THE CASTE CAULDRON
On October 15, a horrific scene played out on national television, of a bleeding Lakhbir Singh, a 35-year-old Dalit Sikh farm labourer from Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, who had been tortured and killed at the Singhu border, the epicentre of the ongoing protests against the new farm laws brought by the Centre. The farmer unions quickly distanced themselves from the incident, and the next day the Haryana police arrested four Nihangs, members of a militant Sikh order known for their blue robes, swords and violent antecedents. The Nihangs—Sarabjit, Narain Singh, Bhagwant Singh and Govind Preet—claimed they had “punished” Lakhbir for “desecrating a Sikh holy book”.
As disturbing as the incident was, even more so was the deafening silence of the political establishment in
