How Naxals and Mayawati teach us to respect human kind

We (urban India like me) often wonder the kind of support that Mayawati enjoys in Uttar Pradesh. We often deride the way she or for that matter any politician manipulates the caste system in India. Dalits, the backward community to which Mayawati belongs has for long suffered at the hands of upper class sections of the society. It is not un-natural that see her as a symbol of the upliftment of their community. That Gandhi and Ambedkar did the same thing in a much modest and humble way is another topic of debate. But all I am saying here is seeing the kind of oppression that Dalits have faced in India for ages; it's not surprising to see that they support the kind of aggression and unabashed immodesty that she displays.

But things are changing and hopefully with time, the caste effect on nation's politics will die down. The recent news about, a Bihar court sentencing 16 people held guilty for a carnage Jehanabad in 1997, where 58 Dalits were killed by Ranbir Sena, a landlord gang of sorts, brings forward 2 things. One that, 50 years post the independence, a Jehanabad still happens in world's largest democracy. And this is not an isolated case. We are routine to cases of Dalits being attacked for entering a temple, drinking water from a common village well, marrying some one from upper caste, and so on. But the second and more significant is that finally justice is being delivered, such cases are coming into limelight and the guilty are being punished.

Slowly but surely, the rural landscape of India is changing, not only geographically and economically but also socially. Thanks to an active media, such cases are no longer brushed under the carpet by officials. The current Naxal problems of India and the appreciation showered by Mayawati's supporters to her aggression, should teach us a thing or two, about treating all human kind with respect and dignity. Because if we don’t, when it's their turn to rule you, they will surely give it back. And then we may find it too hot to handle.