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In January, 1924, the small Konkan city of Mahad in erstwhile Bombay province handed a landmark decision: All public areas, together with water tanks, can be thrown open to folks from all castes. But, opposition from some caste teams on the query of formality air pollution meant that virtually, folks from decrease castes have been barred from public water tanks. Exasperated, Dr BR Ambedkar led followers in 1927 to drink water from the tank. A decade later, the Bombay excessive courtroom affirmed the precise. The unlucky hyperlink between water and misinformed notions of caste purity bubbled as much as the floor this week when a nine-year-old Dalit boy died after he was allegedly crushed up by a instructor for touching a consuming water pot in Rajasthan. The instructor has been arrested and the administration has promised strict punishment for anybody discovered responsible. However except that is accompanied by strong public messaging and a promise to analyze each grievance of caste bias, future acts of discrimination will likely be tough to forestall.
A newly unbiased India promised social, financial and political equality to Dalits and made them equal individuals within the nation-building course of. But, as Dr Ambedkar warned, this freedom has been marked by a elementary contradiction. Whereas Dalits have ascended to the nation’s highest constitutional and authorized positions, on a regular basis life for a lot of continues to be roiled by hostility and prejudice. This contradiction, which may solely have detrimental results on nationwide progress and the desires of younger folks from these communities, can solely be stamped out with collective will — to annihilate caste.
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