[From my column Obviously Opaque in UTS Voice, 16-31 July, 2013]
Long before
his dead body was to be found near a railway track in Dharmapuri, E. Ilavarasan
had pleaded guilty. No, not to any court of law. He could not, in fact, because
he had not committed any crime punishable under the law of the land. All he had
done was falling in love with a girl, albeit of a different and so called upper
caste. He had not pleaded guilty even for that as falling in love is no crime.
He had
pleaded guilty to his conscience that held him responsible for all the violence
inflicted on his community. He held himself responsible for all the Dalit
houses, more than 250 in number, which were torched by Vanniyars, the community
to which Divya, his girlfriend and later wife, belonged to. He held himself
responsible for the alleged suicide of his father in law. The couple was
shattered enough even to contemplate suicide. They did not. Ilavarasan chose to
keep fighting. This is what he told to Kavin Malar in an interview that was
published in India Today’s Tamil edition.
The resolve
was there despite Divya having walked out on him, allegedly under tremendous
pressure of the Vanniyar elders led by the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a
political party that swears by the Indian constitution. The fact that the same
constitution has illegalized caste discrimination is besides the point.
Ilavarasan had known PMK’s role in this sordid saga of sacrificing the lives of
a young couple, Indian citizens protected by the constitution, at the altar of
petty electoral gains. He had blamed PMK unambiguously while asserting that, by
then executed, plan to separate him and his wife was hatched in PMK’s office.
Ilavarasan
had still had his hopes intact. He believed in his love and knew that his wife
would weather all the pressures and return to him. He believed in the democracy
and hoped that it would stand by his struggles. If only he had gone for a
reality check. He would have known, then, that his was not the first case of
individuals pawned by the vested casteist and communal interests deeply
entrenched in the system. He would have known how such interests tweak the
system for their petty power games.
He would,
then, have known that one day his body could be found beside a rail track like
that of Rizwanur Rahman of Kolkata. He would have known, then, that like him
the only crime of Rizwanur was of daring to love a girl of his own choice and
marrying her. He would have known, then, that with waning interest of the media
and the civil society, his case would be soon forgotten as that of Rizwanur.
Rizwanur Rahman, for the uninitiated and/or forgetful, was a bright middle
class Muslim professional who had fallen in love with Priyanka Todi, daughter
of industrialist Ashok Todi who owns Lux Cozy group of companies worth more
than 400 Crores.
Fearful of
the influential family of Priyanka, the couple got married secretly under the
Special Marriage Act. Hardly did they know that it was the beginning of the end
not merely of their relationship but even of the life of Rizwanur. Todi family
together with senior police officers left no stones unturned to harass Rizwanur
and his family. Senior police officers, allegedly including the Police
Commissioner, would summon the couple to the police headquarters and threaten
Rizwanur with dire consequences in case he did not separate with his legally
wedded wife. Rizwanur would be threatened of getting arrested under fabricated
charges like stealing a phone from Todi Mansions.
Had
Ilavarasan known Rizwanur, he would have a fair idea of what would happen after
him sending Divya back to her family for a few days. The only difference
between the cases is that while in his own case it was a political party named
PMK that was coercing him, poor Rizwanur was harranued by nothing less than the
police that are duty bound to protect law and order. Had he known Rizwanur, he
would also have had a fair idea of the fate awaiting him. He would have known
that his wife, like Priyanka, would not be able to survive emotional torture
unleashed on her and would be compelled into disowning her marriage and love
for him.
Make no
mistakes here. It is neither Divyas nor Priyankas who are at fault. However
much one would want to blame them for ditching their husbands and ‘driving’
them into committing suicide, they are equal, or in fact worse, victims. It is
not easy for a young girl to live with the threats ranging from parents and
relatives committing suicide to harming her husband/lover, is it? More so with
the stigma of compromising their families’ honour by falling for and marrying
lesser mortals.
Forget
Rizwanur, Ilavarasan would have had found his faith in the system entirely
misplaced had he known about the infamous dishonour killing of Manoj Banwala
and Babli in June 2007 despite Court having given them protection and a five member
strong police team first accompanying and later deserting them to be hacked to
death. If only he had known that this was not the first, or the last, murder of
someone having protection ordered by courts. Similar was the fate of Raja Ram
who was allegedly killed by the relatives of his wife Manjit Kaur despite
protection ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
If only
Ilavarasan had known that he is living in a self-designated democracy that had
gone delinquent. If only he knew that it is not merely small political flies
like PMK that could run away with launching hate campaigns and term a Dalit boy
falling in love with a so called upper caste girl as a part of grand conspiracy
to ‘insult’ and humiliate the concerned community. He should had known that he
and his people have been long abandoned even by those swear on social justice
and are self-appointed champions of Dalit-OBC-Minority cause.
He should
had paid heed to the fact that identity politics based on caste consolidations
had veered from the path of emancipation of all and had entered the murky
waters of petty caste interests. He should had paid heed to the fact that be it
in Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu not a single self-appointed
custodian of social justice has opened his/her mouth against dishonour killings
of victims belonging to Dalit community.
Ilavarasan
should have kept his eyes open to Haryana politicians of all ilk rallying
behind illegal and extra-constitutional Khap Panchayats that seem to derive
sadistic pleasure out of murdering love birds. Forget, again, those derided by
elitists and upper caste middle classes as casteist politicians, he should had
seen a certain suave and urbane Naveen Jindal of Indian National Congress
praising Khap Panchayats for their ‘yeoman services’ to the society.
He would
have known, then, that the democracy he believed in is in essence a farce
superimposed on a society divided by a thousand pre modern fault lines of caste
and kinship. He would have known that people like him are mere expendables for
the system. He would have known, then, that his murderers would soon be referred
to as honourable Member of Parliament or Legislative Assembly and the same
police which looked the other way when Dalit hamlets were being torched would
bend backwards to open the doors of their red beacon cars.
Had he
known all this, he would not have turned into a dead body found near a railway
track in Dharmapuri. Had Rizwanur known all this, he would not have turned into
another dead body found near rail tracks some 3000 kms away from Dharmapuri. But
then, his sentence was decided the day he had pleaded guilty of falling in love
with a girl belonging to a different, and so called upper, caste.
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