A VICTORY FOR ALL PEOPLE

It was at the Pola harvest festival, seven years ago, that Baliram Nadeand his friends chose to take a stand. Traditionally, oxen are paraded around the temple at Pola and it is the role ofthe Matang caste, to which Baliram and his friends belong, to play the drum for the upper castes. ‘When I was growing up here in the village there was no respect for us,’ Baliram says. ‘The small child of an upper-caste person could make derogatory remarks to my father, and my father would call him “Master”. But I was going to school and reading books by Dr Ambedkar, our leader. Education is the key. As I got older there was a growing anger, and we were in touch with a group of human rights activists connected to SPMM, so someone was there to help us. ‘Traditionally, we aren’t allowed to parade our own oxen at Pola, we only beat the drum,’ he continues. ‘We were not even allowed into the temple. But I wanted to parade my oxen too. I thought: Enough is enough, we have done this thing for a long time and we are not going to do it any more!

‘I paraded my ox along with the others; my cousin was beating the drum. The upper caste people got angry. They said it was our caste occupation to beat the drum for their oxen, not for our own oxen and we must behave according to our caste. They got some weapons and beat us very badly.’ The police were pressurised by the upper castes and wouldn’t file the complaint when the incident was reported and even threatened a counter-charge of theft. It was only with the help of the human rights activists that the case was registered at all. In the following months, there was tension in the village but with the help of the SPMM the situation slowly improved. ‘There was a lot of fear all the time, even the threat of being killed,’ says Baliram, ‘the upper-caste villagers took an oath in the temple, saying, “We will break these people”. The older people of our own caste said: “Because you are doing this, we are all suffering. You don’t know these people, they can kill you!” The SPMM activists, aided by Baliram, worked hard to build communication between the opposing sides and reduce the threat of violence. Finally, the highercaste people began to recognise the need for change and the case didn’t go to court. To demonstrate their human rights, in October of the following year Baliram, his friends and the SPMM activists walked into the temple. ‘On that day we felt we had got justice.’ Other things have changed for Baliram as well. ‘The SPMM saw my potential, as a person who can fight for my own rights and the rights of others,’ he says. ‘Through their help I am now a fully trained lawyer and work as a full-time activist with SPMM. The people in the village who were against me now acknowledge my strengths and seek my help. I represent all the castes in front of the officials and all the villagers are on my side. They used to abuse us, but they saw they were wrong and apologized for that. It is a victory not only for me, but for all people. I am living a full human life now.’

Print this page | Back to top