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INTRODUCTION 11 1 Introduction UNDERSTANDING CASTES TO ANNIHILATE THEM Khairlanji. An obscure village in the unheard of Mohadi taluk of Bhandara district, Maharashtra. Suddenly, in 2006, it became the newest addition to the series of names that have become synonymous with violent crimes against dalits in post- independence India—Kilvenmani (44 dalits burnt alive in Tamil Nadu, 1968), Belchi (14 dalits burnt alive in Bihar, 1977), Morichjhanpi (hundreds of dalit refugees massacred by the state in Sundarbans, West Bengal, 1978), Karamchedu (six dalits murdered, three dalit women raped and many more wounded in Andhra Pradesh, 1984), Chundru (nine dalits massacred and dumped in a canal in Andhra Pradesh, 1991), Melavalavu (an elected dalit panchayat leader and five dalits murdered, Tamil Nadu, 1997), Kambalapalli (six dalits burnt alive in Karnataka, 2000) and Jhajjar (five dalits lynched near a police station in Haryana, 2003). The incidents listed here may not figure in any history of post-independence India. Most Indians may not even have heard of these places. Khairlanji, too, may soon be similarly forgotten. This book is an effort to ensure that it will not be easily erased from memory. As Milan Kundera says, the struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. 12 KHAIRLANJI Khairlanji ignited dalit anger and spawned agitations all over Maharashtra and beyond—spontaneous protests that erupted on the streets and were led by ordinary people, sans leaders. It was unlike anything Maharashtra had seen before. This book
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