India: 6-yr-old thrown in fire for walking on 'upper caste' road

[Bluebear]

Well that will teach her.

I don't understand this world sometimes :(

===

New Delhi: A six-year old Dalit girl was set on fire by a man in Mathura because the girl and her mother chose to walk through a path reserved only for upper caste villagers.

Even the police refused to take any action. The girl is now admitted in a hospital in Mathura and is critical.

The accused, Sunil has denied having thrown her in the fire and says it was an accident.

In the last few weeks, there has been a rise in violence against Dalits in a state ruled by the pro-Dalit Bahujan Samaj Party.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/6yrold-thrown-in-fire-for-walking-on-upper-caste-road/64236-3.html

[greenman3610]

1. traditional values. dont you love it.

[Ken Burch]

2. "Even the police refused to take any action".

Even the police refused to take any action. Even the police refused to take any action.

That may be the single most sickening sentence I've ever seen posted on this board.

A child is set afire and the police did nothing.

Because the road must only be trod upon by the Brahmins.

Well, watch out folks, that's coming here if the rich stay in power.

[Bluebear]

3. Your last paragraph is closer than I ever thought possible here.

As food, gas, everything keeps going up, as millions lose their homes, as the chasm grows wider... I shudder to think about it.

[populistdriven]

18. "god bless us (rich)" -HRC

[Golden Raisin]

5. That's coming here and our jobs are going there.

On another front --- we are not so pure and noble either. Kind of reminds me of the American South for blacks up until about the 1960's. We don't have a good record with native americans either.

[Ken Burch]

9. No argument at all on that point.

n/t.

[Virginian]

10. Hey, let's raise the quota on H-1b visas going to the upper castes

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:
Are we assisting them to widen the chasm between the rich and the poor?

All three of our presidential candidates are in favor if increasing the number of foreign professionals coming to the US to work. A very large number of the H-1b work visas are going to Indians.

[TheMadMonk]

15. So who are we to comment? Or to especially decry.

A) Police in many western nations refuse to take action, measuring expended effort, vs. likely outcome. Excuse me, the police are not there to judge, and are actually specifically prohibited from doing so.

B) Once given A, severity of the crime overlooked becomes largely irrelevant. The pertinent fact is that the police chose whether or not to perform their legal obligations.

That is where WE stand.

Now, whether we like it or not, legal precedent for the act committed by the "accused" does exist in India does exist, and unless a specific parliamentary act has overridden that precedent, the "accused" may stand within his legal rights. It may well be that he will become eligible for arrest and prosecution if/when the girl dies, if the Indian parliament has enacted laws that prohibit caste to be used as a defense in "unlawful killings", but if assault is nor specifically addressed then the police may well be blocked from acting because NO RECOGNISED CRIME has been committed.


I repeat, we personally and collectively may not what happened here, but it can be argued that a refusal to act when the law prohibits action, is not as great a "crime against society" as a refusal to act when the law requres action, since one promotes social stability whilst the other invites anarchy.

India's population's representatives, it's Parliament may choose to plug this loophole and legally prohibit any further acts of this nature, though it may not act against the individual who committed this act unless he repeats it.

Our options, as individuals are pretty much limited to being pissed off that such is still permitted in this so called 'modern and enlightened' world. And as nations to individually or collectively ostracize India until such a time as it prohibits further acts of this kind. Yet, by our own or international laws, we may not demand punishment of the individual who committed this specific act, no matter how deserving of punishment he may be.

[struggle4progress]

31. Ummm ... India outlawed the caste system in 1949 ... so caste difference

can scarcely be an affirmative defense in any assault

[Ken Burch]

51. Mad Monk, the "we can't judge another culture" thing does NOT include

saying nothing when the innocent are harmed.

Would you take this position about female genital mutilation?

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. It already is.

You would be shocked at what they get away with..

[roguevalley]

39. when they die, they will not go anywhere but where we all go and

they will have to stand in line and take their medicine like the rest of us. there are no elites in the next world and I hope I am there when these fuckers get there.

[tblue]

4. And India is supposed to be 'advanced'?

My heart breaks.

[bluestateguy]

6. Oh, but it's just a different culture in our multi-cultural world

:barf:

[Zorra]

7. Ain't dogma swell? Google "Dalits", it's enough to make any democrat wanna puke. n/t

[Duppers]

8. I've often said

I hate that country.

(so sue me.)

[Jamastiene]

11. That's just ridiculous.

It's another clear case where a kid from some other country should have the option to come live here, if you ask me. That's what we should be doing; offering tortured people a chance to come here and be free. Instead, we turn a blind eye to horrible stuff that is happening in the world and torture people ourselves. There's no justice. :eyes:

[sudopod]

53. Isn't there something like that

printed on a statue somewhere important?

:)

[JI7]

12. i wish people would video tape these things and bring interntional

attention to it. maybe then the corrupt govt will do something to enforce the laws.

and there is no road reserved for some "upper caste" assholes. they just decide to take things for themselves and the place is full of ignorant religious people.

[bean fidhleir]

13. "Dalit" is the term for the caste that was usually called "untouchable" in English

India isn't advanced and never has been. It might be the most class-conscious society in the world, which in my book makes it retarded not advanced. Life is good for the upper-caste people who are the ones that get the good educations because it's so shitty for the lower-caste people.

The wealthy are wealthy because they can force us to be poor.

[indepat]

14. Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to amaze: luckily we sometimes see examples of

man's extraordinary kindness. :( :D

[SalmonChantedEvening]

16. Healing vibes and wishes for the child.

:cry:

How horrible :(

[LeftishBrit]

17. Horrific!

The poor child - I hope she makes a good recovery.

I hope justice is done.

[Solly Mack]

19. uppity little 6 year old...

:(

[1776Forever]

20. I used to read about this caste system in school in 1960! Can't believe in 2008 it is still there!

Is this what we are funding when we give contracts to India? How can we keep supporting sweat shops in China and this kind of terrible abuse in India? Is there no ethics in our country any more? Oh - that's right we had an Administration that is full of one-world-order freaks who believe this is just something that goes along with progress! Right - for whom is the progress? Not for this little 6 year-old child!!!!!!

:rant:

[Fumesucker]

21. Driving while black..

Walking while Dalit..

I'm not sure that I see such a huge difference.

Let me know the next time Indian police shoot an unarmed man dozens of times and are then completely exonerated.

[Rosemary2205]

22. And we thought the FLDS was bad.

This bullshit happens everywhere - thank God it's not the accepted norm in the "evil" US of A.

[Fumesucker]

23. Oh, it is the norm..

We just lock people up rather than throwing them in the fire..

The incarceration rate for black males in the US is almost six times as high as it was in South Africa under apartheid.

http://www.prisonsucks.com/

South Africa under Apartheid was internationally condemned as a racist society.

* South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
* U.S. under George Bush (2006), Black males: 4,789 per 100,000

[Bill McBlueState]

26. but we don't lock up six-year-olds.

Nor do we set them on fire.

And, as much as our incarceration rate is a problem, setting someone on fire is different from putting someone in prison.

[Chisox08]

27. It's different but the sentiment behind it is all the same.

Indian child set on fire for walking on a street reserved for the upper caste. :puke:
Black teen harassed and arrested on trumped charges for driving in a nice neighborhood.
both are sickening. :puke:

[Fumesucker]

29. In one case, India, it is an invidual doing the foul deed..

In the other case it is an entire society.

With Democrats specifically included.

[MindPilot]

36. Yes we do.

Perhaps you've missed the numerous stories of young kids arrested for such bizarre charges as "threatening to kill a teacher" or some manner of "sex crime".

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. well i am sure americans are gods gift to human kind but if you read the whole story

it does mention that the guy who perpetrated this crime is in prison and the state is lead by peopel who want to improve the condition of the dalit.

[JI7]

48. they don't lock up 6 year olds in India either

[Rosemary2205]

41. We aren't locking up 6 yr olds.

I agree the incarceration of black men is an absolute travesty - both in selective prosecution and in the fact black men have so many fewer opportunities.

though I was actually commenting upon socially accepted emotional, physical and sexual abuse of women and children.

[Fumesucker]

42. As others have commented..

We indeed have come to the point where we are arresting six year olds.

And abuse is abuse is abuse.. It doesn't matter the sex or age of the person being abused.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

38. its not the acceptable norm in india either. if anyone bothered to read the rest of that aricle

they would know that.

of course when it comes to other people one person determines the entire culture

and when it comes to ourselves we consider the one evil person to be aberrant.

[fed_up_mother]

24. WATCH this video "Prime Minister, Free the Dalit"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlI1E1m2mQ

Dalit Hymn by Caedmon's Call.

I'm afraid I don't know how to post it in the thread.

[KillCapitalism]

25. This happening in India...

or human rights violations in China? Who would have thought?:crazy:

India could have developed a culture more like Great Britain because of colonization, but they chose to stick with this inferior culture with it's caste system.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. while this act is inexcusable, your post is bigoted bullshit.

India should not aim to develop a culture of a people who not just occupied India but tried very hard to ensure that these practices stayed in India. the British supported very heavily the people who benefited most from these cultural practices.

infact when we finally got rid of the British one of the first things we did is abolish the caste sytem.

Britain raped and stole all over india and other countries it occupied. just because they white washed that part of their histroy doesnt make them worth emulating.

[JI7]

47. the British supported the caste system, it was made illegal after they left

[La Lioness Priyanka]

50. ...

:thumbsup:

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. What fuckers.

And that's the culture that American corporations want to support with their outsourcing.

[OhioChick]

54. Well Said. n/t

[UndertheOcean]

32. Fuck the indian cast system

[UndertheOcean]

33. ..

"For the ills which the Untouchables are suffering, if they are not as much advertised as those of the Jews, and are not less real. Nor arc the means and the methods of suppression used by the Hindus against the Untouchables less effective because they are less bloody than the ways which the Nazis have adopted against the Jews. The Anti-Semitism of the Nazis against the Jews is no way different in ideology and in effect from the Sanatanism of the Hindus against the Untouchables.The world owes a duty to the Untouchables as it does to all suppressed people to break their shackles and set them free."

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

[PassingFair]

43. Ambedkar is known as the "Father of the Indian Constitution"

Yup, an "untouchable" wrote their Constitution.

He is a hero of mine.

India is having growing pains, but they have come
a LONG way. In some ways, they are ahead of the U.S.

Lingering social and gender based discrimination is
being fought daily.

[MindPilot]

34. We are better than them; they just don't value life like we do.

How many six-year-olds have our bombs incinerated and maimed?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

35. ugh, india should remove UP and bihar from its list of states.

brings us nothing but atrocious inexcusable behavior.

[bushmeister0]

44. And we're going to give them advanced nuclear technology?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

45. yes clearly because the actions of one man we should determine what

our foreign policy towards india should be.

[Cleita]

46. Amazing how it's always a self-righteous man who picks

on someone weaker and smaller than him, usually a woman, gay person, or child, to administer "justice".

[JI7]

49. the asshole who did this was 16 years old. hopefully his life is over now

and will spend the rest of his life in prison .

[Danger Mouse]

52. that's horrifying...but it's only the action of one man.

on edit: as a response to the people who are making judgements about india based on his actions.
typical action of the ignorant.

[varkam]

55. Case in point against moral relativism. eom