We may be living in the 21st century and we may perceive ourselves as an emerging global power. But the unfortunate and ugly reality is that the scourge of caste wars continues to plague India even now. A few days ago, a young man called Pranay Perumalla was brutally killed, hacked to death right in front of his pregnant wife outside a hospital in Telangana. His crime? He was a Dalit who fell in love and eloped with an upper caste girl, his sweetheart from high school. It’s being described as a case of dishonour killing, clearly no honour in killing anyone with the woman’s fatherbeing accused of plotting the murderous attack on his son in law. Now, just later the horrific murder has turned into a full blown caste war between the Dalit and non-Dalit residents of Mir-yala-guda town in Telangana’s Nalgonda district. Pranay’s wife Amrutha has expressed the wish that a statue of her husband be installed at the centre of the business town to serve as a deterrent for such attacks in the future.