Dalit lives matter: Indian Americans protest, demanding justice for dalit victim of gang rape

The Hindu nationalist government in India protects perpetrators of brutal sexual crime against dalit women, because it doesn’t treat them as equal citizen, said Minhaj M Khan, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on Sunday. He was addressing a gathering of hundreds of peaceful protesters who had come from all over the tri-state at Merrill Park, in Iselin, New Jersey to demand justice for the 19-year-old dalit (formerly known as untouchables) girl who was gang raped on September 14, by four men belonging to the influential upper caste Thakurs in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. The survivor of the gang rape died two weeks later in a hospital in Delhi, after suffering paralysis due to severe injuries to her spinal cord, leading to national and international outrage and protests.

“Dalit lives do not matter for the Hindu nationalists governments of Narendra Modi in India, and that of Adityanath, the extremist Hindu monk, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Not only did Adityanath, deny that the dalit girl was raped, he refused a dignified death to her, and protected the culprits because they belong to the same caste as his,” he said.

Mohammed Jawad, the national general secretary of IAMC, highlighted the data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau that more than 500 dalit women were raped in Uttar Pradesh under Adityanath regime in 2019. In 2018 almost 3000 Dalit women were raped in UP of whom 871 were minors. On an average 8 Dalit women are raped everyday in India.

“Adityanath is not capable of serving people in accordance with the Constitution. He protected the culprits of the gang rape and instead hired a public relations firm to push a narrative that gang rape in Hathras, was a conspiracy of ‘outsiders’,” Mr. Jawad said while addressing the protesters who wore masks, raising placards in their hands condemning the Indian state. They raised slogans against India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist who appointed an extremist Hindu monk Adityanath as head of Uttar Pradesh where the gang rape took place.

Dr. Murli Natarajan from India Civil Watch International, condemned the gang rape in Hathras and said that the “brutality that happened in Hathras, was yet another in a very long series of moral horrors perpetrated on Dalits by caste-supremacist patriarchs.”

“We condemn their brazen denial of the rape, their cowardly cover-up of the frequency of rapes, their shameless glorification of the rapists, their bigoted denigration of rape victims, and their denial to the family of the right to grieve with dignity,” he added.

“We stand with all the protesters and demand accountability of those who committed this dastardly act” said Professor Madan, of Global Indian Progressive Alliance (GIPA). “We demand the minority commission to take cognizance of this crime as not only that of sexual violence but also one that involves the suppression of evidence on the basis of caste”.

A representative of Dalit Solidarity forum in the USA, said that the protest was an expression of condemnation of “the rapid increase in the unacceptable social condition of dalit women unable to defend rights to our own bodies and self-respect. We are repeatedly devalued, raped and mutilated.”

Salman Sheik, board of director of IAMC said that gang rape of the dailt girl and denial of justice to her, brought shame to India internationally.

“The unfortunate reality is that under the administration of Modi government, members of upper caste and of those who believe in the neo-Nazi ideology of Hindutva, are more equal than others. We are here to demand that the Indian state ensure justice to the family of the victim, in not only this case but in other cases of sexual violence against dalit women as well,” said Mr. Sheik.

The Hindus for Human Right (HfHR) in a read-out statement said "As practicing Hindus, it behooves us to denounce this century long oppression in name of tradition. Casteism demeans Hinduism that believes that god resides in every human. We cannot pray to deity for blessings, while disparaging other humans in name of the same deity . As Hindus, it behooves us to not only denounce caste based oppression, but work towards an equal and just society."

Nilab Nusrat, a representative from Hindus for Human Rights, said “I can’t stay silent when a 19-year-old girl is getting gang-raped and killed and the rapists are not brought to justice because they are members of the upper caste.”

The protest was organized by the New Jersey unit of IAMC, and was supported by members of other civil society groups like Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch, Sadhana, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, Muslims for Progressive Values, MANAVI, Dalit Solidarity Forum and Global Indian Progressive Alliance among others. The Indian American Muslim Council is an advocacy group dedicated to promoting the common values of pluralism, tolerance, and respect for human rights that form the basis of the world’s two largest secular democracies – the United States and India.