O Water!
There is a facade of democracy.
In which caste is appropriated
As a religious tool,
To strengthen the caste hierarchy
For touching their water.
Caste violence against my skin
Derived from Brahmanism and
Reproduced,
And normalised,
across the castes and races
And across ideologies,
And across the time and space
For touching their water.
Caste is a system of law.
Entirely structured by penalties
Extending to death and
Community rape
For touching their water.
Caste is a judicial system.
That operates through punishments,
Upto death,
Upto community rape,
Upto social annihilation.
O Water!
The death of my Dalit skin must be
Understood through Sanatan codes
Through Islamic codes,
That decide
Who is allowed to live?
And who must die
For touching their water or
For touching their cow or
For touching their shadows or
For loving their daughters or
For marrying their daughters or
For crossing their borders and lines or
For touching freedom or liberties.
The existential problems of my life are
Praxis of Freiheit and Gleichwertigkeit,
Praxis of Menschenrechte and bürgerliche Freiheiten,
The essence of democracy.
But these ideas rupture with
The inheritance of caste
The inheritance of Islam
And the Brahmanical order.
Indian democracy demands
The annihilation of caste.
Caste demands the
Annihilation of the Constitution of India.
O Western Water,
I am safe now
among jasmine-scented spaces,
safe in the shelter of Christ's embrace.
Here, water flows
Without asking my caste or race,
Without asking my gender or sexuality,
Without asking my class or faith.
I walk among flowers.
without counting my steps.
But in my caste spaces,
Water is a border patrol.
Touching their water is
a genocide against my skin.
Wells become execution grounds.
Taps turn into verdicts.
Death follows thirst,
And genocide waits
at the Indian capital.
The judiciary freed my tormentor.
Water,
You save lives for every creature.
Yet for me,
You come carrying death.
Water genocide
for touching their water.
You were born to support all skins,
all species, all breaths.
But they have turned your gift
Into death camps.
They turned natural elements
Into death factories
For my skin
And the skin of every Pariah.
Still, you flow.
Still, I survived their purity laws.
And someday,
You will wash their borders away.
And someday,
They will annihilate my entire caste.
Annihilation or Genocide
Are age-old practices
Of my Sanatan Sharia skin-tearers.
So I ask:
Can a Hinduised democracy,
Or an Islamised Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
Guarantee my existence
And the existence of every
Jew, White, Tribal,
Yazidi, Christian,
Pig, Crow,
Every animal and bird,
Every life marked as:
Untouchable,
Unseeable,
Unapproachable,
Unshadowable,
Dalit,
SC,
Dirt,
Black,
Impure,
Pig,
Buffalo,
Crow,
Unspeakable,
Nonbeliever,
Infidel,
Queer?
Or does democracy,
When imprisoned by caste and religion
Become merely another tool of tormentor.
For deciding
Who is allowed to live?
And who must die?