MUMBAI PAUSED

Vashi

#CasteandtheCity The young are denied the right to protest. The old are allowed to parade caste pride as culture. In India, even privilege comes with a procession.

The old man shown here is Sambhaji Bhide, who enjoys the patronage of successive regimes despite his well-documented controversies:

his alleged role in the violence against Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon (1 January 2018); threatening people during the Pandharpur Wari (2017);

and repeatedly attacking anti-caste figures like Phule, Periyar, Sant Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar, as well as advocates of non-violence like Gandhi.

His activities offer a revealing example of how caste supremacists operate and propagate their ideology.

For instance, an advisory committee of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) found him guilty of violating the Prohibition of Sex Selection Act after he claimed that couples eating mangoes from his garden could have sons.

A Firstpost report quoted a policeman who said that internal police diaries described Bhide as a dharmavedā mathefiru, roughly, a religious fanatic who has lost his mind.

His supporters include politicians from dominant castes across party lines who continue to shield him.

Read the inner pages of newspapers, and you will find the ongoing pushback against India's fight for equality and dignity.

“You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster (caste).”

Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste.