BHANDARA: Caste hatred can lead to the strangest of obscurantist behaviour, as a group of upper-caste teachers in a rural school demonstrated recently.
After a Dalit headmistress of the Zilla Parishad Higher Middle School at Surewada village was transferred, the successor, an upper-caste teacher, ordered the premises %u2014 and even students %u2014 to be 'purified' by spraying cow urine.
The school, located 9 km from Bhandara town in Maharashtra, has 210 students in classes I -VII, 20 of them Dalits.
It was headed until now by Tilottama Tembhurkar, who was hated by her upper caste colleagues for having made it to the top.
They reportedly openly discussed how her presence was 'inauspicious' for a school where bulk of the students were from upper castes.
So when Tembhurkar left and the charge was handed over to Sharad Kaitade, who boasted of caste pedigree, earlier this month, the first act of the new headmaster was one of 'purification'.
Kaitade allegedly performed a puja in the school and asked a lady teacher, Madhavi Raut, to sprinkle 'gau mutra' in the classes and school premises.
Raut took her orders seriously and promptly went around classrooms armed with cow urine %u2014 even sprinkling it on students who were taking their annual exams.
She entered a class where Dalit students were also solving question papers and asked them to get up and get the 'go mutra' shower, saying it would 'purify' them.
The administration ordered a probe and police interrogated the headmaster.
RE:Look at what Brahims's are doeing?
by ashok leyland on Apr 21, 2007 09:04 PM Permalink
such behaviour is inacceptable. the school and govt.authorities should fire all those teachers and put in people who teach unity, not division. these higher caste teachers have shown themselves to be more ignorant than their pupils.They are defeating the very objective of education. The parents too should protest.
RE:Look at what Brahims's are doeing?
by Ram Sharma on Apr 22, 2007 09:54 PM Permalink
the teachers who did such activities are not fit to be called teachers. they need to be tought that so called lower caste people are equal to and in no way inferiour to the so called the upper caste. it is very unfortunate that such incident occurred.
