 Summary of this article
- Two back-to-back incidents, a shoe attack on Dalit CJI B.R. Gavai and the suicide of Dalit ADGP Y. Puran Kumar, expose how caste violence and humiliation persist even at the highest levels of India’s institutions.
- Both cases highlight growing impunity under the Hindutva regime, where perpetrators invoking “Sanatan Dharma” face little accountability, while Dalits remain vulnerable despite rank, merit, or office.
- The events illustrate how token representation fails to protect Dalits, revealing a systemic, Brahmanical power structure that normalizes caste supremacy and shields upper-caste offenders.
Within the span of days, two incidents have laid bare the entrenched caste realities of contemporary India and the impunity that the Hindutva regime has institutionalised. On October 6, 2025 a 71-year-old lawyer hurled a shoe at Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, a Dalit, inside the Supreme Court, defiantly shouting “Sanatan ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan” (India will not tolerate insult to Sanatan Dharma). He was released without charges, his shoe returned, facing no consequences for attacking the country’s highest judicial authority. The very next day, October 7, Additional Director General of Police Y. Puran Kumar, also a Dalit, died by suicide at his Chandigarh residence, leaving an eight-page note describing years of caste humiliation and harassment by senior officers. Despite huge public outrage, nothing has been done to the perpetrators. |
