November 17, 2018

"When Sardar Singh Jatav set out walking on a muggy night in early September to talk with the men who employed his son, he found them already waiting for him in the road."

"But they were not in the mood for discussion. The higher-caste men greeted Mr. Sardar with a punch to the face. Then they broke his arm. Then they pinned him down. Mr. Sardar shrieked for help. Nobody came. One higher-caste man stuffed a rag in his mouth. Another gleefully pulled out a razor. He grabbed Mr. Sardar’s scalp and began to lift and cut, lift and cut, carving off nearly every inch of skin. 'Take that!' Mr. Sardar remembers them saying. 'Tell everyone we scalped you!'... One police commander tried to claim that the assailants hadn’t intended to scalp Mr. Sardar but that part of his scalp had simply fallen off when they hit him in the head with a stick.... Mr. Sardar said that while he was being scalped, the Gujjars taunted him for wearing a turban, something that Dalits are not supposed to do. He remembers the men saying: 'We’re going to take away your crown.'"

From "‘Tell Everyone We Scalped You!’ How Caste Still Rules in India" (NYT).

37 comments:

FleetUSA said...

Don’t give Antifa ideas

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

Is this how Deplorables will be treated by Antifa?

gspencer said...

"Mr. Sardar said that while he was being scalped, the Gujjars taunted him for wearing a turban, something that Dalits are not supposed to do."

What I got from this story = Validation that all cultures are equally valid and worthy of respect. Multiculturalism is indeed a wonderful, wonderful thing.

So long as you're not Mr. Sardar

Fernandinande said...

Um, they said the d-word -

"In an advisory on August 7 to all private satellite television channels, the I&B Ministry had asked them to “refrain from using the nomenclature Dalit”, and use only the Constitutional term, ‘Scheduled Caste’."

"In modern literature, the Scheduled Castes/Tribes are sometimes referred to as untouchables."

An ancient civilization like India's will have many subtle levels of euphemism and misdirection.

And, they said the g-word -

"The Gurjars are classified as Other Backward Class (OBC) in some of India's States and UTs;"

"Other Backward Class (OBC) is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or economically disadvantaged. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs)."

IOW, the Gujjars and Dalits both suck.

Fernandinande said...

The story was a False Flag operation by the Brahmins!

Glen Filthie said...

That’s why these animals belong in their own country...

rhhardin said...

What do you expect. They're Indians.

Ambrose said...

"Mr. Sardar said that while he was being scalped, the Gujjars taunted him for wearing a turban, something that Dalits are not supposed to do."

So he was appropriating their culture? Like wearing a sombrero on cinco de mayo?

Wince said...

Experts say this violence is committed to sow terror. They liken it to the many well-publicized horrors inflicted on women here, intended to dehumanize and put people in their place.

Somebody tap Sen. Kamala Harris on the shoulder and tell her this is what being perceived like the KKK is really about.

traditionalguy said...

The high caste Hindus are empowered by the more powerful demon gods. And that will never change until Christianity spreads some more there.

Rick.T. said...

Blogger Birkel said...

“Is this how Deplorables will be treated by Antifa?”

In a concealed carry state? Possibly once or twice.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I'm kind of surprised that the NYT ran this story since it could be argued that they are engaging in "orientalising." That is, picking out a particular aspect of a non-western culture that we Westerners' will find repellent in order to make the culture seem "foreign" and "repellent." And that is bad.

Darrell said...

All cultures are equals.
Don't judge.

Drago said...

It will be interesting to see how Inga and LLR Chuck spin this as the fault of Christians and Trump.

Paco Wové said...

"What I got from this story = Validation that all cultures are equally valid and worthy of respect."

If they did something bad, I'll just assume it was the white man's fault, somehow; or maybe toxic masculinity.

Paco Wové said...

Maybe if they could be introduced to Harry Potter their negative outlook on other peoples would improve.

Etienne said...

Bottom line: India is a shithole country.

William said...

I'm reading a biography of Lord Curzon, Queen Victoria's last Viceroy of India. Curzon was a terrible snob. When he served in the House of Lords, the other Lords felt he treated them in a patronizing and condescending manner. The plus side to all this snobbery was that he was kind of democratic in that he felt everyone was beneath him and treated them in like manner. He held rajas, Brahmins, enlisted men of the British army, and untouchables at the same distance. He tried to forestall a pay raise to the enlisted men of the British army in India because he felt that such a raise would cause a corresponding increase in drunkenness and syphilis among its members. He told some rajas that they couldn't travel to Europe because they would just waste their kingdom's money on gambling and courtesans........He wasn't a bad administrator. According to his biographer, he was effective at organizing famine relief, rail and irrigation projects, and preserving some historical monuments. Nonetheless, he caused a lot of hurt feelings among Indian nationalists......Curzon was extremely vexed by Russia's imperial designs which he felt were a threat to British rule in India. The ultimate cause of its downfall, however, was not the Russians but the nationalists. He spent a lot of time and effort opposing a phantom threat while at the same time subtly encouraging the real threat.

Fernandinande said...

Go back to Indiana!

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I thought of the reason why the NYT ran this story. The good-thinkers there dislike the current Indian government and "some people" blame the current government for an uptick in these sort of attacks.

mockturtle said...

I guess we should just let all low-caste Indians emigrate to the US. Most of the Indians I've known here are high-caste with degrees in economics, medicine, science, etc. How elitist!

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Since I know a lot a expat Indians I'm aware that the current Indian government consists of wrong-thinkers. But there may be NYT readers who have failed to get the message. And a story that involves scalping is likely to get read. Eyeballs for advertisers and getting the word out. A twofer.

gilbar said...

More PROOF that Amerikkka is THE MOST Racist and bigoted place on Earth!
Amerikkka is SO TERRIBLE that Everyone On Earth is trying to get in

rcocean said...

Well, hopefully 5 million or so Indians will come to the USA, and we can see that fight upclose and personal.

It will be very diverse.

Howard said...

I believe we should have some cultural sensitivity and refer to those people as indigenous south Asians. "Indian" hearkens back to the Columbus genocide, which can be triggering.

Mary Beth said...

So he was appropriating their culture? Like wearing a sombrero on cinco de mayo?

11/17/18, 7:24 AM


No. It's not about the turban itself, it's mentioned just to let you know that he was dressing above his station. It's like an unofficial sumptuary law with a potential death penalty.

Turbans do have other meanings/importance, but I think, in this story, talking about that is a distraction from what he was really being punished for.

mockturtle said...

When the Tokugawa shogunate came into power in Japan with Ieyasu, it came with rules of conduct including dress codes. Dressing above--or below!--one's station was cause for punishment. Most cultures have caste systems of some sort. The US, while it has 'classes', has never held them as strict or permanent. Social mobility has been a feature of America since its founding.

mccullough said...

This sounds like a Bad Day at Black Rock

RK said...

"I guess we should just let all low-caste Indians emigrate to the US. Most of the Indians I've known here are high-caste with degrees in economics, medicine, science, etc. How elitist!"

This is a major complaint about US immigration laws. We only want the educated.

Immigration and Gumballs

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

this will put the kibosh on tonsorial tourism

JaimeRoberto said...

A few years back the media were running articles on gang rapes in India. It was truly awful stuff, just like this case. But I couldn't help but wonder why the media were running stories about India when similar stuff happens in lots of shithole countries.

mockturtle said...

A few years back the media were running articles on gang rapes in India. It was truly awful stuff, just like this case. But I couldn't help but wonder why the media were running stories about India when similar stuff happens in lots of shithole countries.

And even the UK, which, as yet, is only striving to shithole status.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

See, Trumptards?
You racist snowflakes whine when all we do is knock off your MAGA hat and hit you with a bicycle lock, you intolerant fuckers

Luke Lea said...

Horrible.

mockturtle said...

She responded that the studies have shown that the caste system was correct because it is based upon genetics!

LOL! Just another example of why it's useless to argue with nincompoops.

Bob Loblaw said...

The caste system made some sense when the country was perpetually on the verge of starvation. It doesn't make sense any more.

There are more than a billion people in India. Even if only a tiny, tiny percentage of them are jerks that's a lot of jerks in raw numbers.