Kuchchi and Dhanraj were living in a tiny mud hut with seven of Dhanraj’s relatives, and they worked the fields of the powerful local Thakur, Arjun Singh. They were content. But one day Aun Singh came up to them in the field and as Kuchchi recalled, “demanded my womanhood.”
“When Dhanraj protested,” she said, “Arjun Singh laughed and said: “don’t you worry lama rich man. I will purchase two bullocks, and they will do your work in the field. You give me your wife and I will keep her like a “rani” (a princess). Now do as I say.”
“Dhanraj shouted back: “She is my wife, not yours, I will not stay here any longer. I will never work for you again.”
“As we ran back to the hut, Arjun Singh shouted after us: “I will get what I want. I will take you by force, and after that nobody will help you.”
“We hid. I was afraid. I had heard so many stories from the others about Arjun Singh’s “keeps”, the harijan woman he has brought into his house, in our community, such a thing is unholy, we are ostracized and forced to pay a heavy penalty of food and money to the others, Dhanraj would not let this happen to me.”
Late that afternoon, Dhanraj paid for his defiance with his life. ‘According to his widow Arjun Singh sent two of his nephew’s one of them free on bail after being sentenced to life in prison for murder. They forced Dhanraj out of the hut, slapped him several times and dragged him off to a remote compound, where they drenched him with kerosene.
She said that one of the pair shouted, “You stay back or we’ll kill you all.”
“Arjun Singh,” she went on, “came with a matchbox. He handed it to his nephew Raju and as nephew Gulab held Dhanraj’s arms, Raju sent him on fire. Dhanraj ran screaming to a nearby well and jumped in to save himself. We ran after him, pulled him out and brought him back home. He was still screaming. His clothes were gone. His skin was black and face and feet. He just kept screaming, “Save me, somehow. Save me. I’m dying.”
It was at 8 the following morning after a night of intense pain, that Dhanraj died in Kuchchi’’s arms. He had not been allowed to make a formal statement to police, even though he had been conscious for 1 1/2 days and in the presence of scores of policemen.
The local police accepted Arjun Singh’s story that Dhanraj had stolen 50 rupees ($2.75) got drunk and burned himself to death.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 15, 1990
