BARRIERS OF IDENTITY

My village ‘Baggi’ stands by a state highway with a population of about 600. It is dominated by Rajput community with eight Dalit families. No, there are seven Dalit families and one Muslim family, all live on the outskirts of the village on the land given by the government during Land-Reforms. Earlier they were landless. Now they are not dependent on anybody, they till their own land and live in concrete houses. There are only two kuccha houses, one belongs to me and other belongs to another Rajput family. The only source of water is equidistant from both communities, only near to our home. We live outside the ghetto.

Both communities invite each other to their family functions. In a wedding organised by a Dalit family, Rajputs will be invited . But the food has to be cooked by a Brahmin cook. Rajputs will dine separately from Dalits or before them. Caste is a psychological phenomenon. My small village stands in testimony to that. Money also has psychological dimension but in India as Prabhat Joshi rightly said, “Caste is more conscious division than class.”

The language of articles 14, 15, 17, 335, 338, 339 and 340 is not known here. Even Nehru’s dream of economic equity has failed to bring social equity among awakened people of ‘Baggi’.
The state highway will soon be converted to national highway. But whatever be the rate of economic development, highways can never be built flat along such villages.