PM Modi’s Gujarat has no space for Dalits, even in 21st century

It is not at all a myth. Prime Minister’s homeland, Gujarat has gained the spotlight for the fast moving developmental activities. But the plight of Dalits in the state has overshadowed every achievement, if any.

Most Dalits are not allowed entry into temples in villages; common crematoriums too are out of bounds to them, says activist.

Gujarat’s Dalit community has been seething with anger over the public flogging of a group of Dalits who were skinning a dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala, a village near Una town in Saurashtra region on July 11.

On Monday morning, thousands of people gathered in Una in South Gujarat for an Independence Day rally to mark the culmination of a ten-day march to protest the brutal assault last month on four Dalit youths in the town. There were stirring songs and rousing speeches. But hours later, the event met with a violent backlash by non-Dalit groups on the highway near Samter village, around 12 km from Una.

The attacks were aimed at Dalits from other parts of Gujarat who were returning home after attending the rally. Eyewitnesses and survivors claimed stones were thrown at them, that some people were beaten, that the panes of cars were smashed and that at least one motorbike was set on fire. At least 12 Dalits were reportedly injured, one of whom was shot in the back of his thigh. This person has been taken to a hospital in Junagadh. Three police personnel were also injured.

At Una police station, officers said that they had used lathis and fired several rounds of tear gas to control the violent mobs at around 6.30 pm, more than five hours after the violence began. By late night, the police had arrested 20 assailants, four of them women.

Among the first to be attacked were three sisters from Rajkot, their mother and a four-year-old girl. They were relatives of the four Dalit youths who had been thrashed by cow vigilantes in Una on July 11, sparking the agitation. After attending the rally in the morning, the women left around noon to visit their relatives’ village. While crossing Samter village, they claim their car was stopped by a raging mob of “hundreds” of non-Dalits, armed with “swords, sticks and bottles of kerosene”.

“We had a photo of Ambedkar on the bike and they just blocked us and started beating us,” said Deepak, a labourer at a cement factory. As he spoke at the Una police station, Deepak Parmar was weeping inconsolably.

Parmar claims that a group of policemen came towards them but did not take action against the aggressors. “Instead, they pushed me into their police van and said they would take me safely to Una,” he said. “I pleaded with them to save my brother [cousin] too, but they left Kishore there and brought me to Una. My brother is still in their clutches.”

Another rally participant who was attacked was Vajubhai Parmar, an activist from Dalit rights organisation Navsarjan in Ahmedabad. While returning from the rally and crossing Samter, Parmar claims his Maruti car was attacked by stone pelters, as were some of the other vehicles ahead of them. At least two vehicles were smashed, but Parmar’s car had a narrow escape.

“I also saw the mobs set a motorbike on fire right in front of us, but no one was injured,” said Parmar. “Throughout all this, the police was just watching from nearby, doing nothing. This is just like in the communal riots of 2002 – the police seemed to be complicit.”

Another eyewitness – a government employee from Bhavnagar who did not wish to be identified – made the same allegation about the police.

“I had nothing to do with the Dalit rally in the morning – I was just travelling from Bhavnagar to Gir with my wife in a rickshaw when mobs at Samter began blocking the road and heckling people,” said the 25-year-old government employee, raging outside the Una police station.

“While we managed to escape from the side, we saw them asking everyone in other vehicles, ‘Are you Dalit? Say ‘Jai Mata di.’ And I swear, I saw the police just watching all this from the side.”

The man also claimed he saw a policeman casually resting his arm on the shoulder of one of the attackers in the mob. “I have completely lost faith in law and order today.”

Treated in uncommon way

What transpired at Una was only the latest atrocity on the Scheduled Castes, which form around 7.5 per cent of the population in the State.

Earlier in July, a Dalit farmer was killed by villagers when he tried to cultivate a common grazing land in a village near Porbandar.

Only in April this year, a 31-year-old Dalit — Ketan Koradia, a clerk in a local court in Ahmedabad — committed suicide, alleging discrimination in the work place where he had constantly faced caste abuses.

According to leading social activist Martin Macwan, whose organisation Navsarjan Trust is the largest Dalit body and which works in 3,000 villages in the State, Dalits face rampant discrimination at all levels in Gujarat.

“Most of them [Dalits] are not allowed entry into temples in villages. They have their own crematoriums because upper castes don’t allow Dalits to be cremated in common crematoriums,” Mr. Macwan said.

In 2012, three Dalit youth were killed in police firing in Thangarh town of Surendranagar district. The State government, headed by the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, had set up a three-member committee to inquire into the incident and submit a report. Till date, the government has not made the report public.

According to Mr. Macwan, atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat are committed “with impunity”. However, there is one difference this time.

Social media has made the difference and for the first time after 1985, Gujarat is witnessing such a strong protest by the Dalit community in the State,” said Ashok Srimali, a leading activist in Ahmedabad.

In 1985, during the anti-reservation riots, Dalits had protested across the State for several days.