Vandana Katariya is a lynchpin forward in the senior Indian hockey team who has been rendering stellar performance for the country for the past 11 years. She has competed in more than 200 international matches, holds the rare distinction of being the sole Indian player to score a hat trick in the Olympic Games and was instrumental in India’s spirited surge for a medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
After losing to Argentina in a thrilling semi-final draw, Vandana was singled out, victimised and accused by caste supremacists in her Delhi neighbourhood. A few upper caste men chanted slogans, hurled obscene caste slurs against the champion player, and attributed the team’s loss to having included ‘scheduled caste’ Vandana in the squad. They even demanded to expunge all scheduled caste athletes from the Indian squad competing in all track, field and games events in the last edition of the Olympics.
Scheduled castes, who were circumscribed under the moniker “untouchables” before Indian Independence in 1947, bear the brunt of caste atrocities and relentless discrimination within the Hindu ethnic groups. They are an easy target, often defenceless, powerless and voiceless in the Indian socio-economic spectrum.
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