Karbi girl’s murder: relevance of caste question

 
Jyoti Prasad Bori
Research Scholar, Dept. of Social Work
 Tezpur University
Mobile: 6000692457
Email: jpbsns@gmail.com

Recently, a 12 years old minor in Nagaon lost her gloomy blooming life at the mercy of a well to
do master! It has crossed all limits of barbarism where the girl child labor hailing from a hill tribe
in Assam, held captive for last 5 years was raped, burned and murdered by a father son duo. The
incident brought into light a case of caste based violence in the state. Opinions and arguments are
divided in articulating discussions on the issue. Many attempted to offer an apolitical stance to
state that oporadhir kunu jati dharma nai (criminal has no caste and religion). While saying so,
let it be reminded that one cannot be blind to the tribe, class and gender identity of the victim.
This seemingly secular and apolitical argument covertly conceals the politics of casteism. 

One may argue that the operation of caste based violence in Assam is relatively less frequent.
However, this does not qualify to refute the existence of caste structure. This particular incident
was no lesser a caste based violence different from those frequently reported in the mainland
Indian caste societies. Many concerned opines to argue it in the paradigm of caste question.
Those arguments were relegated as irrelevant in the context of the incident. On a similar vein, an
article authored by one named Prakreetish Sarma appeared on 3rd May in this same editorial
titled as “Karbi girl’s murder: Caste bashing no solution”. It rendered an unapologetic polemic
against the caste reality of oppression and marginalisation. 

As the article did not limit the case as an incident of murder, he rightly argued to open the
Pandora’s Box and entagled it with issues of child labour, poverty and development. But he did
not attempt to wide open the same Pandora's Box. The intent not to do so is a vile reluctance to
concede the structural operation of categories like caste, tribe, gender and violence. It is evident
in his disquiet on caste questions. Rationale of vicious cycle of poverty and child labor does not
opearte in vacuum. Rather it does in the structural axles of these categories. 

In a seemingly attempted vanguard to not comprehend the incident in the realm of structural
violence, the article took recourse to an inappropriate, misleading, nonexistent but ambiguous
combination of two terms i.e, ‘Assamese’ and ‘Caste’. At a time when legislature and
intellectuals are at cross words to provide a definition of who an Assamese is, his choice of word
as ‘Assamese caste’ in describing caste categories is an utterly misleading attempt of describing
ethnic and identity discourse. The word ‘Assamese’ by no standard connotes a caste category.
Rather, it is more of a linguistic and cultural description of an all embracing composite identity
that comprises multiple caste, creed, tribe and religious groups in the territory of Assam.
Therefore, the choice of the word is dubious and a delusional in analysing the barbaric murder of
the minor tribal girl. 

The relevance of caste question in the said incident is also located in the sociological notions of
describing the tribe as backward Hindus. The discourse of tribe- caste continuum has historical
evidence and significance in Indian society. Yet it acknowledges the problematic contours of
homogenising and hegemonizing the multiple cultures into the hierarchical Indian caste system.
The reality of caste and tribe simply does not disappear in its operation both in the social field
and the state of minds. The legislative promulgation and subsequent amendments of Scheduled
Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is a living testimony to this
reality. In this context, the recent incident in question cannot be adequately understood while
overlooking the elements of caste, tribe and gender. To merely narrate it as a matter of poverty
and child labor shall be a shallow examination of such heinous crime against a minor tribal
girlchild. A deeper dig into poverty undoubtedly unveils the socio-cultural marginality. However
one may be reluctant to acknowledge the structures of these elements, caste, gender and tribe
indeed have an intertwining correlation in determining position of marginality and poverty.
Activists demanding justice for not less than 20 tribal women who were raped and a few
murdered since 2012 certainly adds teeth to the intersectionality of caste and gender violence.
Therefore, it is neither ‘new’ nor ‘cool’ to take the eye off from the ball. The tradition of caste is
no way a non-existent element in the so-called modern society of ours. The subtle operation of it
exists as a matter of privilege to be owned and disowned as and when convenient. 

Both the infamous incident of Abhi-Nil (2018) and the latest murder of the minor girl child
surfaced a comparative labeling discourse albeit in various social media platforms. In both the
cases, the identity of the victim and perpetrators was a matter of concern in those debates and
discussions. In the former incident, it was a deep indignation and resentment for us to witness
two Assamese youth succumbing to a mob lynch despite their helpless assertion of being an
‘Assamese’. In its repercussions, it erupted a tendency to castigate the entire Karbi community to
which the perpetrator belonged. As a consequence, the Karbi Students' Union responded by
tendering a sincere apology on behalf of the entire community. While in the case of the latter, her
identity of belonging to the Karbi tribe was subsided at ease. Here, the labeling of the entire
Karbi community in the first instance was pronounced as a matter of describing the tribe as
barbaric and uncivilised. On the other hand, the identity assertion of the same tribe is turned
insignificant as a ‘caste bashing’ in the latter. Therefore, hasn’t it become a matter of convenient
side changing in choosing one identity over another?

Castigating a particular community or a tribe as in these incidents can never be justified and
appropriated in the best interest of communal harmony.  However, this does not undo the
necessity to understand the murder of the minor tribal girl in the larger framework of social
structure and power relation. The social structure in relation to caste and tribe embodies
perception of privilege and power positionality in determining socio-economic marginalisation.
The rationale of this dynamic and unequal power structure cannot be downplayed. As in the case
of the minor girl, her position of being a minor girl child, belonging to a hill tribe whose family
is dwelling in poverty is subject to structural marginalization. Her fate is a resemblance of many
untold and unfolding miseries across the spectrum of caste and gender. 

At a time when clash of civilisation to make a new order in Assamese society has entered our
political narratives, it is these barbaric civilisations of structural violence that requires a war
footing. In this spirit, the demand for justice deserves to be addressed also in the purview of
SC/ST atrocities prevention act. Evading caste questions will never lessen the burden of casteism
on the marginalised sections.