Of Aarakshan, Khairlanji and caste

Prakash Jha's Aarakshan, which releases this Friday, has been in the eye of a storm ever since the promos started playing on television channels. The dialogues in the promos are catchy enough to make a few leaders who believe the movie is against Dalits to pick up the protest banner and insist that the film should not release.
I will not get into the merits and demerits of reservation. There are lots of arguments for and against it. Those who are for reservation point out how upper caste Hindus denied their communities access to education and jobs for thousands of years. Those against reservations say merit is compromised, quality denied and thousands of worthy candidates are rejected because of the policy that was supposed to be abolished in 30 years.
Like I said, I will not get into who is right and who is wrong. Let's look at the reality that exists in our society.
The reality is that rapid urbanisation and industrialisation has forced a majority of us to shun our castes at least in public. In major cities, towns and tehsils, a fair amount of equality exists. We don't 'see' a Dalit being denied admission to an eatery, untouchability is not practiced, and food is freely shared.
But then that's only half the truth. Or, for that matter, less than half the truth. Latest census figures show that more than 60% of India still lives in villages, and therein lies the hidden truth. I know a media person from a prominent media house who was banned from entering his village after he married out of his caste. I am not talking about 30 or 20 years ago. I am talking about five years ago. The village is not in the interiors of 'progressive' Maharashtra; neither is it from predominantly casteist Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is a fallacy that Maharashtra is progressive and does not believe in the caste system. One just has to travel to Marathwada and Vidarbha to see how it is practiced.
The truth is — like Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar said in his speech that he had to publish after he was not allowed to speak — that to ensure the true abolition of the caste system, intercaste marriages are a must and they should be encouraged. Caste system gains its strength through roti-beti (sharing food and allowing marriages strictly within the community). When intercaste marriages start taking place in the society on a large scale, false egos will be forced to take a back seat. You might say they are already happening. Yes, they are, but not enough. All our English newspapers (supposedly liberal by virtue of being in English) are full of community-based matrimonial advertisements. All matrimonial portals assure the best matches from within communities. So much for those who insist science and technology will automatically lead to breaking of such practices.
It is the mindset that refuses to change. Let me end this on something that struck me after the Khairlanji massacre shook us. Four members of the Bhotmange family were killed by the villagers of Khairlanji on September 29, 2006. Two of the women were paraded naked, raped and then killed. All of us remember it as the Khairlanji massacre and not the Bhotmange massacre. Dalits don't have an identity, not even when they are raped and killed. They sadly are remembered by the name of the village that killed them.