Indians have been obsessed with the caste system for a long time. It originated about 3,000 years ago and many of us still follow it like extremely dogmatic people. So actually, saying caste is back would be wrong because it was never "gone". Earlier, Dalits weren't given the right to study or stay happy. Now, when so many attempts are being made to give them those rights, people are trying to find illogical justifications to stop them from getting any of it. This casteism was seen this year in the Olympics, too.
"4th of August, 2021: India lost to Argentina in Women's Hockey in the semi-finals at Tokyo Olympics".
But that is not the full story. Much followed it.
Indian field Hockey player Vandana Katariya was insulted in her village, just outside her house in Haridwar, by a group of upper castes on the 4th of August, 2021 who blamed the Dalits in the hockey team for India's loss in the match against Argentina at the Tokyo Olympics.
These upper castes from Vandana Katariya's neighborhood burst crackers outside her house, hours after India lost the semi-final against the opposing Nation, and threw abuses at her and her family, saying that "India did not win the match because of too many Dalits in the National Women's Hockey Team".
Vandana Katariya was the one who, just at the age of 26, had become a star, creating history at the Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first Indian woman player to score a hat-trick (three similar successes within a limited period of time) in the game of Hockey. But she was not the only one insulted badly for being a Dalit. And this didn't come as a surprise, either. Because, as already mentioned in this article, and I think we all know that, caste-based discrimination is a major and one of the most common problems in India. It was just before this incident, on the 1st of August that a nine-year-old Dalit girl was raped and murdered, and cremated by a priest and three other people in Delhi.
As if all these insults were not enough, almost none of the ministers or celebrities even seemed to know that any of this was happening inside the country! There was almost no tweet from any of them about this major incident! But the common people of India are in majority and the celebrities and ministers are definitely not. And a large percentage of the common people have tweeted and raised their voices against these casteists, who insulted Vandana Katariya and her family.
Rani Rampal has called it a “shameful act” and said in a press conference that the team sacrifices and struggles to represent their country and that people should stop these casteist attacks. She has also said that they work as a team, as one. They come from different parts of India, belong to different religions, different castes but they work together and hard to represent the flag, to serve the tricolor.
Katariya's brother, Chandra Shekhar registered an FIR at Sidkul police station on the 4th of August, stating the incident and till now, at least three men have been arrested by Uttarakhand's Haridwar police. These three included a 23-year-old Sumit Chauhan and two other accused, both brothers, 21-year-old Ankurpal and 25-year-old Vijaypal.
But what I think these acts actually prove is that people think that a Dalit is the uppermost of the people in all other castes because they are the ones who can't make any mistake. Doesn't that prove that they are closest to none other but God, who can't make any mistake? But we don't insult God like that, do we? And let's not forget, people, that Dalits are still human beings even if they are the closest to God. So they can make mistakes like everyone else in the world.
I'd also like to say that "Every single defeat of a human being shouldn't be a reason to start searching up on Google what their caste is". I include this statement because that is what a lot of casteists' very first approach is. Many people don't look at the struggle of people, they look up how to 'strangle' people.
So we still have a lot to understand. Let's try to.
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