, we will see the traditional inhuman treatment of untouchables in the innocent villages. Some people consider the villages as innocence personified, far away from the exploitative modern materialism. Of course the villages are devoid of any element of humanity but even after that they are considered to contain an inbuilt ancient pure and pious innocence. First of all the untouchables do not have reach up to 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 buffaloes. According to Rig Veda the water is great purifier; however, the touch of an untouchable can pollute the standing water. Now what happens when the purifier is polluted? The basic need of life is polluted which can play havoc with the dharma of people in general. Everything will be thrown out of gear. Anybody using polluted water would get polluted. And many would use it. Then many people’s dharma would get corrupted or destroyed or infected. This would result in lowering of dharmic and social superiority of concerned people. Some would still be pure and some would be impure. The people belonging to 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 worshipping the gods. Nobody would know who is high and who is low. 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. Thus the untouchables should be kept away from village waters...

The Village - 8

...Did anybody say anything about exploitation of human beings in materialistic western societies?

Frequently, the untouchables had to go to the houses of upper castes and take the leftovers at the gate itself like servile servants or beggars. They moved from house to house and got it wherever it was available; the permanent Varna exploitation in an eternal pious and pure dharma. They were grossly underpaid which forced them to go to the houses of permanent exploiters to beg for food. Sometimes they had to compete for the food directly with animals like dogs and cows in an utterly dharmic manner. 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 disease. It came for free. And for this they had to compete with the vultures and kites; a grand and predestined event.

Of course Varna dharma does not know anything about humanity. Why should it?

The atrocities against the untouchables were not very infrequent even when they did not know anything except permanent and humiliating servility. The sword of atrocity was always hanging over their heads. And 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. 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 an sustainable cruel lessons to these people. Actually the unsafe and insulted untouchables have faced a Goonda Raj (goons’ rule) for 2500 years; a small period of jubilation for the cruel upper castes; they earnestly desired it to be interminably extended. The more the atrocities were committed on untouchables, the more pious were the upper castes and more was the dharmic content of the society. This is the beauty of caste system. Commiting atrocities, is a finely devised way to increase the dharmic contents of the society. The ghastly details are left to those who play like instruments into the hands of lawmakers...

The Village -7

...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 their insulted status in the society. Their major contribution is unpaid labor for which they are paid with leftovers in a separate corner.

The land was owned by the higher castes but all the people depended upon it for their survival. The landowning castes owned the lifeline of the village. The land was owned by high caste people and tilled by Shudra tillers who are the forever servants in Hindu society. The casual labor was provided by the untouchables; they were the eternal polluted bottom of the heap. They provided lowly paid labor and worked from field to field.

The people from different jatis provided different things to be used in agriculture. They were mainly ironsmiths, carpenters and leather workers. The carpenter and ironsmith provided plough the leather workers provided large water carriers made of full size buffalo skin for carrying the water from well to fields. The potters provided the pots to be used in 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.

All got their shares does not mean that they got equal share. The share was usually fixed for every jati. The share they got was barely sufficient for survival. The food was not sufficient for untouchables and 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. It insulted the lower two strata but added tones of superiority to the personalities of higher Varnas. 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 dozen feet high in the air with ever broadening radiant smiles; the quiet jubilation knew no bound; after all their superior selves could force the Shudras and untouchables to eat such a grain cleaned out of cow dung; such a show of unsaid permanent tormenting superiority was quite common in Hindu society. This goes to show that there was more than sufficient to feed the animals of high castes but not for the human beings. It is a show of Varna exploitation....

The Village -6

...The 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 as kith and kin by each other. Actually caste is an extended kinship that cuts through village limits and reaches beyond. The village can always be undermined for favoring the caste. This loyalty to caste is maintained from place to place, from cities to cities, from villages to cities and even to foreign countries. Indian Diaspora is known for its castiest nature.

In any group the moment the caste identity of a man is revealed the feeling within group changes. It changes to affinity if the person is from same caste and to contempt and hatred if the person is from lower caste. The caste 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 have loyalty. The attachment in the villages is mainly to their caste and caste cluster of houses and to land if they own any; other things are irrelevant. The Indian Diaspora maintains its loyalty to caste; it is in their well honored roots....

The Village -5

...To segregate is a natural characteristic of caste system. The castes themselves are segregated groups of different endogamous people. The area of one caste starts at the end of wall of the last house of 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. Any talk should be only on the caste basis other wise it has to be salutations and their acceptances. All socializations among different castes are only pretensions because those who cannot eat together cannot talk together. The talks among different castes are need based only.

The overflowing cup of hatred and contempt flows in the downward direction. The steam of respect moves in upward direction. They hatred 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 the other castes. Thus no relations mean insulation. This insulation and isolation provided the purity in the society; exactly the non-mixing of bloodlines. People are separated from each other in their hearts...

The Village -4

...In an Indian village the people from different castes are found. All the innumerable castes in India are not found in one 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 seemingly randomness. There are many adjoining clusters of houses in the village. There are clusters alongside clusters. The people belonging to a given caste live in the houses or huts that clustered together, the helmet. 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. Such a positioning meant that they absorbed all the ill effects due inauspicious southern direction. This direction is considered inauspicious probably since Rig Vedic days when the settlements of 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. This small box can hold inside it more things than they can accumulate in their lifetime. The earning abilities granted to them by sacred and pure Varna dharma can be easily dwarfed by a handful of grains....

The Village - 3

....The sole objective of untouchables was to minimize their sufferings. The miseries; eternal, the man made, predestined miseriess followed them even in their mud huts. The miseries followed them while they worked on others’ land. The miseries of being born insulted. The miseries of watching their women being dishonored under the great culture of the great land was like piercing the mind. The miseries followed them while they walked. In addition there were the miseries of half filled bellies; the miseries of being denied water to drink; the miseries of ragged clothes; the miseries of watching the whole family being insulted; the miseries of watching their whole community being insulted; the never ending miseries. The miseries existed prior to birth and will exist after death. The lowest stratum is always predestined to swim in the mud swamp of gutter miseries; all this indicates what a great dharma it is.

The powerful did not actually use the violence frequently but always kept it ready in their armor. The weak could not resort to violence. So the violence was minimal and the dharma was happy. It was an eternal situation. The Brahmans chanted the mantras and skinners tanned the skins. And never the skin tanners crossed willingly the paths of pious, pure and powerful lawmakers. They deliberately kept away from Brahmans which was desired by the Brahmanas and safe for the untouchables also. There was smooth and rampant treading of 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.