Bant Singh Sings!
Credits to: Sanjay Kak & Anurag Singh 2006
On July 6 2002, in the Jhabbar village of the Mansa district in Punjab, two men sought the assistance of a Dalit woman, Gurmail Kaur, to lure Baljit Kaur, a young Dalit girl to her house, so that they could rape her. One of the men, Mandheer Singh, was a Jat, while sources vary on the caste of the other man. Most sources report him to be a Jat as well, though one source reports him to be a man named Tarsem, belonging to a Scheduled Caste.
Baljit Kaur, 17 years old at the time, went to Gurmail Kaur’s house to assist her in collecting water. There, the two men who were waiting, gangraped her. Jat men in the region had historically asserted power over Dalit women and girls through sexual violence. Enduring sexual violence at the hands of Jat men was seen to be like a ‘coming of age’ ritual, where Jat men proudly spoke about raping and hurting Dalit girls. Popular village songs also normalised this, and many followed a tradition where women from a Dalit bride’s house were made to put up a gidda or a dance show for upper-caste men with lewd songs that the men chose. Most of the times, Dalit victims of sexual violence were pressured into silence. They and their families were forced to settle for meagre payments and threatened with violence if they refused. Hence, no Jat rapist was brought to justice.
Jats, an agricultural caste, formed fifty-five percent of the population, while Dalits formed forty-five percent. While the Jats were a dominant, powerful caste which owned land, most of the Dalits were employed as agricultural labourers in Jat fields and hence economically dependent on them. Bant Singh and Baljit Kaur were Mazhabi Sikhs, a Scheduled Caste. However, Bant Singh like his father and elder brothers before him had refused to work as an agricultural labourer to remain economically independent from the Jats.
After she was raped, Baljit Kaur chose to not keep quiet or conceal her identity. Instead she challenged deep patriarchal values of shame and blame by speaking publicly about the rape. Baljit Kaur and her father, revolutionary singer and activist Bant Singh, decided to seek justice against the rapists.
It took a month for the FIR to be filed and Bant Singh and Baljit Kaur continued to face immense pressure from the rapists, and other members of the village, especially the Panchayat. They were offered upto 10 lakh rupees, 3 acres of land, a scooter, and jewellery, in exchange for their silence. They refused to settle the matter outside of court.
All the three accused were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004. This was the first time that a conviction had been secured in a complaint by a Dalit against upper-caste violence. However, the conviction was followed by sustained harassment and violence as punishment for the conviction. Bant Singh’s elder brother Hansa Singh was forced to flee the village because of threats issued by the Jats. In 2005, Bant Singh was assaulted on two occasions by individuals associated with the rapists. Both the assaults were reported to the local police and charges were filed.
On January 5, 2006, Bant Singh was brutally beaten up by a group of armed Jat men. Severely injured, he lay on the road for 3-4 hours before anyone could come to his help. When he was taken to the civil hospital in Mansa, the doctor refused to touch him unless he was paid 1,000 rupees in advance. By the time Bant Singh was finally treated his wounds had become infected and due to gangrene, both his arms and a leg had to be amputated.
Soon after she was raped, Baljit Kaur was moved to a different village and married to a daily-wager widower with a child, in a family who was told about the violence she had faced and accepted her. This brought an abrupt end to her school education as well as an existing engagement with a boy her own age. Soon after the rape, she was blackmailed by men who threatened to ‘expose’ her. She found out who it was, and beat them up in the village square. Bant Singh continues to work for the liberation of Dalits in Punjab.
References:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/know-the-story-of-baljit-kaur-our-own-fatmagul/story-Egadgx1GNqWkhtBkh599YO.html
https://scroll.in/article/805090/the-dalit-who-lost-his-limbs-for-protesting-against-his-daughters-gang-rape
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/the-extreme-price-this-dalit-man-paid-to-get-justice-for-his-daughter/articleshow/78601298.cms
https://www.actionaidindia.org/story/no-arms-legs-but-spirit-high/
http://www.sikhtimes.com/news_012806a.html
