Note: In the wake of the Hathras gangrape and murder verdict, Outlook is revisiting its coverage of Hathras tragedy, complex caste dynamics of gender violence and the erasure of evidence as truth.
The house at the end of the narrow alley is nondescript, a simple brick-and-mortar building standing cheek by jowl with other similar residential structures in Bulgarhi, a small village in Uttar Pradesh바카라s Hathras district. Though the house is not more than half-a-century old, the village has been home to the Dalit family for generations바카라this is the place where eight of the family바카라s nine members were born and brought up. And this is the same place which has now turned into a 바카라prison바카라 for the family of the woman gangraped and killed a year ago, allegedly by four upper caste men. Ostracised by the entire village, the family members are now 바카라strangers바카라 in their own land.
바카라It바카라s my ancestral house바카라my forefathers lived here. But today, we are alien to the locals,바카라 says the 52-year-old father of the victim. Only the victim바카라s sister-in-law is from another village. The village with an estimated population of over 600 is dominated by the upper castes. And like elsewhere in India, caste divisions are stark in this village too바카라the lower castes have always lived on the periphery of society with very little mingling with people of the upper castes.
And the incident of September 14 last year, when the woman was brutalised, allegedly by four upper caste men, the ostracisation has been complete. The family sees as it sort of a retribution against them for daring to accuse the 바카라powerful upper caste people바카라. The four accused are in jail pending trial. They say that before the crime they were on talking terms with many people but September 14 everything changed.
바카라After we accused the upper caste men of rape and murder, they started threatening us with dire consequences. Since we have raised our voices against the upper castes, they hate us,바카라 says the 29-year-old elder brother of the victim. 바카라But since the day we got the security from the Supreme Court, the threats stopped. Today, no one even talks or visits our house,바카라 he adds. There are just a few Dalit families in the village but they too have stopped interacting with the woman바카라s family.
Besides the victim바카라s parents, her two brothers, grandmother, the elder brother바카라s wife and their three children live in the house. The male members of the family no longer go out for work, forced to stay cooped up in the house under tight security. And the only time anyone steps outside is to buy ration from a nearby store.
바카라And even than we cannot go out without the security. Even if I am going to buy something from the general store, some of the CRPF personnel accompany us. Locals don바카라t feel comfortable interacting to us,바카라 the father says. 바카라I was working in a school. Both my sons were working in Delhi-NCR but after the incident, they came back. Since we don바카라t work, there is no source of income. We are surviving on Rs 25 lakh compensation from the government,바카라 the father adds.
Villagers, on the other hand, seem to be more sympathetic to the family of the four accused. They claim that the four men didn바카라t have any criminal background.
바카라One of the boys was of shy nature. He used to stay at home most of the time and didn바카라t even intermingle with other village boys,바카라 says one among a group of boys, aged between 10 to 15, who had gathered outside a nearby school.
Asked if they knew how the incident unfolded on September 14 last year, they expressed ignorance. 바카라We don바카라t know what happened but it is hard for us to believe that they raped the girl,바카라 says another boy in the group, adding, 바카라That바카라s the reason they are completely secluded from us and no one wants to talk to them as villagers are upset with them. We believe that something else might have happened but they have framed these boys as they were not on good terms with the accused families.바카라
A villager, claiming to be from the potter community, says that many villagers are also envious because they have become VIPs with huge security. The locals also seem to be extremely upset with the media too.
When the Outlook team tried to speak to some village women, they either turned away or went inside the house without responding to questions. 바카라This is because you people only talk about the victim and show their side of the story. Every media house who come here is interested in meeting the victim바카라s family,바카라 said the villager.
