R’sthan woman pays price of loving a Dalit
BHILWARA: She turned the rule book on its head to be with the man she loved in a village where the caste divide runs deep.
Sohni Devi, 44, a Jat, chose to live with Narayan Balai, a Dalit who was 10 years younger than her. Devi was widow and Balai a widower.
They stayed together for five years in Suwana village in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, until tuberculosis claimed Devi’s life on February 4 in a hospital in Jaipur.
As the news of her death spread, the elders of the Jat-dominated village pronounced that nobody would touch her body.
Balai returned to the village in the morning with the body in a taxi. There was no one to lend a hand. He carried Devi in his arms and gently put the body on the floor of the house the two shared.
He started making calls to his friends. Except one, no one came. It wasn’t that there were no people – a crowd was watching as Balai, who drives a tractor for a living, struggled to arrange for Devi’s body to be taken to the cremation ground.
“There were some who said the municipal vehicle used for ferrying animal carcasses be called,” said Someshwar Jat, who runs a tea stall.
Someshwar said he wanted to help but did not want to be the only one defying the community.
Some others suggested that Balai seek police’s help. He did that. “What could I have done? It was not a law and order situation. I couldn’t have forced the villagers to participate in the funeral,” said Yashdeep Bhalla, the station house officer at the Sadar police station.
He called an ambulance for the body to be taken to the cremation site. At about 5pm, Devi’s funeral pyre was lit by Balai. His friend Ram Chandra Harijan was the only person at the cremation ground other than the staff.
Caste fault lines run deep in the state and by chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s own admission, the state is caste driven.