Scribd
Upload
122 views1 page

Caste and Justice in Hathras Case

A 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras, India by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in the hospital. Her family claims she was forcibly cremated by police without their consent. The case highlights the systemic problem of caste discrimination within India's police system. The brutal crime and its handling sparked widespread protests across the country. The case has brought greater attention to issues faced by Dalit women that have long been marginalized within both feminist and Dalit social movements in India.

Uploaded by

Sadaf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
122 views1 page

Caste and Justice in Hathras Case

A 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras, India by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in the hospital. Her family claims she was forcibly cremated by police without their consent. The case highlights the systemic problem of caste discrimination within India's police system. The brutal crime and its handling sparked widespread protests across the country. The case has brought greater attention to issues faced by Dalit women that have long been marginalized within both feminist and Dalit social movements in India.

Uploaded by

Sadaf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

HATHRAS CASE

On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar


Pradesh, India, allegedly by four upper caste men. After fighting for her life for two weeks, she
died in a Delhi hospital1.

Initially, it was reported that one accused had tried to kill her, though later in her statement to the
magistrate, the victim named four accused as having raped her.2 The victim's brother claimed that
no arrests were made in the first 10 days after the incident took place. After her death, the victim
was forcibly cremated by the police without the consent of her family, a claim denied by the
police.3 the Hathras case indicates the problem with India’s police is not caused by a few
bad apples but because of a systemic problem with caste.

The case and its subsequent handling has received widespread media attention and condemnation
from across the country, and was the subject of protests 

 the Hathras atrocity proves yet again that caste solidarity is firmer than anything else. Instead of
standing by the slain woman and her family, the women from the Thakur caste chose conspicuous
silence and shifted the blame on the victim. This proves, once again, that caste has more returns for
the dominant castes than their immediate identity as a woman. This case is one of the most
prominent examples of the rape of a Dalit woman receiving sustained national attention in
India.Manjula pradeep a dalit activist says “For us, this is very important because it is a
milestone in the Dalit women’s movement. It has brought us into center stage. And it has
created spaces for the issues of Dalit women and girls, which have most of the time been
marginalized, not only by the feminist women’s rights movement, but also by by the Dalit
movement, which is quite male dominated,”

1
Johari, Aarefa (30 September 2020). "In videos: How the Dalit woman raped in Hathras was cremated
without letting her family say goodbye". Scroll.in. Retrieved 1 October2020.
2
"Impunity in Hathras". The Indian Express. 1 October 2020. Retrieved 2 October2020.
3
 Halder, Tanseem; Mishra, Himanshu (30 September 2020). "Hathras horror: Police, victim's family give
contradictory accounts".  India Today. Retrieved 1 October 2020.

You might also like