My home is on far end of our village, cut with any urban facility of transport,

medical, or hygienic conditions. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if we

remove sun and light from our locality the place is worse than dungeons. I could
not study because I am not born with the right and ability to learn or get
educated but I was able to attend school and learn the Macaulays model for
developing us. I can not walk straight or talk in a loud voice as I am supposed to
be very feminine in my approach towards others and in the daily course of life. It
is my birth based duty to remain alive on meats of dead animals and to carry out
the practice after death. As per the norms I am not supposed to think about
achieving high status as I am unworthy of it. But things have changed; norms are
being challenged by forces of economy and the pervasive influence of state. But
it seems as if I am still stuck in my designated place. It is not a big issue if my
fellow place-mates could get their hands chopped, eyes pierced, body burned,
mutilated, raped, butchered, killed, hanged, for incidents which are not illegal. I
feel that maybe because of rigidness in the spaces of thinking and writing that
my voice comes in through a door which is always open, I could see light and
hear noise on the other side of the door but as soon as I move more closer to the
door the more my feeling get transformed into the objectified fine marble shaped
small fine layers with black dots as if my self journey seems alienated to me.
What is it, why is it I do not wish to ponder upon that as it will deviate from the
issue with which I am concerned.
On September 4 Mangal Singh was thrown out of gurudwara in Punjab. Well as I
already mentioned I am not supposed to be mobile outside norms. But that was
not enough; some person from the group of norm makers kidnapped mangal
Singh and kept him under captivity for ten days. In those ten days they played
with the body of the man, took pleasure in harming his genitals and received
utmost happiness by recording and uploading the video on YouTube. It is like him
my fellows body after playing was put on exhibition.
As I mentioned world is changing and I wish to fly in my dreams. Why would I be
moving out of these norm based living and make me the owner of my own
destiny. Why I shall not be moving out, moving in the economy working as
laborer and I could become an entrepreneur if I am allowed to study? It seems a
positive step to work in construction fields rather than dying as a labour tied to
the field of norm setters. Well it seems to me that it is a dream with less hope if
not a panacea. One of my fellow mate in the month of august wished a wage rise
and demanded it from the contractor. He was put in the crusher, which is a
machine to cut stones and his body was cut into pieces. The mutilated body was
not put on exhibition but it would be proper to ask that what is meant by
exhibition. Is it proper representation of a thing or the mere act could also be
considered as an exhibition of power which may not need further exhibition to
assert itself? Does not It comes in mind that the time when a body is mutilated,
cut into pieces, butchered, chopped or burned; that particular act of assertion, in
itself, involves the essence of exhibition.

As I mentioned above it is not big issue if my fellow mates get raped as hardly a
big noise or protest takes place. Similar thing happened in odisha when
Snehalata Chttaria was found missing from the time she went out for bathing in
7.00 in the morning on 22/05/2015. Worried because of her being missing the
family went in search of the woman. Her dead body was found at around 4.00
pm at the same ghat where she used to bathe. It was completely naked. Well
reason will tell that the rapist or rapists in order to save themselves from the
long hands of law killed her so that no confession is available except the truth
that she was raped. But reason is not able to explain that in addition to stabbing
her body by knife why and for what reason her breast and vagina were cut. Well
her face and body might have been burned by acid in order to not to let the
police identify. But still it seems difficult to answer how we can understand this
brutal mutilation of a body which is innately connected with miscarriage of
justice.
Similar happened with a dalit family in Ahmednagar as the dalit boy had fallen in
love with the upper caste girl. The boy, his father and mother were killed, body
chopped and thrown away in farm in November 2014.
Although these are few, but the above mentioned cases of atrocity impel us to
look into the ways power is asserted. What comes out through above incidences
is that firstly, amidst deep politicization of caste, the modernization of tradition,
rapid urbanization and shift in economy with hope of trickling down, the caste
based violence permeates the large part of our social space. Secondly, the
nature of violence indicates that it is no more limited to massacre and killing on
large scale. Important to note is that am not denying that still mass killings take
place but reflecting upon the nature of intensity of these incidents; it could be
said that the mutilation or physical pain and suffering is narrowed down to
individual level. Thirdly, the language of addressing and understanding these
incidences are not able to show this changed nature of violence. Fourthly, it as
comes out in reports of peoples union for civil liberties and newspaper, dalit
based web portals the role of statist force I.e. police comes into question. Not a
eulogizing of incidences but if not in all then in many police seems to stand at
par with the mutilators. To put in other words, the maintainer of rule of law
seems to be the one breaking the rule of law through the force of law. Fifthly,
although the stimulating factor because of which these incidents took place
could be put under the exercise of right to self determination, the guiding force
behind atrocity is desire to maintain order. This order maintaining mechanism
leads to an environment; prison as a social space.
The role of custom and its legitimization of these inhumane practices is not new
in the case of dalit. Not denying the fact that the context has changed but
certain forms of conscience of exploitation in a changed form operate in our
social space.