Marked by Caste, Silenced by Power: The Case of Rajni

Abstract

This paper examines the rape and murder of Rajni, a 14-year-old Dalit girl from the Kanjar (Scheduled Caste) community in Kalandi Village, Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh, to analyze how violence is not an aberration but a structural necessity of caste society. Her brutal assault by dominant-caste men, shielded by economic and political power, exemplifies how sexual violence functions as a mechanism of caste oppression. The state’s complicity, evident in police inaction, judicial apathy, and the accused’s acquittal, reinforces the structural impunity that sustains caste-based violence.

This case underscores three key dimensions of caste-based violence, firstly, sexual violence as caste control, secondly, institutional casteism and legal impunity, thirdly, the political economy of caste violence – Dominant castes control land, resources, and power, deepening Dalit vulnerability. Drawing from Ambedkarite, feminist, and critical caste studies, this paper contends that violence is fundamental to sustaining caste hegemony.