Every Conversation Matters: Paani Mila, the new mock!
To be socially aware,to speak up,to stay charged is something I have been brought up with. Just like my mother was. My grandfather taught his children to stay curious, to question and to NEVER call themselves “apolitical.”
So naturally,when I was in my formative years(read teenage ) there were a lot of debates,lots of fights with my parents,relatives about how WE should live our lives.
I still haven’t stopped voicing my opinions and no one,I repeat no one likes a woman who is opinionated. (my opinions are not restricted to the internet,so mind you there aren’t many people who like talking to me)
Especially when in this era of Divide and Rule,which has been going on since forever. Please, let’s make one thing clear. I was 14,when I was told to go back to Pakistan.
So,yes my voice might have mellowed down because it’s like they say “the hate needed a push,and ten years ago everyone was given a licence to hate.
But, today I’m not going to talk about that. Let’s talk about what’s happening in 2026.
Few weeks back there was a w**ar. I call it wa**r because that’s what it absolutely is. Two social media accounts start attacking each other on harassment,being casteist and calling out each other. Obviously,the internet was divided. Then another social media account got added to the debate. Naturally,everyone and I mean people who make content around casteism,social issues started talking about it as well.
As much as it was fascinating to see the casteist people take off their masks, it broke my heart. It broke my heart to see a YOUTUBER, someone who calls herself a JOURNALIST,mocking at a protest. Do you know what her mocking question for the marginalised castes was?(which includes SC/ST/OBC) It was “Paani mila?”(Did you get water?).
A woman,a savarna woman thrusted a mic in the face of students in a protest asking them did they get water. No, she wasn’t concerned about their hydration. She was mocking the systematic casteism that had her ancestors deny lower castes and Dalit communities from accessing clean drinking water.
All of the headlines came rushing back to me. You think caste-based violence just cropped up suddenly? Every week,Dalit children,Dalit women,Dalit farmers are poisoned,beaten to death or cut up into pieces.
What’s the point of your “education” if that’s what you have reduced to. I remember when I took the newspaper seriously and I wouldn’t be fully awake before reading the newspaper and in that tiny space on the left hand corner of page 8,there would be news about a Dalit man killed. It would always be that tiny space. That was 2008.
In 2026, savarna people,irrespective of gender, are MOCKING. Still killing the Dalit and lower caste people and people are silent. YOU are silent. Even YOU know the clear Divide and Rule in play and yet YOU have not raised your voice.
Have you spoken about how the downtrodden are getting attacked every day in some district,some village because they are not Brahmin?
Then I understood. As long as it doesn’t happen to you,you are comfortable. You aren’t haunted because hey! You have a luxurious lifestyle.
Oh but a Dalit shouldn’t get the luxurious lifestyle. No. That you can’t digest. Like a poet issesomeletters writes “of how far ,caste privilege was willing to go to defend itself.” It’s not because they are in danger. How many Brahmin deaths have you seen? Can you make a guess of how many newspaper articles have I read of Dalit women, children and men killed in the last 28 years?
Your protest ,your discussions in closed brahmanical spaces would have made sense if I didn’t have the statistics of every week when a person from a marginalised community wasn’t attacked.
Jaati hi nahi jatii.(caste is the one and only thing that doesn’t go away)
Aleena also says while acts like done in the student protests have been done in the past and will happen again because like you can see, OUR response to caste-based violence is “oh no! It’s still happening. It’s 2026.” and then we don’t give a f*uck.
The anti-caste movement will be attacked again. I look forward to seeing what your response would be to that,reader.
Because we love mocking “paani mila??” And that’s the entirety of your argument.
This post is a part of ‘Echoes of Equality Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters blog hop series.
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