Dalits who publicly challenge upper-caste authority are punished with excreta-feeding and branding

Evidence

Privileged castes punish Dalits by forcing them to eat human excreta though this often goes unreported. In Thinniyam village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchi district, on 22 May 2002, two Dalits, Murugesan and Ramasami, were forced to feed each other human excreta and branded with hot iron rods for publicly declaring that they had been cheated by the village chief. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 453

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Concrete instance of caste atrocity as punishment reinforces the stakes of Ambedkar’s argument that caste must be annihilated, not reformed.