"The would-be masters still treat us Dalits worse than they would treat any other living being, especially us Dalit women. But then, of course, a dog has a higher status."

      "Aren't there laws against this?" I asked astonished. "India has a good reputation as a progressive democratic society."

      "Sure we have laws," said Indira and sighed. "Most of the ugly things that are going on are illegal. But our country had been dragged into the sewer for so long that the fascism can't be healed with the snap of a finger. The dark shadow of the colonial age still hangs over us. Even the still darker shadow of the Vedic and Brahmanic dark ages has not been fully lifted. Female genocide continues, and bride burning in dowry disputes still claims a few thousand victims each year."

      "This can't be healed with the force of law, but by raising the platform of society," I interjected.

      "Officially these ugly things don't happen anymore," said Indira. "The ugly things are hushed up. Nevertheless they still happen, they linger on."

      "They linger on, because there is no real process for healing established in the self-perception of society," I said to her. "The problem is that the government can't legislate how people must think. The healing can't be dictated by law. It has to come from within."

      "Sure," said Indira. "How else could it happen, especially when the Thevars are living far away in the countryside and are the authorities there, or own the authorities. Sure our people have begun to resist the subjugation. We are claiming a higher status for ourselves with all the dignity that is due to a human person. We stage peaceful protests against the abuses. There are also some armed struggles under way, when the abuses become worse. But mostly our fighting is peaceful. Like in the days of Mahatma Gandhi. Our freedom organizations have mobilized people to protest peacefully against the violations of our rights as human beings. The non-violent protest movements have grown rather rapidly in membership in recent years. We have gained visibility, even some international visibility. But our success, the little we had in real terms, came at a steep price. It provoked a backlash from the higher-caste groups, especially from those who were most threatened by our assertiveness; who find themselves threatened economically by loosing their slaves, and politically by seeing the rise of an opposition. The police too, are rarely supportive of us. They are more often members of the higher-caste groups, or are owned by them. The police have become more and more a serious problem for us. They arrest our activists and our social workers, even our lawyers, and they arrest us for activities that are perfectly legal. The charges in those cases are always politically motivated. Most often our people are put into what is called 'preventive detention,' the kind that prevents them from holding meetings and protest rallies. Sometimes our people are even charged as terrorists." She began to laugh. "Would you believe that we Dalits have been charged with being a threat to national security? Naturally, most court cases against us are dragged on for years. They want to wear us down. We are an impoverished people. We don't have the kind of money that it takes to fight long court battles. Of course most of the abuses that are perpetrated against us, by the Thevars, never ever get into the courts. Thus, the fire smolders under the surface. Eventually, when a few of our people stand up and challenge the abusers, then in many cases the whole village becomes collectively penalized. They penalize us with boycotts, with loss of employment, with restricted access to water, with denial of grazing lands, with harsh economic deprivation. For most of our people who all live below the subsistence level, people that can barely survive as agricultural laborers, any form of collective boycott as punishment means destitution and starvation. These totally inhuman collective abuses are never really prosecuted. Even to report them would be like charging your executioner with a crime."

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Stories about  Healing from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche