Caste violence and dalit consciousness: A critical interpretation of dominance

The increasing violence against dalits in post-indcpcndence Indian society in many respects shows the failure of Indian governance to safeguard life and property, and civil and human rights of the most oppressed subaltern section of Indian society. The following decade after independence saw a total of 2,91 I cases of atrocities against scheduled castes, which were mostly registered under the Untouchability (offences) Act 1955. But in 1980s, it has risen to 28,796. That there is a steep increase in the violence against dalits in the country is drawn not by merely looking at these figures in government reports because these are registered and reported cases. There arc many cases of atrocities that go unregistered by the police and there arc many that arc not reported to the police. Several cases of atrocities are completely suppressed because they are police atrocities against the dalits