Caste abuse of players mars India’s Olympics efforts
PROTESTS OUTSIDE DALIT HOCKEY STAR’S FAMILY HOME ‘SHAMEFUL’, SAYS WOMEN’S TEAM CAPTAIN
AS MILLIONS of Indians cheered their country’s sports stars at the recently concluded Olympic Games in Tokyo, some of the players and their families endured abuse because they were from lower castes in society, including the so-called “untouchables”.
India’s women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal last weekend criticised the “shameful” racist abuse of a team member’s family who were targeted with threats at their home in Uttarakhand, north India.
“They burst crackers, danced in mock celebrations, and hurled caste abuse at her family, saying the team lost because it has ‘too many dalit (untouchable) players,’” one media report said.
Local police have arrested a couple of men, one of whom is a national-level hockey player.
“It’s such a bad thing,” Rampal said. “We put our life and soul into it, struggle and sacrifice so much to represent our country and when we see what is happening. What happened to Vandana’s (Katariya) family – I just want to say to people, please stop this religious division and casteism.”
Katariya, whose family is from the dalit caste, scored the first Olympic hat-trick by an Indian woman in a 4-3 victory over South Africa in the league stage.
A day after the incident, she said her family “were going through a very tough time” and noted that the abuse had tarnished their sporting achievement.
No politician, government agency or sports body has yet commented on the casteist slurs against the hockey star.
Popular Bollywood and social media stars, known for being active during the Black Lives Matter protests, have also been silent over the issue.
“Forget government or sports authorities, even sportspersons haven’t spoken on the Vandana Katariya incident and not condemned the act. Everyone needs to condemn it, big or small,” sports analyst and popular YouTuber Gurkirat Singh Gill told Eastern Eye.
Dalits comprise more than 16 per cent of India’s population, but their representation in sports is proportionately less than that number.
Such is India’s obsession with the issue that internet searches relating to the caste of female players – such as badminton champion PV Sindhu and boxer Lovlina Borgohain – increased during the Games.
Mission Ambedkar, a group working against caste oppression in India, has written to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to “pass a condemnation notice” over the caste-based abuse.
Meanwhile, some social media users drew a comparison between the caste attack on Katariya and the racist comments targeted at England’s black footballers after the team lost in the Euro 2020 finals earlier in the summer.
However, the England players received messages of support from the public, as well as the UK prime minister Boris Johnson, top politicians and sports organisations – unlike the silence in India.
Although the caste system in India was formally abolished in 1948 and negative discrimination on the basis of caste is banned by law, it appears to be on people’s minds more than achievements down to merit and hard work.
Recent analysis by Google trends showed that Indians are more interested in the players’ caste and religion rather than their talent or achievements.
On the day Sindhu, the only Indian woman to have won back-to-back Olympic medals, won her bronze in Tokyo, the number of people searching for her caste on the internet increased manifold, suggesting they were more interested in that rather than who Sindhu defeated.
“This shows the desperation of society about caste. A dalit person – to make their name in sports – have to fight the battle both on and off the field,” said Shaleen Mitra, who campaigns for equality in society and is an Indian government official working with the Ministry of Health.
“And the result is very few people from the dalit community make it into sports,” Mitra told Eastern Eye. “Things become tougher if it’s a female sportsperson – first there is misogyny, and then hatred towards their caste.”
Indian boxer and Tokyo Olympics bronze medal-winner Borgohain also made news, not for her accomplishments, but her faith.
“Lovlina Borgohain religion” was listed third in Google searches related to the Indian boxer, reports said.
A similar trend was seen in 2018 when Indian sprinter athlete Hima Das won the gold medal in the IAAF World U20 Championships in 2018.
Chandra Bhan Prasad, an affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center, in George Mason University in the US, told Eastern Eye that caste has “ruled” Indian society for centuries.
“(The) encircling of Vandana’s house is, metaphorically, encircling the republic,” Prasad said.
Mitra claimed that the silence from sports and government authorities is “because these bodies are run by highly influential people of the upper level of the caste system”.
“This has been the case for centuries. When we see political organisations, we find the same structure. To take any measure for preventing casteism in sports, it needs empathy towards the affected people and a lot of will, which we know is lacking in the whole system,” Mitra told Eastern Eye.
He explained how a dalit sportsperson has to deal with “plethora of challenges” and they have to be “twice as good as any upper-class player” to make a mark.
Rampal, 26, whose father pulled a cart to feed his family, said last week: “We sweat it out for the Indian flag and it is such a shameful thing when we see that people behave like this.”
She said the team had felt “so much love from people” despite not winning a first medal, but added that lessons had to be learned to end such abuse “if we want make our country a sporting nation”.
“This should never happen to any athlete, or a normal person.”