Rural Dalit ghetto

Khairlanji:
A strange and bitter crop
By Anand Teltumbde
Navayana, 2008

On 29 September 2006, in a modest town in eastern Maharashtra called Khairlanji, a tragedy occurred. A gang of Other Backward Castes (OBCs), led by the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) potentate, raided the home of a Buddhist agricultural family, the Bhotmanges. With impunity, the gang raped and killed Surekha Bhotmange and her daughter Priyanka, and killed her two sons, Sudhir and Roshan. The three children had done well in school, with Roshan on the road to becoming a computer professional and Priyanka a topper in class 10. Apart from the animosities inherent in the caste system, there was no motivation for the attack. The Bhotmanges are Dalits and their neighbours are OBCs, many of whom resented the dignified and successful lives being led by the victim family. The violence against the Bhotmanges was so extreme (the local BJP leader, Bhaskar Kadav, is accused of raping Surekha Bhotmange post-mortem) that it is impossible to discount the rage that comes from ideas of caste superiority. Those who perpetrate such atrocities visit the courthouse casually, with the full knowledge that their political friends will protect them until the case is forgotten – as so many others are.