THE RADICAL HUMANIST
MAY 2013
human personality for reinforcing hierarchical positions. Legitimization of privileges: The religious belief of fatalism is created as the ground philosophy for maintaining untouchability. For example, in hierarchical superiority ostracization of one person is necessary for giving exclusive privilege of absolute power to the other. Creation of service provider: Untouchability helps to create a recognition basis of population, i.e. the belief of fatalism. They are service providers for the privileged class. This objective is colored by religious interpretation. Fatalism is taken as an instrument for internalization of perceived inferiority. They regarded it as norms and values For example: Shudras are defined as the untouchable-people because they are described as ‘born out of the foot of Brahma’. He/she considers himself/herself being born as Shudra as a consequence of punishment of his bad works of his previous life. Human Rights Violation of Untouchables:This discrimination means that access to housing, education, health services is limited, as are the opportunities in the job market. In addition, cases of violence, assault and abuse against Dalits are common and frequent. Caste discrimination has been receiving more international attention lately, which raises hope for a possible improvement in their situation. Legislation can provide an important legal tool to support the human rights of Dalits, but legislation is not the sole solution. As Moni Rani, a Dalit woman, said in an interview to the Guardian in autumn 2009: “If you are not considered to be human, human rights do not apply to you” and a more extensive approach is needed to lift Dalits out of their segregated and discriminated status in their own societies”. Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: “Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers”; “Dalit tortured by cops for three days”;
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“Dalit ‘witch’ paraded naked in Bihar”; “Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool”; “7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash”; “5 Dalits lynched in Haryana”; “Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked”; “Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits’’. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits, according to figures presented at the International Dalit Conference that took place May 16 to 18 (2003) in Vancouver, Canada. Statistics compiled by India’s National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in the year 2000, the last year for which figures are available, 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits are assaulted; every day three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and two Dalit homes are torched. Despite the fact that untouchability was officially banned when India adopted its Constitution in 1950, discrimination against Dalits remained so pervasive that in 1989 the government passed a legislation known as The Prevention of Atrocities Act. The act specifically made it illegal to parade people naked through the streets, force them to eat feces, take away their land, foul their water, interfere with their right to vote, and burn down their homes. Since then, unfortunately, violence against them has escalated, largely as a result of the emergence of grassroot human rights movements among Dalits to demand their rights and resist the dictates of untouchability and the so called superior class takes revenge through violence. Conclusion:Some of the histrocial landmarks which were exceptions to the practise of unouchables were for example, in the Islamic society where there was no institution called as Slavery and no species of slavery were found. Even the enslaved had the right to freedom, like the slave of Sultan Mahmmud became the first Sultan of Delhi and even a slave girl Razia became the Sultan of India. According to religious provisions Shudras were not eligible for the kingship. On the contrary Manu, the Hindu law-giver prescribed that the Brahmans must not live in a country where a