protests against the atrocity (Image: Indian express)

Three years ago, on July 11^th 2016, 6 Dalit members of a family and their neighbour were thrashed in Una,  Gir somnath district, Gujrat by gau rakshaks for skinning a dead cow that was killed by a lioness.

The Dalit men were paraded semi naked, trashed and then dragged behind the SUV of the accused to the police station where they again beat up the men and fled later when the police arrived.

The video of the men being trashed with sticks, pipes and even knives went viral causing protest all over the state.
 

And the trial began 2 years after the incident in 2018.  Dipendra Yadav, who was appointed as the special public prosecutor in this case, had written to the concerned authorities asking for an office space, security and transport facilities but his demands were not met. He had threatened to quit within 3 months of being appointed for lack of security.

There was opposition from both the defense and prosecution on the plea from the victims’ lawyer Govind Paramar for the case to be expedited and be taken up on day-to-day basis.

But the special court of fifth Additional District in Veraval which handles the cases pertaining to the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act allowed the petition and ordered for conducting the case on daily basis for 90 days. And the case was to begin from July 29^th.

The decision of the prosecutor to quit has come as a blow to the victims as this step may put the trial on hold once again. They hope that the judiciary and the department of law will take some positive step to ensure the trial proceeds as they have waited from three years.

Yadav was fed up of waiting for the Government to provide him security, remuneration, transport and office space. His application will be heard on 26^th July after which the court will decide to accept or not his decision to quit from the case.

Courtesy: Two Circle

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The post Azadi Koonch Begins in Gujarat appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Gujarat govt cancels permission for Azaadi Kooch, Dalit Freedom March on Una anniversary: Rally from Ahmedabad to Mehsana to continue, warns Jignesh Mevani. Today, July 11 public meeting at Ambedkar Hall in Saraspur, Ahmedabad, on the Una incident anniversary would be held at 12.00 noon, RDAM added, “Kanhiya Kumar would be its star attraction.”

In the third major attempt since June first week to curb the democratic right to protest, the Gujarat government has cancelled permission to well-known Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani’s Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) to hold what he called “Azadi Kooch” or Freedom March in North Gujarat. Azaadi Kooch, the Freedom March was to be flagged off on July 12 in North Gujarat’s biggest town, Mehsana, and end further north in Dhanera in Banaskantha district on July 18 with a mass rally, and was planned to coincide with the first anniversary of the gruesome Una incident, in which cow vigilantes flogged four Dalit boys on “suspicion” of cow slaughter.

The Freedom March, Mevani told Sabrangindia, had the support of well-known Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who was participate in the first day rally in Mehsana. It also had the support of “Patel leaders Varun Patel, Reshma Patel and Muslim leaders of North Gujarat”, he adds.

Mevani & Kanhaiya in 2016 at the Una March

Poster announcing Freedom March following cop permissionAlleging that the decision not to allow the Freedom March to take place was behest of Gujarat’s deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, Mevani says, “This shows the BJP government’s anti-Dalit mindset”, adding, “Finding massive support from Patels and Muslims, Sangh Parivar and BJP were terribly disturbed.”

Interestingly, on June 27, the Gujarat government had allowed the Freedom March to take place on the basis of the application given by Kaushik Parmar of the RDAM on June 1. “However”, contends Mevani, “Finding that this would adversely affect the political fortunes BJP in North Gujarat, the decision to withdrawn.”

Notably, on July 7, the Gujarat government detained senior farmers’ leaders Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat and Alpesh Thakor of the OBC Ekta Manch, because they took out their pre-announced 25-km footmarch from Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, to Gandhinagar, the state capital, for which the police refused permission.

After keeping it pending for several days, the Gujarat police granted permission to hold #NotInMyName protest in Ahmedabad on July 8, but limited the period from 3 to 6 pm in a posh area of the Satellite Road, even as declaring that the protesters would not be allowed to use loudspeaker.

Ahmedabad conference to "continue"
A month ago, on June 7, well-known anti-dam leader Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan rally was stopped as it tried to enter into Gujarat from Madhya Pradesh. Patkar, accompanied by several activists, including Magsaysay Award winning Odisha tribal rights leader Prafulla Samantara, who accompanied her, were detained and sent back to Madhya Pradesh.
Warns Mevani, “Despite refusal of permission, we have decided to go ahead with our Freedom March. Let the Gujarat police do what it wants to. Thousands of people will gather in Mehsana’s Somnath Chowk on July 12 at 10 in the morning.”

Menawhile, criticizing the Gujarat government for cancelling the permission, RDAM in a statement has challenged Nitin Patel, who belong to North Gujarat, “to win the next elections”, adding, “Dalits, Patels, farmers’ organizations, businessmen, all will now work out a strategy to defeat him in the assembly polls scheduled in December.” The statement insisted, “Even today, the Una victims have still not been received justice. Cow vigilantes’ terror continues unabated. Farmers’ debts have not been waived. While Dalits’ and neglected sections are denied permission to hold their protest march, crores are spent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshows.”

Jignesh Mevani on the Significance of this Year's Azaadi Kooch, Dalit Freedom March

Appeal from Jignesh Mevani, Coordinator, Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch

Friends,
The coming 11th of July (today) would mark the first anniversary of the historic Una struggle. Last year on the 11th of July Vashram Sarvaiya, his brother Ramesh and their cousins Ashok and Bechar were mercilessly lynched in front of the police station by so called “gau-rakshaks” who then even uploaded this barbarity proudly on social media which shook the world.

In this one year, such atrocities on Dalits and instances of violence perpetrated in the name of “gau-raksha” has only multiplied manifold while the perpetrators roam free with impunity. Una, Dadri, Latehar, Alwar, Saharapur, Pratapgarh – are all witness to the trail of blood left by the RSS/BJP’s path towards a Hindu India.

In this context, the manner in which the Dalits of Gujarat brought the Muslims and various progressive/democratic together last year, it has registered itself as a milestone in the history of Dalit resistance in this country. The manner in which the Dalits left the carcasses of dead cattle in front of the DM’s office in Surendranagar district, it created ripples across the country as a symbol of resistance and resilience against saffron terror. And then on 31stJuly in Ahmedabad 20,000 Dalits came together to take an oath in front of Babasaheb Ambedkar that they will no more do the task of skinning dead animals and instead the government should help them break free from such inter-generational caste-determined labour and they should be provided 5 acres of land each. This was followed by the historic Dalit Asmita Yatra from Ahmedabad to Una where thousands participated and exposed the farce of Modi’s slogan of “sabka saath sabka vikas”.

This movement also provided much needed energy and hope to lakhs of youth and progressive forces across the country. Not only did Dalits of several villages give up skinning dead cattle, but also they took possession of 300 acres of land that had been redistributed 26 years back. Today it is this struggle of both dignity and existence that the Rashtiya Dalit Adhikar Manch is taking forward.

We believe that Dalits in their fight for self-respect and existence, should leave their traditional labour and instead focus on land, government jobs and alternative livelihood and should revitalize themselves to march ahead and organize themselves along with the survivors of Dadri, Alwar and Latehar to initiate the second phase of the historic Una March.

With this objective we are calling upon all Dalits, Muslims, Workers and the unemployed youth of this country to join us in a march – Azaadi Koonch – from Mahsana district of North Gujarat to Banaskhada district to fight against not just the casteist forces and the gau rakshaks, but also the institutionalised murder of workers and farmers and the destitution of thousands of unemployed youth.

At this juncture we would also like to remind one and all about the broken promises made by the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel last year on her visit to Mota Samadhiyala village after the lynching of Dalits. In fact the casteist Gujarat government did not even bother to challenge the interim bail granted to the accused. The drama-king Narendra Modi who also hails from Gujarat on the one hand calls himself an “Ambedkar bhakt” while on the other hand inspires his puppet government in Gujarat to adopt the Nagpur model of granting life imprisonment for cattle slaughter. Is this the lesson that he has chosen to learn from Una, Saharanpur or Rohith Vemula’s murder?

In this country two Dalits are killed every day with them largely being the victims of mob violence too. But the rulers today find it urgent to enact laws for protection of cows and not against lynching of human beings. Hence as part of Azaadi Koonch we would demand an effective law to address mob lynchings like Dadri or Una so as to punish the perpetrators.

This Azadi Koonch in its last phase shall reach Banaskantha and Rapar Tehsil where landless Dalits have received redistributed land, but only on paper, and where their lands are under dominant caste-hold. So the government basically wants to keep the Dalits landless and thereby force them to continue with manual scavenging, sweeping and cleaning. When corporate are given land, the possession is ensured overnight if required by force. But when it comes to the Dalits and the landless, then we see that more than a lakh of hectares of redistributed land still remain on paper since last forty years with no actual possession in the hands of the Dalits. The Azaadi Koonch shall end with taking possession over this land where the tricoulour shall be unfurled. This is what we mean by our real Azaadi.
Since the fight for land is also the fight for self-respect and freedom from economic exploitation, the Azaadi Koonch would reiterate the principles of annihilation of caste and eradication of economic slavery. We will take all of this into account so as to broaden our consciousness and also broaden the very definition of freedom.

We expect all justice-loving democratic citizen shall come forward and join us to make the Azaadi Koonch a success.   
 
Related Articles:

1. Land to the Dalit Tiller, not to Tycoons is our Mission: Jignesh Mevani

2. If the Cow is Your Mother, You Bury Her: Gujarat Dalits Cry Liberation

3. ‘Pratirodh’: Dalits from 10 Gujarat Villages unite to combat Caste Atrocities

The post Dalit Freedom March, Azaadi Kooch to Continue even as Guj Govt Cancels Permission appeared first on SabrangIndia.

( Photo Courtesy : https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org)

Cow vigilantes attacked six people, including a 9-year-old girl in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday and fled away with their flock. The vigilantes beat up the nomad community blue and black and the minor girl has suffered multiple fractures when the community was en route to Talwara area…
(Times Now).

In yet another chilling instance of self-styled gau rakshaks targeting cattle traders — and mob mentality thriving undeterred — three men transporting buffaloes were attacked by “cow vigilantes” in south Delhi’s Kalkaji late Saturday
(Hindustan Times).

“Cow protectionism was the spirit behind India’s freedom movement”. The innocuous looking statement by Ms Nirmala Sitharaman on the floor of the House when she defended the shutting of illegal slaughter houses in UP had not raised any debate then.

Now the real import of this statement is coming to the fore when the alleged killers of Pehlu Khan – a farmer from Haryana – are being compared with martyrs of freedom struggle. The video of the whole incident – where a lady, who heads  a ‘cow protection group’ – who recently came into news when she allegedly forced Jaipur administration to close down a hotel owned by a Muslim under some flimsy pretext, has gone viral where she is comparing one of the accused in the case — who is part of a self-proclaimed band of cow vigilantes – as “Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad of today".

For close watchers of the incidents of cow vigilantism, which are increasingly coming under scanner everywhere, there was nothing surprising about this glorification. People had watched with horror when body of one of the accused in the Dadri lynching case was covered with tricolour. It is now history how the lynching took place when the crowd had been mobilised by giving open calls using loudspeaker placed on the local temple and the frenzied mob had killed Akhlaq in front of his house supposedly for storing beef.

When a senior minister of the central cabinet can even deny the happening of such an incident on the floor of the house and where the first FIR filed in this case is not against the violence unleashed upon the victims but the victims themselves on fraudulent charges, it is obvious that anything can happen in all such cases. Perhaps people in this part of South Asia have now to come to terms with this ‘new India’ which was promised to us post UP elections.

As plans are now afoot to organise a three-day national dharna outside the Rajasthan State Assembly from 24-26 April 2017 under the joint initiative of many political, social and human rights organisations, to protest killing of Pehlu Khan and demand justice for him, the sanitisation of the image of the murderers should worry us all.

Reports have appeared in a section of newspapers which tell that the murder accused are being projected as social activists. What is more disturbing is the manner in which freedom fighters are being openly humiliated by comparing them with fanatic murderers and historic struggle of Indian people for liberation is being trivialised. In fact, this has been an established practice of the saffrons now.

As every law abiding individual is watching with trepidation how “cow terror” is spreading throughout the country – from Dadri to Latehar, from Una to Alwar and from Jammu to now the national capital – with custodians of law and order turning mute spectators and “.. [h]uman slaughter in the name of the bovine” becoming “tragically the new normal in India. There are reports that the apex court of the country is also seized of the matter. In fact it intervened in the issue few days back and has sought responses not only from the Centre and but also six states within three weeks. The six states are Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Except for Congress-ruled Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in the remaining states. A three judge bench of the apex court is hearing public interest litigation petition filed by activists and an alleged victim of similar vigilantism.

According to reports focus of the petition is on “Animal protection laws such as the Maharashtra Animal Protection Act, 1956, which prohibit any legal action against persons for actions done in good faith under the law.” In fact, some states also grant the power of search-and-seize to officials under such laws. The petition also referred to a 2011 ruling of the apex court in which it had directed the government to disband vigilante groups.

Whether the honourable judges would give a direction on the issue and ban such groups and come forward to defend rule of law remains to be seen.
 

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In July 2016, when the national media gaze fell on the Dalit upsurge in Una taluk of Gir Somnath district, Gujarat, another incident of Dalit brutality on Dalit assertion occurred in a colony called Babu Tola in Paroo block in Muzaffarpur district, Bihar but went relatively under-reported.

Two Dalit youths, Rajiv Paswan and Munna Paswan, allegedly attempted to steal a motorbike of a local Bhumihar. The two Paswans were thrashed by a mob and a member of the mob urinated into the mouth of one of the Paswans. Rajiv Paswan’s mother, Sunita Devi, lodged a first information report with the Paroo police against 11 persons, including Mukesh Thakur, the husband of the village sarpanch.

The police arrested two of the 11 accused, and confirmed the thrashing of the two Dalits, while the allegation of urination was said to have not been substantiated. Meanwhile, the opposition parties in Bihar made it a huge issue, using it as a stick with which to beat ruling Nitish Kumar government. The Union Minister and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president, Ram Vilas Paswan, visited the family of the two Dalit youths and demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Though, in the state assembly, the opposition leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sushil Modi lashed out at the Nitish Kumar administration, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, a Bhumihar leader from Bihar, steered clear of the issue. Initially, the incident created a very charged political atmosphere in Bihar. Some political observers even recalled 1974–75, when the Nav Nirman Andolan of Gujarat almost coincided with the Jayaprakash Narayan-led Sampoorna Kranti in Bihar, which eventually forced the Congress government to impose the Emergency. Ultimately, the Congress party faced a steady decline in subsequent decades, particularly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Many hoped that there would emerge a huge Dalit mobilisation behind this atrocity, and that it would also merge with the ongoing fierce Dalit upsurge in Gujarat led by Jignesh Mewani. But, that was not to be. The politics around this incident of Dalit atrocity in Paroo did not go far in Bihar. Why?

Morphology of the Issue
Atrocities against the Dalits could not be articulated to polarise the community and mobilise it into a Dalit versus Savarna Hindu affair. It remained merely a Paswan versus Bhumihar confrontation. In Bihar, unlike many other parts of the country, Dalits remain a highly differentiated group, which is, therefore, not a consolidated socio-political constituency. There remains a chronic resentment against the Paswan (Dusadh) hegemony on the part of non-Paswan Dalits. Dusadhs were first among the “untouchables” to have formed their caste association in 1891, asking for Kshatriya status.

Out of 23 Dalit communities, 22 are now categorised as Mahadalits. Even within the Mahadalits, four communities—Ravidas, Pasi, Dhobi and Musahar—are perceived as dominating the remaining 18 Mahadalit castes. The differentiation between Mahadalits and Paswans, and the intra-Mahadalit dichotomy between groups having an upper hand therein and rest of the Mahadalits is a scenario making Dalit unification, a fond hope, difficult to realise. (Arguably, an almost comparable situation obtains within the larger genus of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), where out of 131 groups, 32 communities are most backward [ati pichhrha]; which partly explains why Nitish Kumar remains shaky about his political base vis-à-vis his domineering ally, Lalu Prasad Yadav.)

Somewhat analogically, Muzaffarpur is also known for the long-standing political rivalry between the two upper castes, the Bhumihars and Rajputs. This has been the case since the 1920s, and has been articulated in Babu Janakdhari Prasad’s Hindi memoir, Kuchh Apni, Kuchh Desh Ki (1970). Prasad was a noted freedom fighter from Muzaffarpur. This rivalry hots up during elections, coming to the fore at all times except when the polarisation is along the backward–forward axis or there is a religious binary of the Hindu–Muslim divide.

Another explanation could be the absence of a numerically visible Dalit middle class that could provide the raison d’être for intra-Dalit cross-caste issues and provide intellectual, strategic and logistic sustenance to Dalit agitations. Though Dalits constitute only about 15% of the total population of Bihar, they form 34% of the land labourers. As many as 70% of the Dalits live below the poverty line (BPL); only 5%–8% of Dalits have toilets and electricity connections in their houses.

Though Dalits constitute only about 15% of the total population of Bihar, they form 34% of the land labourers. As many as 70% of the Dalits live below the poverty line (BPL); only 5%–8% of Dalits have toilets and electricity connections in their houses.

In short, socially and economically they have a long way to go before the community can rise above the imperatives of the here and now and assert as a conglomeration against the dominant Savarnas, many of whose pelf and privileges are at the cost of Dalits as a whole.

In Muzaffarpur, out of 11 assembly seats, two (Bochahan and Sakra) are reserved for the Dalits. Both these seats are in eastern Muzaffarpur, whereas Paroo is in western Muzaffarpur. In the 2015 assembly elections, an adjacent assembly seat, Kanti (unreserved), was won by Ashok Choudhry, an independent Dalit candidate, replacing the incumbent Bhumihar, Ajit Singh. Kanti is regarded as a Bhumihar stronghold, though Pasmanda Muslims have also represented this constituency at least twice (in 1995 and in 2000). The Paroo assembly seat, adjacent to Kanti, is also regarded as being under the sway of Rajputs and Bhumihars. Generally, only these two castes have been elected from the Paroo assembly. Only once was a Dalit elected from here, when the seat was a reserved one. Hence, the wresting of the Kanti (unreserved) seat in 2015 by a Dalit was a big blow to the Bhumihars. Some of the local political observers have opined that this was an indirect factor behind the Bhumihar–Dalit conflict in Paroo.

The incumbent member of the legislative assembly of Paroo (since 2010) is a Rajput from the BJP. During 1995–2005, a Yadav represented it. Paroo is also becoming a centre of Maoist activities where Mallahs (an ati pichhrha OBC segment; fisherfolk) have considerable presence. Of late, however, a good number of Mallahs are supposed to have joined the Bajrang Dal too.1

History of Harijan/Dalit Politics
Prasanna Kumar Chaudhry and Shrikant have studied the history of Dalits comprehensively and published a book titled Swarg Par Dhawa: Bihar Mein Dalit Andolan (2005).In January 1922, Ganesh Dutt Singh (1868–1943), a Bhumihar leader, had argued for the untouchables’ representation in the councils and in local bodies. He remained the minister for local self-government during 1921–43. The point was conceded due to a variety of factors, including the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements, Gandhi’s exertions, and the “colonial knowledge” derived from burgeoning self-assertion movements in the Bombay and Madras presidencies. A Bhumihar landlord–leader, C P N Singh from the Sursand Estate2 was nominated for the untouchable seat. The untouchables being represented by the upper castes was not an isolated phenomenon as far as Bihar was concerned. Jagat Narain Lal (1896–1966) raised this issue (in the legislative council) of nominating Europeans and upper castes from the untouchable quota.

In 1932, a Harijan Sevak Sangh was set up in Muzaffarpur with three major objectives: eradication of untouchability, temple entry, and access to water wells. This was largely a pro-Congress body, which also opened three schools for Harijans in the district. In 1938, the organisation canvassed for recruitment in the constabulary of Bihar police. Nathuni Bhagat had worked towards mobilising his Ravidas community, and in April 1939, he had presided over the session of the Ravidas Sabha in Patna. As a token of remembrance, a government high school was named after him in Muzaffarpur.

Dalit Movements in Colonial Bihar
It is not that the Harijans had absolutely no participation in the freedom movement. In the Quit India Movement (1942), Jaigovind Paswan of Shitalpur was martyred at the Bidupur Bazar of Muzaffarpur (now Vaishali). Another Harijan, Budhan, also sacrificed his life for the movement. The impression that Bihar did not see any Dalit movement in colonial India has been contested by Chaudhry and Shrikant (111: 2005). They say that the struggle against untouchability and for access to water tanks/wells started almost simultaneously with such movements in western and southern India.

In Bihar, however, these movements remained pro-Gandhi. In 1923, the Arya Samaj had its annual session in Muzaffarpur. On 25–27 May 1927, their session was held at Mahua Bazar (now in Vaishali), where the Doms had raised the issue of access to water wells, and from there they took a procession to use many water wells in the surrounding areas.4 The proposal of the Temple Entry Bill of 1933 was met with fierce opposition in Bihar. Mahant Darshan Das, of the Maniyari Estate of Muzaffarpur, had particularly opposed the proposed bill by saying that such legislation will create chaos. Subsequently, another meeting of the Varnashram Swaraj Sangh was held at Pakri, a village in Muzaffarpur, to oppose the proposed bill (Choudhry and Shrikant 2005: 141–42).

Stephen Henningham points out that in 1936, a significant movement of the community of Musahars had also emerged in Tirhut (which included Muzaffarpur). It is worthwhile to recall this story of mobilisation (Henningham 1981: 1153–56).

Having organised several “social uplift” meetings, in late May [1936] their leader, Santdas Bhagat, mounted a large demonstration against a Muzaffarpur sugar factory. Unfortunately little is yet known about the background of Santdas Bhagat [alias Dadaji]. A few weeks later he drew several thousand Musahars to a meeting at Dalsingsarai in Darbhanga at which complaints were levelled against Ramasre Prasad Chaudhuri, MLC, a leading local zamindar, and against [the manager] of the Harsingpur [near Dalsinghsarai, Samastipur] sugar factory. (Henningham 1981: 1153)

According to an official report, the Musahars, subsequently, held a demonstration at the sugar factory, sent a letter of protest to Chaudhuri, and assembled in large numbers near Chaudhuri’s residence, armed with lathis. Chaudhuri gathered a large body of men and a clash seemed imminent when armed police arrived, arrested the Musahar leaders, and dispersed the crowd with a lathi charge. Later, the police charged the Musahar leaders and 30 of their followers with riotous behaviour. In the ensuing weeks, one of the Musahars held two large meetings, in which the police intervened and arrested a leading Musahar spokesman. Probably as a result of this repression, Musahar activity subsided for some months. In September 1937, Musahars demonstrated outside the Sitamarhi court when some of their caste-fellows who were undertrial prisoners were being considered for bail. Meanwhile, violence ensued and the Musahars were beaten up severely by the police. The protesters dispersed. After the Sitamarhi court incident, the Musahar protest subsided, except for a brief revival in June 1938.

Nonetheless, by and large, the Bihar Harijans remained mostly with the Congress. Their prominent leaders were Jaglal Chaudhary (1895–1975) and Jagjivan Ram (1908–86). However, in the 1946 elections in Bihar, four out of 15 Harijan members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) were from the Hindu Mahasabha. A reminder to the advocates of Dalit–Muslim unity!

There is no firm evidence that the Bihar Congress showed any interest in the Musahar campaign, though there is an allegation that at first, “certain Congress agents” were responsible for encouraging Santdas Bhagat to protest. And, it should be noted that the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha—a Congress socialist-dominated organisation, conventionally regarded as being on the “left” of the mainstream Congress—kept a careful distance from the poor peasantry. Thus, although it claimed to represent “all who live for cultivation,” the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha took little interest in the plight of landless labourers, except to assure them that there was no need for them to organise separately. Notably, Santdas Bhagat’s wife Sati (of the village Pota in Belsand, Sitamarhi) was a brave companion in his agitations.

Militant Dalit Politics
Nonetheless, by and large, the Bihar Harijans remained mostly with the Congress. Their prominent leaders were Jaglal Chaudhary (1895–1975) and Jagjivan Ram (1908–86). However, in the 1946 elections in Bihar, four out of 15 Harijan members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) were from the Hindu Mahasabha. A reminder to the advocates of Dalit–Muslim unity!

In the late-colonial period, the socialists, and in the post-independence period, the “mainstream” Dalit politics in Bihar had ignored agrarian issues. When the Khet Mazdoor Sangh was set up in August 1937 at the Hindu Sabha Maidan of Patna, comrade Manzar Rizvi had opposed Jagjivan Ram’s presidential candidature for the body, and the socialist writer and activist, Rambriksha Benipuri (1899–1968) went on to speak against the need of any such organisation.

The Bihar Harijans were alienated from the ruling Congress in a significant way. Mushahri (in Muzaffarpur) was the first to come in touch with Naxalism during 1968–70, and the counter-elitist who organised them along these lines was a Bhumihar, Raj Kishor Singh (Sajjad 2014b: 158–63). This was around the time when in southern and western parts of India, a militant Dalit politics was emerging under the intellectual and political leadership of the Dalit Panthers (1972).

Subsequently, some of the Dalit massacres, mostly in the Magadh area of Bihar, committed by the private armies of the landlords, rescripted the history of Dalit politics after the 1970s and 1980s.5 The Bihar Harijans discovered Ambedkar only in the 1980s. However, even in the 1980s, a veteran commentator on Dalit politics, Gail Omvedt (in her book, Dalit Vision, 1995), said that V P Singh and his political lieutenant Ramvilas Paswan, “fairly smothered the presence of independent Dalit leaders and movements,” whereas in the 1990s, the bulk of the Dalits remained with the OBC politics led by Lalu Prasad Yadav. In the Lalu–Rabri era, the Bochahan MLA, Ramai Ram and the Sakra MLAs were counted as Dalit leaders. Yadav kept changing the candidates who were to be fielded from Sakra in every election. They were handpicked by Yadav, mostly from among the Dalit teachers of the Lohia College in Muzaffarpur.

Conclusions
Thus, these leaders who were imposed upon the Dalits from above could never create their own mass base. These politicians had serious limitations and they expectedly failed to build up a consolidated, assertive Dalit movement. Shyam Rajak of the Lalu–Rabri era emerged as an articulate and sharp leader. Later, he switched over to join with Nitish Kumar. Yadav is believed to have been so annoyed with Rajak that with the Yadav–Nitish Kumar alliance, Yadav put his foot down to keep Rajak at bay. Rajak seems to have been consigned to political oblivion.

In recent times, Ratanlal, a history teacher in a college under the Delhi University, has been trying to organise Dalit politics in Muzaffarpur–Vaishali. But, he too is associated essentially with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Dalit Sewa Sansthan, has also been functioning in Muzaffarpur since 1994, apart from some other NGOs working exclusively for the Musahar community in Bihar. Even though Jitan Manjhi, a member of the Musahar community recently served as the chief minister of Bihar, the Musahars’ roles and impact remain far from satisfactory in uplifting the Dalits.6 Earlier too, on occasions, shortlived chief ministers were chosen from Dalit communities, namely, Bhola Paswan Shastri and Ram Sundar Das.

Ramvilas Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan seems to have lost even before emerging as a leader. He seems unable to connect himself with the popular Dalit base in Bihar. Rather, he is being dismissed by his own core constituency as an arrogant leader, born with a silver spoon. The LJP, just like most regional parties, is busy perpetuating dynasty more than pursuing a meaningful politics in any significant way.

Even in Gaya district, where 30% of the population is Dalit, an organised and assertive Dalit politics is absent. In these regions, the only significant Dalit politics is in the history of the radical left parties since the 1970s.

In short, an economically backward Bihar has to still wait for the emergence of a definite proportion of the middle class among the Dalits, which is a sine qua non for the emergence of a group of intelligentsia, a set of leadership, and a support-base to launch and sustain a popular movement of Dalits. It is small wonder then that the Paroo incident in north Bihar failed to become the Una of Gujarat.
 
(The author (sajjad.history@gmail.com) is with the Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh; this piece appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly and is being reproduced here with the permission of the author )

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sabrangindia.
 

Notes
1 This aspect is elaborated upon in my forthcoming essay on the Lalganj (Vaishali) riots.
2 Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council, Questions and Answers, 1 September 1927, pp 354–55, 2 September 1927, pp 393–99; Cf Chaudhry and Shrikant (2005), pp 200–02. This has to be rechecked from the primary evidence, for whether the Bihar and Orissa Local Self-government Act 1885 had really made any amendment to make a space for the untouchables in 1927.
3 He was the general secretary of both the Bihar Hindu Sabha and the All India Hindu Mahasabha in 1926; he also became a minister in the Shri Krishna Sinha’s cabinet in 1957. For more details about him, see Sajjad (2014a).
4 Bihar and Orissa Police Abstract, 119/27. Another such incident is described in the periodical, Desh, 30 June 1927, edited by Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India.
5 One of the significant studies is Das 1983; also see Frankel 1989, pp 046–132.
6 For details of the Musahar life, see Mukul (1999).

References
Chaudhry, Prasanna Kumar and Shrikant (2005): Swarg Par Dhawa: Bihar Mein Dalit Andolan, New Delhi: Vaani.
Das, Arvind (1983): Agrarian Unrest and Socio-economic Change in Bihar, 1900–1980, New Delhi: Manohar.
Frankel, Francine (1989): “Caste, Land and Dominance in Bihar: Breakdown of the Brahmanical Social Order,” Dominance and State Power in Modern India: Decline of a Social Order, Francine Frankel and M S A Rao (eds), Vol 1, New Delhi: OUP.
Henningham, Stephen (1981): “Autonomy and Organisation: Harijan and Adivasi Protest Movements,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 16, No 27, pp 1153–56.
Mukul (1999): “The Untouchable Present: Everyday Life of Musahars in North Bihar,” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 34, No 49.
Sajjad, Mohammad (2014a): Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours, New Delhi: Routledge.
— (2014b): Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857, New Delhi: Primus.

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न्यायाधीश एजे देसाई ने शांतिभाई मनपारा, नितिन कोठारी, उना के निलंबित पुलिस निरीक्षक निर्मलसिंह जाला और उपनिरीक्षक नरेंद्र देव पांडेय को जमानत दी। मनपारा सनातन गौ सेवा ट्रस्ट के न्यासी हैं और कोठारी ट्रस्ट से जुड़े हैं और उन्हेांने दलितों की से पिटाई की थी।
 
दलीलों के दौरान मनपारा और कोठारी के वकील विराट पोपट ने दलील दी कि दोनों को जमानत दी जानी चाहिए। इस मामले में जांच पूरी हो चुकी है और आरोपपत्र सितंबर में दायर किया गया था।
 
राज्य सरकार ने चारों आरोपियों की जमानत याचिका का विरोध किया और कहा कि उनके द्वारा किए गए अपराध गंभीर प्रकृति के हैं। गुजरात सरकार ने यह भी दलील दी कि अगर आरोपियों को जमानत दी गई तो वे पीडि़तों को धमका सकते हैं।
 
गौरतलब है कि उना में चार दलित युवकों ने गोरक्षा के नाम पर बेरहमी से पीटा था। इतना ही नहीं इन्हें थाने के सामने भी पीटा गया। इस मुद्दे को मायावती द्वारा राज्यसभा में उठाया गया था। इस घटना ने गुजरात सहित देशभर में दलित आंदोलन का दौर शुरू किया।

Courtesy: National Dastak

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A Dalit family, including a pregnant woman, was assaulted in Banaskantha district’s Amirgadh on Saturday for refusing to remove the carcass of a cow. Six persons have been arrested for the alleged assault.

The accused belonged to the dominant upper caste community in Mota Karja village. Banaskantha SP Niraj Badgujar, who visited the village, told the Indian Express that the victims have been admitted to the civil hospital and provided police protection.

According to reports, the accused asked the family to take away the carcass on Friday night, but the victims said they would dispose it the next morning.

Following the refusal, the accused entered the house of the Dalits and assaulted them. The pregnant woman was hit on the abdomen.

Describing the incident, the FIR stated that “the accused… entered the home (of the victims) and while asking why they were not disposing of the dead cow, uttered casteist remarks, beat them with wooden sticks and assaulted them physically while threatening to kill them”.

“We lodged the FIR immediately after the victims approached police and arrested the six accused. We have booked the accused under section 315 of the Indian Penal Code (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive) along with other sections and under the Atrocity Act,” said SP Badgujar.

The FIR identified the accused as Natvarsinh Chauhan, Maknusinh Chauhan, Narendrasinh Chauhan, Yogisinh Chauhan, Babarsinh Chauhan and Dilgarsinh Chauhan.
 

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A major plank of young Jignesh Mevani, widely projected as the new Dalit icon of Gujarat, is that the state government should provide five acres of land to each Dalit family, and it should part of the solution to rehabilitate those doing the despicable job of manually scavenging of dead cattle. The view apparently stems from the understanding that agriculture is a respectable profession, and can certainly provide a good livelihood option. Mevani has threatened, in case five acres land is not offered by September 15, he would launch a “rail roko” agitation.

Trained as a lawyer under late Mukul Sinha, a well-known Gujarat High Court advocate who shot into prominence for his tough counter-questions to those who appeared before the Nanavati-Shah Commission of inquiry into Gujarat riots, Mevani’s “passion” for land is not new. It existed five years ago, too, when I first met him in the Times of India office in Gandhinagar. He had told me how most of the land, which had been rendered surplus under the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, 1960, hadn’t been “handed over” to the Dalits.

A couple of months back, talking in the same strain, Mevani, a hardcore city dweller, told me on the sidelines of a land rights meet, that a Gujarat government affidavit before the High Court had claimed, it wasn’t “physically possible” for the state revenue department officials to survey the land that hadn’t been handed over to the Dalits. “I would like to meet the state revenue secretary in Gandhinagar to find out why is the state government so indifferent”, he seemed to plead.

I don’t know if he could meet the top official, but, clearly, he wasn’t speaking in the air. I knew: Based on a information (RTI) plea, he had found out last year how there was an “extremely tardy” progress in the allocation of surplus land to the landless. Records with him showed the Gujarat government, in all, had “acquired” 1,63,808 acres of land. Of this, he estimated, quoting official sources, nearly 70,000 acres was “under dispute” with the revenue tribunal or in courts, yet there were 15,519 acres on which “there is no dispute”; yet this land hasn’t been handed over to the landless.

Be that as it may, a major question that has for long puzzled me is, how could land become a panacea  for Dalits’ and other other marginalized communities’ ills? Wasn’t there much truth in Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya’s view that the share of agriculture in the GDP is just about 15 per cent, while half of the workforce is dependent on it? This contradiction, he believes, is a major reason why the rural people are poorer than the other half, employed in industry and services. And this, he thinks, is the main reason why, in the longer run, “the potential of agriculture to bring prosperity to a vast population remains limited.”

I approached Prof Ghanshyam Shah, a well-known social scientist, who has been studying the marginalized communities of Gujarat for several decades, to know if land could be a solution of the Dalit problem. Pointing towards the demographic shift of Dalits in Gujarat, Prof Shah told me, “The urge for land is mainly Dalits in rural areas mainly of the Saurashtra region, and not entire Gujarat”, he told me, adding, “Nearly all of them are either landless workers or marginal farmers.”

Elucidating, he said, “I was looking at the data. They suggest that the proportion of Dalits living in rural areas in Saurashtra remains high compared to the state average. However, it just the opposite in the rest of Gujarat. In fact, a a higher than the overall proportion of Dalits lives urban areas of the rest of Gujarat.”

“The urban Dalits face a different set of problems than rural Dalits. Even the proportion of atrocities on Dalits is pretty high in the Saurashtra region and other rural areas”, he said, adding, “A peep into the data of atrocities against Dalits showed this quite clearly.” Indeed,  the districts and areas which have been declared “sensitive” from the Dalit atrocities angle are mainly rural – Ahmedabad (Rural), Vadodara (Rural), Rajkot (rural),and  nearly most of the Saurashtra region and Kutch.

Interestingly, it is not just the agitators who view agriculture and allied sectors are the panacea for the marginalized communities. The view is equally strong among traditional economists. They do agree, for instance, that agriculture contributes less than 20 per cent of the Gujarat economy, down from 50 per cent during 1970s; yet they insist that agriculture is the “backbone of the economy” because  because more than half of the working population is dependent on agricultural activities for their livelihood! Hence the “solution”: Priority should be given to agriculture in order to reduce poverty and malnutrition and for inclusive growth.

This is just contrary to what the available surveys suggest. One of them is by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, which finds that, given an employment opportunity, 61 per cent of India’s farmers would like to “shift” to cities, with 50 per cent of farmers said they are “ready to quit farming” if such a possibility arises.

Conducted in 2013-14 in 274 villages spread over 137 districts of 18 Indian states, including Gujarat, and based on interview with 8,220 individuals, 20 per cent of whom are Dalits, the survey report says, “When farmers were asked whether they want their children to settle in the city, as many as 60 per cent said they want their children to settle in the city. Another 14 per cent do not want their children to settle in the city, whereas 19 per cent said they will prefer their children’s choice on this matter.”

Pointing out that better education was cited as a major reason why farmers want their children to settle in cities, followed by better facilities, and employment opportunities, the study says,  “When asked whether they would like to see their children engaging in farming, only 18 per cent responded positively, 36 per cent said they do not want their children to continue farming as their occupation, and 37 per cent said they will prefer their children’s choice.”

The study underlines, “The sentiment that their children should not continue farming is strongest among landless and small farmers (39 per cent) and weakest among large farmers (28 per cent)” — a big proportion of whom are Dalits. The study adds, in a separate interview with youths from farmer households, “60 per cent said that they would prefer to do some other jobs, whereas only 20 per cent said they would continue farming.”

Ironically, it is no other than BR Ambedkar – in whose name most Dalit leaders (including Mevani) are never tired of swearing for any and every issue – who exhorted Dalits to flee villages and move to cities in order to escape caste shackle. Ambedkar wrote,  “What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism?”

Intelligent Dalit intellectuals are found to have taken a cue from Ambedkar on the land issue. They say, land cannot be the panacea for Dalits’ fight against “oppression”. Senior Dalit intellectual Ratan Lal of the Delhi University, says land can at best be only be a “small part in the overall fight”, insisting, the main focus should be right to equal participation in public life, government and private sector. He says, Ambedkar termed villages “feudal bastions.”

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Image credit:  Aarefa Johari
 

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राजधर्म निभाइए नरेंद्र मोदी जी।

आप चाहे लाख कहें, कोई आपको गोली नहीं मार रहा है, सब गुंडे आपके दलित बहनों भाइयों पर ही हमला कर रहे हैं।

ऊना से कई गुना!

7.1% आबादी के साथ गुजरात के अनुसूचित जाति के बहादुर लोगों ने अपनी एकता से पूरे देश को हिला दिया, प्रधानमंत्री को रुला दिया और मुख्यमंत्री को कुर्सी से हटा दिया. तीन दिन तक संसद जाम रही. कांग्रेस और आम आदमी पार्टी इनकी एकता को तोड़ न सकी. पूरे आंदोलन में इनका झंडा – बैनर नहीं लग पाया.

अब कुछ अन्य राज्यों की SC आबादी का आंकड़ा देखिए. उन्हें तो राज करना चाहिए. यूपी के अलावा बाकी जगह SC ने यह सपना देखा ही नहीं है. नंबर देखिए –

पंजाब 28.9%, हिमाचल प्रदेश 24.7%, पश्चिम बंगाल 23%, यूपी 21%, हरियाणा 19.3%, तमिलनाडु 19%, उत्तराखंड 17.9%, राजस्थान 17.2%, दिल्ली 16.9%, कर्नाटक और आंध्र प्रदेश 16.2%, बिहार 15.7%, महाराष्ट्र 10.2%…..सभी आंकड़े जनगणना से.

सपनों की साइज बड़ी कीजिए.

अपनी स्वतंत्र ताकत का इजहार कीजिए.

अपना दम पैदा कीजिए और फिर औरों से रणनीतिक समझौते कीजिए.

पीछे चलने से परहेज कीजिए.
 

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