Girl, 6, thrown on fire for being 'lowest class'

Girl, 6, thrown on fire for being 'lowest class'

Read full story http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapc...ste/index.html

Good job the girl wasn't 10 years older, many people would have needed to be cleansed, particularly certain parts of their body, kind of weird that sometimes it's OK to touch...and touch...and touch.....

This is disgusting, as are all such crimes, and as is the fact that this worst possible form of discrimination is so common in India.

However, the "Hindus believe..." attitude of the report is pretty bad too.

I always say that i love India.. but yes - there are definitely few things that i totally frown upon and consider inhumane.
And this is such a thing... the untouchables, and the disrespect for life in any form.

I remember when reading "The God of Small Things" how much sad, angry and frustrated i was, particularly in connection with the way the author was describing the treatment reserved for untouchables people...

All the 'ahimsa' that i try to live and walk daily.. disappear when confronted with these cruel realities.
And all of these behaviours, come out of the real evil beast - Ignorance.

No, really.. How to behave in this kind of situations ?

I don't think i could just give my other cheek... i think i'll look for the rifle!

Yet another horrific story. It seems they're non stop at the moment.

Yep, just check out the latest from Austria

for sure shivers, totally different motives but when it comes down to it, totally inhumain behaviour. i can't credi it, 19yrs old and never seen the light of day. how horrific; what will the weekend reserve for us one wonders.

yes, it's cruel, but there are (false) reasons for cruelty in every culture. i can't believe that the people i got to know in northern india would be capable of doing something like that...
the asshole community is international, only the excuses for being one differ from culture to culture.

totally agree with you, larkilli -- I just wrote about female infanticide and feticide in my blog.

like you, I also love India, at least Tamil Nadu, which is the only state I've been (I won't count being sick in Kerala!)...however, when I tell people here how much I love to be India, it is always the grusome things that they mention to me: "but how can you go to a place where...." and they mention the treatment of dalits or dowry murders, or etc etc etc.....

I tell them that cruelty and man's (or woman's) inhumanity to man is everywhere, India does not have a monopoly on it.

As much as I dislike caste-based discrimination, I really hate the reporting attitude that goes with these

I did not even know of such a theory after living in India as a hindu for 25 years. The first time I read it was in US media. I am sure some hindus in some places believe in such nonsense...but hindus come in all shapes and sizes and it is downright insulting to write such things and add "Hindus believe.."

And the website mentioned is "U.S.-based Dalit Freedom Network"

A cursory reading of their website tells me that is an organization meant for "freeing" the "dalits" into...well of course..you guessed it..Christianity !!!

It was found by Dr. Joseph D'souza, who heads the "All India Christian Council"

Call me whatever, but I am sceptical whenever I see evangelist reporting.

I think this theory is mentioned either in the Vedas. But so is sacrificing a pigeon when a woman menstruates, in the Bible. And by the looks of Trafalgar Square, not many Christian women are paying attention to that.

I thought Ken Livingstone sacrificed a pigeon in Trafalgar Square every time a women menstruates?

Londoners: I'm not there to do so, can you do me a favour and vote for someone else today?

Hah, me too! That doesn't mean that I doubt the basic facts of the report, though. There really is a lot of this dalit/caste discrimination going on.

Yes.

It's a pity, really, on both counts. One, that this kind of atrocity happens, and two, that a fair bit of the Western media distorts it.

The first one is the bigger tragedy.

They could have saved it by saying perhaps "Traditionally, some Hindus believe...", or "Part of Hindu scripture encourages the belief in..." or something. As it is, it's just inaccurate.

But then there is a shorthand here. We talk about a "Christian" education or "Christian" values, but Christians disagree with each other on an epic scale. Bible literalism/interpretation, transubstantiation, abortion, even what's the best way to pray.
I was going to say I think the only thing they all agree on is that Jesus was divine, but I forgot the Unitarians. But anyway, my point is we do use a kind of "shorthand" about religion, otherwise it gets almost impossible to write about or discuss.

But then, you could argue I suppose that the caste system has little to do with religious belief these days. "Traditional Indian society believes that...." perhaps?

Urk.

That's funny, my cursory reading doesn't tell me the same, but maybe I'm overlooking something. Judge for yourselves: http://www.dalitnetwork.org/