印度的贱民寻求结束社会等级壁垒

AS IT IS 2016-10-05 India's Dalits Seek an End to Social Barriers 印度的贱民寻求结束社会等级壁垒

Nearly every day, there is a news story about an attack on members of India’s Dalit community.

A few days ago, for example, six men beat a pregnant Dalit woman and members of her family. Al Jazeera television said they were attacked for refusing to remove a dead cow from the street.

Dalits are members of India’s lower caste, or social class. The woman’s attackers were members of a higher caste.

Beatings and other violence against Dalits are not new. What is new, however, is the community’s reaction.

Recently, Dalits have been protesting in a number of ways. The pregnant woman, for example, is among a growing movement of Dalits who have promised not to clear the streets of dead animals – a job Dalits have long been expected to perform.

Other Dalits are taking their protest to the business world. At the end of September, for example, the writer and activist¹ Chandra Bhan Prasad launched an online food company. The company prepares and sells grains, pickles², and spices.

Food for Thought

For years, Chandra Bhan Prasad has fought to end India’s caste divisions. He was born 58 years ago into a family of pig farmers in the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Prasad grew up experiencing the prejudice of upper caste Hindus against those from lower castes. Historically, Hindu society divided people into four main castes, with Dalits being the lowest.

While doing research for the University of Pennsylvania, Prasad was shocked to find 80-year-old Dalits carrying heavy bundles of wheat on their head and laboring⁴ in the fields.

He also learned that the grains his community produced and ate were very healthy. For example, when Prasad was a child, millet⁵ was a popular grain among the Dalits. Now, health experts are calling millet a superfood.

Until recent years, Dalits could not prepare or even touch the food of higher castes, or enter their cooking areas. If Dalits touched these foods, the foods became “impure.”

By naming his company “Dalit Foods,” Prasad is protesting the belief that Dalits are not pure and therefore untouchable. The company has already received orders from a large hotel chain in India, according to Yahoo! Finance.

If his business is a success, Prasad believes it will support major social changes in India. Younger Dalits will begin believing that the country belongs to them, too, he said.

This Land is Your Land

Dalits are victims of thousands of violent attacks every year, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency. The Times of India reported that crimes against Dalits rose 19 percent in 2014.

In 1955, India created laws banning abuse and caste discrimination.

The country has also established affirmative action programs, such as saving university seats and government jobs for Dalits. But, generally, change remains⁶ slow.

Although the social position of Dalits has improved over the years, some leaders and police officers still do not enforce laws protecting them.

In 2014, for example, the crime records office documented more than 47,000 cases of discrimination at police stations around India, the AP reported.

Udit Raj, a member of Parliament, said that only two to eight percent of people accused of crimes against Dalits are found guilty. The AP reported his comment.

Raj, who is from New Delhi, is a supporter of expanding rights for Dalits. Caste divisions in India are not as rigid⁷ as they once were, partly the result of the country’s economic growth over the past several years.

New jobs have pulled millions of Indians into large cities, where people of all castes live close to one another.

Where Social Divisions Rule

In rural areas, Dalits still suffer from a deep social divide. In villages, for example, lower castes are usually not permitted to enter religious temples or take water from wells.

Traditionally, Dalits have been forced to perform the least-wanted jobs, such as removing dead animals from roads and cleaning restrooms. Today, many Dalits are still expected to perform these jobs.

In August, thousands of members of the Dalit community attended a protest called “Dalit Pride March.” The protesters promised to stop removing dead animals and doing other dirty jobs. They made the declaration a month after a group of angry higher caste men brutally⁸ beat four Dalit men in public.

The attackers accused the Dalit men of removing the skin from a dead cow. Cows are considered holy in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned⁹ attacks by upper caste men claiming to protect cows. These groups, which have been more active in the past few years, accuse lower castes, and sometimes Muslims, of killing¹⁰ the animals or eating their meat.

Protests have taken place all over Gujarat since the four men were beaten, the AP reported. In addition to the refusal to remove dead animals, the protesters want access to land, as most Dalits are landless, according to Al Jazeera.

A Sign of Changing Times

Beena Pallickal is with the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. Pallickal says the Dalit community has progressed much more slowly than the rest of the country.

The biggest problem remains lack of social acceptance of the community. Pallickal hopes businesses like Dalit Foods can make a difference.

“I am looking for a world where I can claim my caste and not be discriminated¹¹ against,” she said.

Chandra Bhan Prasad recently said that his business is a social experiment to see if India has really changed and to find out if people are willing to examine their own biases¹² and customs.

For now, Dalits across India continue to battle social and economic barriers and push for meaningful change.

Words in This Story

access - n. a way of getting near, at, or to something or someone

caste - n. one of the classes into which the Hindu people of India were traditionally divided

pickle³ - n. a cucumber that is preserved in salt water or vinegar

spice - n. a substance (such as pepper or nutmeg) that is used in cooking to add flavor to food and that comes from a dried plant and is usually a powder or seed

prejudice - n. an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.

bundle - n. a group of things that are fastened, tied, or wrapped together

superfood - n. a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being¹⁴.

affirmative action - n. an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education

rigid - adj. not easily changed

brutally - adv. done in an extremely cruel or harsh way

bias¹³ - n. a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 pickles   

n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱

参考例句：

• Most people eat pickles at breakfast. 大多数人早餐吃腌菜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I want their pickles and wines, and that.' 我要他们的泡菜、美酒和所有其他东西。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛

3 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

4 laboring   

n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转

参考例句：

• The young man who said laboring was beneath his dignity finally put his pride in his pocket and got a job as a kitchen porter. 那个说过干活儿有失其身份的年轻人最终只能忍辱，做了厨房搬运工的工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• But this knowledge did not keep them from laboring to save him. 然而，这并不妨碍她们尽力挽救他。 来自飘（部分）

5 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

8 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

9 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

10 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

11 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

12 biases   

偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹

参考例句：

• Stereotypes represent designer or researcher biases and assumptions, rather than factual data. 它代表设计师或者研究者的偏见和假设，而不是实际的数据。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• The net effect of biases on international comparisons is easily summarized. 偏差对国际比较的基本影响容易概括。

13 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

14 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。