In its ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ to the US Congress, the Department of State found India wanting in more than a dozen significant human rights issues. These issues include unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings perpetrated by police; and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by some police and prison officials; arbitrary arrest and detention by government authorities; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; political prisoners or detainees in certain states; corruption and tolerance of violations of religious freedom.
The report pointed out that the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) received and investigated prisoner complaints of human rights violations throughout the year. “But “civil society representatives believed few prisoners filed complaints due to fear of retribution from prison guards or officials.”
Following New Delhi’s August 2019 abrogation of a special constitutional Indian “authorities used a public safety law to detain local politicians without trial”. Those released were required to sign bonds agreeing not to engage in political activity. The US report noted that the Public Safety Act (PSA), “permits authorities to detain persons without charge or judicial review for up to two years without visitation from family members.”
The sermons in international reports or constitutional safeguards can’t equalize Indian citizens as the caste system is ordained in Hindu religious scriptures. According to the Constitution of India, “the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, place and birth or any of them.”
Untouchability was legally abolished and its practice in any form forbidden by the Anti-Untouchability Act, of 1955. Nearly two decades later, in 1976, the 1955 Act was reviewed in order to make it more stringent and effective, and the “Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955” (PCR Act). In 1989, the government enacted yet another Act, namely the Scheduled Castes/Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act in order to prevent atrocities against members of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
India’s Hindu majority is divided on the basis of “jati” or “caste.” While jati is derived from the Sanskrit word jāta (born), “caste” is derived from the Spanish/Portuguese word casta meaning race, lineage or breed. India’s caste system was derived from “the Chaturvarna system or the fourfold division of society.” This divides the society into four varnas or classes that are hierarchical in nature. On the top of this ranking are the priests (Brahmins), followed by the warriors and erstwhile rulers (Kshatriyas). The next to come are the farmers and merchants (Vaishyas), while the last in the hierarchy are the workers and craftsmen, among others (Shudras).
A fifth group existed outside this fourfold classification, that of the non-classified (avarnas) who did work that was, and is still considered, physically and ritually polluting, such as cremation and the handling of dead bodies, removal and skinning of dead animals, removal and cleaning of human bodily fluids and excreta (manual scavenging) and basket weaving.
Marc Galanter, in his 1969 paper, “Untouchability and the Law,” traces the relationship between the British legal system and the Indian “caste order” in colonial India.
