• India - the magic of a nation
• India
• Population explosion
• The castes
• The untouchables

Vijay, the pariah

One of these offspring, Vijay, an untouchable just like former president Narayanan, becomes deeply indignant when he is told that, in the West, India - with 960 million inhabitants - is described as «the greatest democracy on earth».

«In some rural areas we are treated worse than animals. We are even denied access to drinking-water wells». He is talking about the untouchables, the impure ones who contaminate everything they touch, according to Hinduism.

That one of them, Narayanan, was the first to reach the presidency, was interpreted as symbolic as the country prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence.

Although officially abolished by the 1950 Constitution, the caste system continues to dominate all aspects of Indian life. Started 3000 years ago, this social division survived during British domination and remained throughout the conflict-ridden half century of independent life. As an indelible sign, the Indian man stays bound to the privileges or humiliations that the unchanging religious tradition confers upon his caste. He is forever branded by his jati (birth).

«My father, a police inspector in the state of Maharashtra, modified his last name slightly», says Vijay, 35, of the Mahar sub-caste. «In many parts of India you can tell what caste you belong to by your name. He altered some syllables with the result that in New Delhi, the capital, where another language is spoken, my present last name belongs to a higher class.». Thanks to his cunning, Vijay and his ten siblings have managed to overcome many obstacles.

Barriers

Vijay went to college and continued his education in Spain, but could not validate his studies. He is convinced that India boycotted him for being an untouchable.

The immense majority of the 200 million untouchables in the country can't even dream of overcoming these barriers. They don't need to be asked for their last names. It is easy to know what caste garbage men, those who pick up animal carcasses or doze off amidst rags in corners belong to. They are the poorest among the poor. A third of the planet's most underprivileged get along as best they can in this country.

Gandhi, considered the nation's father and venerated abroad, called them hariyan (God's children). They object to that name as they consider it demeaning - they would rather call themselves dalits (the oppressed). One of the Indian languages has given the world a horrible word that describes them: pariah (street dog in Tamil).

The majority of untouchables have little to celebrate on the independence anniversary. On the historic midnight of the 15th of August of 1947, free India's prime minister spoke beautiful words, intending them to be prophetic: «We go from old to new... The spirit of the time is in favor of equality». Jawaharlal Nehru, a Brahmin, was mistaken. He also went wrong with an economic policy which could not rescue millions of his countrymen from poverty. Trapped by the caste conditioning, dalits have also endured economic failure. While India sank into bankruptcy, Asian tigers grew around it with a national income 27 times higher.

Few hopes

The harshness of the figures and past experience account for the fact that those untouchables who have managed to get schooling and surmount obstacles, such as Vijay, did not place much hope on former president Narayanan in spite of being one of their own, and not only because his post was in fact a symbolic one. Many considered Narayanan a docile official. «I am like a fish that has torn society's fishing net apart», he stated. For critics, his election was nothing more than a marketing move with a view to the anniversary celebrations.

Together with Narayanan's appointment, another reason for the government's pride is the quota system established by the Constitution, which sets aside 15% of public jobs for the lower castes. Those who are optimistic believe that fifty years of positive discrimination have given rise to a middle class of 200 million people. Those who are pessimistic say that only 10% of the untouchables have benefitted.

The system was questioned when the economy started to take off in 1991 and international institutions gave the government an ultimatum. A long period of centralized economy was abandoned. Liberal openness allows for an annual growth of 7%, and promises to place India as the fourth world power in the year 2020 behind China, the United States and Japan. The future of the untouchables is to become a reserve of cheap labor force.

The wrath of the «impure»

Arian peoples who reached the Indian subcontinent 3500 years ago were responsible for the division into castes. Already in the most ancient Hindu holy writ, the Vedas, there appears the division into four great groups: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (traders) and Sudras (laborers). The untouchables belong to the last group.

In order to shape their political conscience, the untouchables have created their own leaders. They are unknown figures for the West, such as B.R. Ambedkar. In 1947, he was named minister of Justice, but left his post in 1951, after the government overlooked his demands in favor of the pariahs. He renounced Hinduism and became a Buddhist. The profanation of the statues of Ambedkar in Bombay in July turned into police retaliation, with eleven victims as a result.

Such confrontations happen daily. The Popular War Group fights in the State of Bihar in the north. Its 800-men army kills tens of policemen every year. Poolan Devi, the untouchable Queen of the Bandits, terrorized the central region for years. Her vengeance against the men who raped her, 23 thakures of a higher caste, was brutal.