Caste Dominance and Everyday Violence in Haryana Experiences of Balmikis Ex Chuhras in Gorakhpur Village

Abstract

Abstract newlineThe famous phrase of Haryana Jiski Lathi Uski Bhais which means the one who wields newlinethe stick, commands the buffalo aptly describes the state under study. The proverbial stick newlinein Haryana is wielded by the landowning community based on caste hierarchy controlling the newlinestate with dominance. The Balmikis/scavenger(ex-Chuhras) community occupies the lowest newlinesocial strata, and is economically very dependent on the land-owning community. They work newlineas sanitation workers and sweep the roads and streets, clean the sewage, remove dead animals newlineand work as manual scavengers and are employed as agricultural labourers. They also face newlinevarious forms of violence from the dominant castes, particularly the Jats the landowning newlinecommunity. Positioning myself as Balmiki (ex-Chuhra) within the lens adopted for this study; newlineuntouchability, this study makes an attempt to foreground untouchability conditioned newlineviolence in the lived experiences of the Balmiki community at Gorakhpur village of Haryana. newlineThe question of caste violence is very close to my upbringing as born and grown up in Balmiki newlineGhetto; I grew up in an environment of fear of being identified by my caste. newlineAdopting a lived epistemological approach, I engaged with this research question through newlineself-reflexive ethnographic technique in different phases starting from 2014 to 2019, and I newlineunraveled the reality of everyday violence in the lived experience in the Gorakhpur village of newlineHaryana - selected as it gives me possibilities for in-depth engagement with my research newlinequestion. The voluminous empirical data generated through self-reflexive fieldwork has been newlineorganized based on the three lines of inquiries drawing from the object of analysis adopted newlinefor this study namely on a) structural/cultural/symbolic conditions, b) socio-religion newlinepractices, and c) internal resistance, survival struggle and becoming of the community. In newlineparticular, the research argues against the thanda gaam (a village free from caste violence) newlineand unravels untouchability conditioned violence . Moreover, it is indicated that the newlinecondition of violence also has created spaces that shape the changing dynamics of caste newlinerelationships within the village as the scheduled castes, Balmikis in particular, have begun to newlineresist and raise voices against caste domination and violence. Resistance defines their struggle newline- a struggle for social justice that finds its inspiration from the ethics and principles of Baba newlineSaheb Ambedkar. newlineix newline