Haryana’s Unequal Justice: Caste, Faith and the Politics of Criminalization

 

By Ramphal Kataria

Of over 25,000 inmates in Haryana’s jails, nearly 28% are Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 13% are Muslims — both far higher than their share in the state’s population (20.2% SCs and 7% Muslims, as per the Census of India 2011).

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Prison Statistics India 2022, Haryana’s proportion of SC and Muslim prisoners is among the highest in northern India, rising steadily over the past decade.

This is not about “criminality.” It is about criminalisation — the outcome of caste hierarchy, political prejudice, and systemic neglect that have turned Haryana’s prisons into a mirror of its social order.

The Caste Pyramid in Chains

Caste in Haryana is not a relic — it is a living architecture. As sociologist Surinder Jodhka noted in EPW (“Caste and Power in Haryana’s Rural Landscape”), the state’s agrarian economy is built upon Jat dominance, with Dalits largely confined to kamins — low-wage, dependent labour roles.

Despite constitutional guarantees, village life remains ruled by the khap and the panchayat, not the Constitution.

When Dalits resist, violence enforces “order.” The 2010 Mirchpur massacre is the most haunting reminder — when a Jat mob burnt alive a 70-year-old Dalit man and his disabled daughter, torching 18 Dalit homes. Over 250 families fled (PUDR Report: Mirchpur – Justice Denied).

In Bhagana (Hisar, 2014), after Dalits protested encroachment on common land, 138 families were expelled; four Dalit girls were later gang-raped (Indian Express, 2014).

Such atrocities are not isolated; they are the grammar of caste discipline. Whether in Pabnava (Kaithal, 2013) — where 200 Dalit homes were destroyed after an inter-caste marriage — or Jandwala Sotar (Fatehabad, 2023), where a panchayat ordered Dalits to vacate their homes (The Wire, 2023), the pattern is identical: assertion meets annihilation.

A Justice System that Mirrors the Social Order

In Haryana, law enforcement is not neutral — it is an extension of caste power. Data from the Status of Policing in India Report 2022, by Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDS, reveal deep bias: nearly one in three police personnel believes that “complaints by Dalits and Muslims are often false.” Within this structure, it is not surprising that SCs form 27.8% of undertrials and Muslims about 9%, despite their smaller population shares (NCRB 2022).

As Ambala MP Varun Chaudhary told The Indian Express, “These figures are not just data points; they reflect institutional prejudice. The state must ensure proper legal aid for the poor.”

Yet, Haryana’s budget allocations for legal aid and prison reforms remain negligible. Access to legal counsel for poor inmates is often theoretical, and caste determines who receives “sympathetic hearing.”

Inside prisons, according to IndiaSpend’s 2023 analysis, discrimination continues — from segregated barracks to unequal work assignments. The bars do not erase caste; they reinforce it.

The Political Arithmetic of Caste and Crime

Caste is not just a social order in Haryana — it is a political currency. Since 2014, the BJP has marketed itself as a “Non-Jat” party, drawing support from SCs, OBCs and minorities alienated by Jat dominance. But as the Economic & Political Weekly analysis by Pritam Singh shows, this coalition has only rearranged hierarchy, not dismantled it.

Behind the slogans of empowerment lies a pattern of selective prosecution and protection.

Cow protection laws, for instance, have become a tool of targeted criminalisation of Muslims, as reported by The Caravan in “The Politics of Caste and Cow in Haryana.” Meanwhile, caste-based violence against Dalits rarely sees convictions — a reflection of both police bias and political convenience.

The BJP’s electoral narrative thrives on horizontal stratification — pitching communities against each other. Old footage from the 2016 Jat reservation protests was revived during the 2024 campaign to stoke anti-Jat sentiment among SCs and OBCs.

This fragmentation ensures that the oppressed remain electorally useful but structurally powerless.

Policing as Caste Discipline

The Indian Police Foundation’s 2023 Dashboard shows that Haryana’s police force remains over 75% dominated by upper-caste groups, with Dalits grossly underrepresented in officer ranks.

As the Centre for Dalit Studies (2020) found, this lack of diversity translates directly into biased policing patterns — from filing of FIRs to custodial treatment.

In practice, dominant caste offenders are often shielded, while Dalit and Muslim youth face false charges — theft, “cow smuggling,” or “rioting.”

Reports by Sabrang India and Human Rights Watch document dozens of cases in which Dalit assertion was rebranded as crime.

This is how “law and order” becomes a euphemism for the preservation of social hierarchy.

The Social Economy of Exclusion

The heart of Haryana’s caste crisis lies in land and livelihood. SCs and Muslims remain concentrated in informal labour, sanitation, and service sectors — low-wage, insecure, and dependent on upper-caste employers. Land ownership, panchayat control, and cooperative power are still monopolised by dominant castes.

As detailed in Sukhadeo Thorat and Katherine Newman’s Blocked by Caste (OUP, 2012), economic exclusion is the root of social servitude. In Haryana, denial of land translates into denial of dignity — and every assertion of equality invites collective punishment.

Even the UN Human Rights Council (2019) recognised caste as a “form of discrimination based on work and descent,” equating it to a human rights violation (OHCHR Report). Yet, Haryana’s state machinery remains largely indifferent.

Justice for Whom?

The Supreme Court judgment in State of Haryana v. Ram Mehar & Ors. (2018) — the Mirchpur case — itself acknowledged “institutional failure and caste prejudice” in investigation and prosecution.

But despite judicial acknowledgment, systemic reform has been cosmetic.

Editorials in The Hindu and human rights reports have repeatedly warned of the collapse of law in Haryana’s villages — where caste panchayats issue diktats and the police quietly comply.

The state’s political leadership, instead of confronting this feudal mindset, often feeds off it electorally.

The Arithmetic of Oppression

The overrepresentation of Dalits and Muslims in Haryana’s jails is not an accident — it is the statistical face of social apartheid. It tells us who gets arrested, who gets convicted, and who is protected.

As the National Dalit Movement for Justice (2023) notes, the cycle of violence and impunity continues because the state itself is structured by caste — from police stations to courtrooms to cabinet tables.

If Haryana seeks real justice, it must start by decolonising its institutions from caste control — ensuring diversity in police, accountability in prosecutions, and universal access to legal aid.

But that demands political will — something Haryana’s rulers have so far lacked.

Until then, its prisons will remain the caste system in miniature: a place where the poor, the Dalit, and the Muslim are punished not for their crimes, but for their place in society.

References

1.     Prison Statistics India 2022 – National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs. Data on religion- and caste-wise composition of convicts and undertrials in Haryana.

2.     Census of India 2011 – Registrar General of India. Scheduled Castes form 20.2 % and Muslims 7 % of Haryana’s population.

3.     The Indian Express, August 2024– Ambala MP Varun Chaudhary’s remarks on overrepresentation of SCs and Muslims in Haryana’s jails and the urgent need for state-funded legal aid.

4.     State of Dalit Rights in India 2023 Report – National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ) / National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR). Documents Mirchpur, Bhagana and Pabnava atrocities in Haryana.

5.     PUDR Report: Mirchpur – Justice Denied (2012) – People’s Union for Democratic Rights. Ground investigation of the 2010 caste massacre in Hisar district.

6.     Indian Express (2014) – “Four Dalit Girls Raped in Bhagana, Haryana; Families Driven Out.” On the continuing violence and displacement of Dalit families.

7.     Human Rights Watch (2007) – Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India’s Untouchables. Foundational global report on caste bias within Indian institutions.

8.     Economic & Political Weekly –

Surinder S. Jodhka, “Caste and Power in Haryana’s Rural Landscape” (2014).

Pritam Singh, “Caste, Class and Political Economy in Northern India” (2017).

Analyses of horizontal caste stratification and agrarian power structures.

9.     The Wire (2023) – “In Haryana’s Villages, Dalits Still Face Boycott, Beatings and Forced Evictions.” Field reportage from Jandwala Sotar and other villages.

10.  IndiaSpend (2023)– “How India’s Prisons Mirror Its Social Inequalities.” Data-driven look at caste-religion representation across Indian prisons.

11.  Status of Policing in India Report 2022 – Common Cause & Lokniti-CSDS. Quantitative evidence of caste and communal bias within police attitudes in Haryana.

12.  Supreme Court of India: State of Haryana v. Ram Mehar & Ors. (2018) – The Mirchpur case judgment noting institutional lapses and caste prejudice in investigation and trial.

13.  The Hindu (2023) – Editorial, “Caste Conflict and the Collapse of Law in Haryana’s Villages.” On the nexus between caste panchayats and state inaction.

14.  Centre for Dalit Studies Working Paper (2020)– Caste, Politics and Policing in North India. Data on horizontal stratification and representation in law enforcement.

15.  Sukhadeo Thorat & Katherine Newman (eds.), Blocked by Caste (Oxford University Press, 2012) – Landmark study connecting caste exclusion with access to justice and economic opportunity.

16.  UN OHCHR Report (2019) – Discrimination Based on Work and Descent in South Asia. International framing of caste as a human-rights violation.

17.  Sabrang India (2022) – “How Dalit Assertion Is Criminalised in Haryana.” Documentation of false cases and custodial bias against Dalit activists.

18.  Indian Police Foundation Dashboard (2023) – Police Diversity and Representation in India. Data showing caste imbalance in Haryana’s police force.

19.  The Caravan (2022)– “The Politics of Caste and Cow in Haryana.” On the criminalisation of Muslims under cow-protection laws and its electoral calculus.

20.  PRS Legislative Research (2024–25) – Haryana Budget: Home & Prison Departments. Financial data on legal-aid spending and prison administration.