In the dark night of southern India, the wind carried an unmistakable sound: a lone woman was crying. The woman cradled her murdered husband's body.
Why had the man been killed? He had dared to raise his voice against injustice. As an "untouchable," a member of India's lowest class, he was not allowed to cross the invisible barrier that separates his class from the rest of society. That evening as he sat watching his village's outdoor TV, the other villagers killed him for stepping over that line.
Many of India's 940 million people are Hindus (hin-dooz). The Hindu faith teaches that people are born into separate social classes, or castes (kasts). At the very bottom is the untouchable caste.
Hindus believe a person's actions in a past life determine what caste he or she is born into. There are four main castes. Over the centuries, they have been divided into 3,000 subcastes. Traditionally, caste could determine whether a family's children became doctors or beggars or priests. Untouchables' have the worst jobs. They burn dead bodies, skin animals and clean public toilets.
In parts of India, untouchables are still seen as barely human. They are forbidden to enter temples or drink from the same wells as higher-caste members. In some villages, untouchables aren't even allowed to use an umbrella!
Fighting Back
Now, after 2,500 years of oppression, India's 150 million untouchables, or Dalits (Da-liths), as they prefer to be called, are fighting back. Dalit means "the oppressed" in Hindi. The Dalits' weapons are education, votes and, sometimes, violence.
Dalits make up one-sixth of India's population. A few have managed to rise to top places in society as politicians, lawyers or scientists. One who did was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, an author of India's constitution. Ambedkar worked with the great reformer Mahatma Gandhi to bring independence to India. Ambedkar wanted to destroy the caste system through democracy.
This year, for the first time, a Dalit became India's President. It is a mostly ceremonial job; the Prime Minister has the real power. But the breakthrough has given Dalits hope. "Change is now so rapid that in a few years, we will have a Dalit Prime Minister," predicts Mayawati, a Dalit politician.
For many Dalits, change is not coming fast enough. In India's villages, Dalits are turning to violence, and the upper castes are striking back. Hardly a day goes by without caste killings. "My generation is fighting," says Sri Prakash, a Dalit whose house was burned in a caste feud.
Instead of risking battles, many Dalits are moving to big cities. Jobs in cities give them a chance to earn money and escape from some class barriers. Money rather than weapons may be the Dalits' best tool for breaking up the ancient system of discrimination. Says a Dalit man who now lives in comfort in a city: "The priests stop us from going into the temple. But their sons come into our house because they want to watch our TV."