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On coming to know of their daughter being in love with a Dalit boy, her parents had admonished her and told her to end the relationship.In a case of suspected “honour” killing in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, a 19-year-old Dalit youth was murdered on Sunday, 23 July, by the relatives of an upper-caste Hindu girl with whom he was in a relationship. The youth was identified as Muttiah, a resident of Swamidas Nagar in the Appuvilai village near Thisayanvilai in Tirunelveli district. According to the police, Muttiah was working in the wedding-card-manufacturing industry and fell in love with...

Thousands of brides are being burned alive in India despite the practice being illegal, a Christian ministry has warned. India Partners, a Christian organization that works alonside indigenous Christian grassroots agencies in India, told Mission Network News on Thursday that there are still as many as 8,000 bride burning cases a year in the Hindu-majority country. A representative with India Partners, identified only as John, said the low view of women is spread through parts of India's society. “This is true both of men and women. It’s not just of men itself. Most women see the other woman as in...

According to The Times of India, a 17-year-old Class XI student at a government school in Pur village was beaten to death on Friday by his classmates when he refused to hand over his pen. As police and onlookers stood on the sidelines, Monu Valmiki was viciously trampled by about nine other students for over half an hour. ... No one intervened to stop the attack, which led people from the Dalit community, where the victim was from, to throw stones at the Kotkasim police station in Alwar.

The conversion is expected to be the largest in modern times Thousands of tribal and Dalit Hindus in India are to embrace the Buddhist faith at a huge gathering in Mumbai. The ceremony, which may be presided over by Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, is billed as the largest religious conversion in modern India. The converts hope to escape the rigid caste system in which their status is the lowest. Right-wing Hindus have often opposed conversion, pushing some Indian states to restrict legal changes of faith. The organisers say the number of people to convert in Sunday's ceremony...

BSP supporters see their party set for government Enlarge Image India's low-caste Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has swept to a historic victory in assembly elections in the key northern state of Uttar Pradesh.With all but a handful of results declared, the BSP had won 202 of the 403 seats to allow it to form its own government, Indian media reports said. It is the first time since 1991 that any party in the state has done so. Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and has long been its most politically influential. I thank people of all castes and...

BSP supporters see their party set for government Enlarge Image The low-caste Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is heading for victory in assembly elections in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, early trends suggest.Outgoing chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has admitted defeat to his rival, BSP leader Mayawati, and has said he will resign when results are confirmed. Trends show his party trailing with a possible clear majority for the BSP. Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and has long been its most politically influential. But with caste and religion becoming the dominant factors in state politics in...

Thousands of people have been attending mass ceremonies in India at which hundreds of low-caste Hindus (Dalits) converted to Buddhism and Christianity. The events in the central city of Nagpur are part of a protest against the injustices of India's caste system. By converting, Dalits - once known as Untouchables - can escape the prejudice and discrimination they normally face. The ceremonies mark the 50th anniversary of the adoption of Buddhism by the scholar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He was the first prominent Dalit to urge low-caste Indians to embrace Buddhism. As the chief architect of India's constitution, he wrote...

Devidas Sabane was a diligent farmer, working the land of a former member of the Indian parliament. When his son fell ill, the impoverished Sabane went to the landowner's brother to request money for his treatment. The brother wasn't in a giving mood. In This Article... A Life of ContemptChristianity or Islam?At the Crossroads A Life of Contempt He beat Sabane viciously and forced poison down his throat. The farmer died later that day. When his bereaved wife reported the murder to the police and the State Human Rights Commission, they brushed her off. She later committed suicide. This is...

KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged. Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed. "The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said. "After three days we were moved out to...