Click to play videoKarnal/ Ambala: The nonviolent integration of Harijans was one of Gandhi's greatest dreams.
But now those very children of God who Gandhi loved have turned their back on Ram-Rajya and violence comes to them as easily as it comes to the dominant castes.
In Gohana for instance, simmering caste dispute flared-up after the murder of a youth of the lower caste Valmiki community by the dominant Jats. And leading the charge of the Valimkis was Dashrat Rattan Rawan.
For many years now, Dasrath has been spreading the word of the Adi Dharm Samaj, a faith celebrating Rawan instead of Ram.
Gandhi's Ram-Rajya to him is just another name for world dominated by the upper castes.
“If we show the other cheek as Gandhi suggested, we will be wiped out. Today one Gohana has happened tomorrow another,” says Dashrat.
Rejecting Gandhi's Ram-Rajya, the followers of Dashrat now await the arrival of Rawan-Rajya, an aggressive assertion of their dalit identity aimed at dismantling the caste hierarchies in the society.
But the Upper castes are in no mood to relent, they say Dashrat is an outsider who is trying to disturb the existing order.
“He is doing this only to polish his leadership, he is not even from Haryana,” says a member, Jat Dharm Samaj, Rawat Singh Mann.
But it is not just caste violence that scorched Haryana's heartland this summer. Brutal punishment for same gotra marriage is an issue that cuts across caste boundaries.
Self appointed Khap Panchayats order murderous fatwas against those couples who dare to marry in the same gotra.
We will go to any extent, even murder if need be,” says another member, Jat Dharm Samaj, Rawat Singh Mann.
In June it claimed the lives of two newly married couple in Kaithal. And in Karnal a similar ruling by a lower caste khap panchayat separated a baby from his parents. And it all justified in the name of age-old tradition.
“Law doesn't make the society, Society makes the law,” says president, Jat Dharm Samaj, Tara Singh Sandhu.
Brutal justice of khap panchayats or Gohana's street violence, in Harayana the transition to a new social order is anything but Gandhian.
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