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Dalit woman's
caste haunts her even after death
WSN Network
FEROZEPUR: Not once
has the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) or the Akal
Takht issued a clear cut warning to the Sikh community that it
should work to immediately end the dual cremation grounds system in
the villages. The menace is prevalent all over Punjab. Many Jat
Sikhs are guilty of following the heirarchical caste based system,
and a large number of Sikhs pay special attention to caste
boundaries when looking for a match for their offspring.
But once in a while,
an incident jolts our conscience, and such moments are God given
boon to benefit and raise awareness levels about the menace. The
case of a Dalit woman in Bholuwala village of Ferozepur is one such.
After she died, the dominant Jat Sikhs of the village did not let
Dalit families cremate the body of Gurdial Kaur, 75, at the common
cremation ground on Tuesday. She had died on Monday.
Jat Sikhs of the
village allegedly threw out the pyre wood from the cremation ground
following which the situation got tense. District administration
sent the local executive magistrate and SHO of Ghal Khurd police
station to the spot to diffuse the tension and persuade the Dalits
to cremate the body at a vacant land in the village late on Tuesday
afternoon.
It seems some Jat
Sikh families had filed a case some time back to prevent Dalits from
using the common cremation ground of the village, but the court had
issued a stay order in favour of the Dalits pending a final
decision. However, Jat Sikhs of the village claimed they hadn't
received any such orders from the court.
They said Dalits had
been given a separate piece of land, measuring about one kanal, for
use as cremation ground for the last many years. Jagtar Singh, a
resident of the village belonging to the dominant caste said Dalits
had unnecessarily raised this issue at the behest of some local
politicians to create tension.
Some people said
similar tension had gripped the village when a Dalit man Gurdial
Singh had died. That issue was resolved peacefully. The village has
two separate gurdwaras for the two people, divided by caste.
WSO condemns:
The World Sikh Organization (WSO), jolted by an outrageous decision
of disallowing cremation of Gurdial Kaur in the common cremation
grounds in the village of Bholuwala, Punjab, has strongly condemned
the ugly incident. "Amongst Sikhs, there is no caste" said Ram
Raghbir Singh Chahal, International President of WSO. "It's shameful
that hundreds of years later, we're still arguing about caste based
cremation grounds in Punjab" said Gurpreet Singh Bal, WSO Canada
President.
"Clinging on to the
discriminatory divisions like Jat, Ramgharia, Khatri or Dalit Sikh
is contrary to Guru's teaching and reflects ignorance on part of
some Sikhs. This incident highlights a pressing need for strong
educational campaign among Sikhs to rid our society of the lingering
effects of the caste system and other social evils like drugs,
dowries and female infanticide", said Gian Singh Sandhu, WSO Senior
Policy Advisor.
The WSO urged the
SGPC to launch a community wide educational endeavour to understand
and practise Sikhism as it was intended to be.
18
June,
2008
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