O Hindu Water,
O Islamic Water,
I aspire to practice
The ethics of democracy
As my way of life.
Not as a slogan,
Not as a ceremony,
But as an everyday praxis
Of Equality.
Yet,
When I live democratically,
When I celebrate
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
And when I celebrate
The Constitution of India,
When I embody the Ambedkar Constitution
As my public social ethic,
The consequence is
The end of my life
In the democracy of India.
O Water,
This is not a failure of law.
This is the law functioning
As caste,
As religion,
As purity,
As culture,
As tradition,
As ideology,
As Sanatan Sharia.
They say you are a lifesaver, 
The lifeline for the thirsty, 
The long generosity of God's love. 
You are meant to save every mouth, 
Every leaf, every cracked tongue of earth. 
But for me, 
You come with a warning. 
Your surface shows a law 
Written not by nature 
But by caste. 
A decree sharpened by fear, 
Guarded by caste and culture.
I was born east of their spaces, 
Where Pariah lives are pushed 
Away from Sanatan Dharmas and
From the Islamic spaces.
My touch was called impure. 
My shadow was called dirty.
My breath, a violation. 
My shadow, a crime. 
They said my saliva could rot their purity. 
My feet could defile their ground, 
My soul itself was dirt. 
In their eyes, 
I was not a body
I was walking in pollution. 
Yet I crossed oceans. 
Australia, Brazil, 
Ethiopia, the Czech Republic,
Germany, Belgium,
France, Switzerland, 
the Netherlands
Europe and the
White Western Christian spaces
With open taps. 
I touched. 
I drank. 
The water did not pull away. 
No one raised a weapon 
over my touch. 
But back home, 
My skin was soaked in blood 
for the crime of thirst. 
How many Untouchables 
Have been killed, 
How many Dalits 
Have been raped, 
How many Candalas 
Have been maimed for life 
For touching water, 
For stepping too close to a well, 
For believing water
Belong to everyone.
This is the death of a Dalit
In the Indian democracy.
This is Dalit genocide
Within a modern democratic state,
For touching their water.
This is water genocide.
For touching their water.
We are abused
For touching their water.
Discriminated against
For touching their water.
Beaten
For touching their water.
Tortured
For touching their water.
Killed
For touching their water.
Raped
For touching their water.
Burnt alive
For touching their water.
Because
We claim democratic principles
As our way of life.
And democracy claims
Our way of life,
As Freiheit,
Or as Freedom,
As Gleichwertigkeit,
Or as Equality,
As Menschenrechte,
Or as Human Rights,
As bürgerliche Freiheiten,
Or as Civil Liberties,
As liberty,
As modernity,
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
As a universal way of life.