It is necessary to underscore the above explanation to understand Broken People %u2013 caste violence against India%u2019s %u2018untouchables%u2019. What may otherwise have been a fantastic work, had the report taken into account characteristics of India%u2019s varna/ caste-based social organization, has instead turned into a meaningless exercise.
Dalits are subjected to violence at every level, every possible form of violence. Documentation of violent acts, field surveys, analysis and identification of underlying causes, is an essential aspect of the campaign against human rights violations. To a large extent, this exercise is undertaken by a host of state level Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe panels, supplemented by a more powerful commission at the Centre. If hrw was genuinely interested in internationalizing the Dalits%u2019 case, it could have simply reproduced one of the commission%u2019s reports.
A human rights group like HRW should have learnt from the American experience. The civil rights movement in America, beginning from the case of the slave Dred Scott, who in mid-19th century filed a lawsuit to attain freedom, all the way to the Civil Rights Act of 1991, has revolved around a host of issues, including questions of representation in media, public institutions, the corporate world %u2013 in every sphere of social life. The movement won a major battle when the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in 1978, decided to grant proportiona
