“The right of life and death was one of sovereignty’s basic attributes,” said Foucault. “The right of life and death is always exercised in an unbalanced way: the balance is always tipped in favour of death.” In post-independence India, the authority of caste found a new ally-the state and its police.
The state admits to the murder of two dalits every day, a crime against a dalit every eighteen minutes. Atrocities pile up, forming a landscape of tears, blood and ashes. It could be said this is not genocide. It could …