Pune, Jan 1 (PTI) The event to mark the 200th anniversaryof the Bhima Koregaon battle in Pune district, in which theBritish Army comprising dalits had defeated upper-castePeshwas, was marred by incidents of stone pelting andvandalism today.
The incident occurred in Bhima Koregaon in afternoonwhen people were heading towards a war memorial in thevillage, police said.
The violence erupted after a group and some members ofthe crowd on its way to visit the memorial had an argumentover some issue.
"Stone pelting started after the argument. During theviolence, vehicles and a house in the vicinity was damaged," apolice officer deployed for bandobast at Bhima Koregaon saidwithout elaborating.
He said the police blocked the vehicular traffic onPune-Ahmbednagar highway for sometime following the incident.
The traffic was finally resumed in evening.
The situation in the village is under control now.
"More police personnel, including companies of theSRPF, have been deployed to avoid any untoward incident," theofficer said.
He said mobile phone networks were blocked for sometime to stop the circulation of inflammatory messages.
The Battle of Bhima Koregaon was fought on January 1,1818.
The British army, which had a large contingent ofdalit Mahars, had defeated the Peshwas.
Some Dalit leaders and thinkers view it as a victoryof oppressed classes over the upper-caste establishment ofthose times.
A Peshwa was the equivalent of a modern Prime Ministerin the Maratha Empire. Originally, the Peshwas served assubordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king), but later,they became the de facto leaders of the Marathas.
Earlier in the day, dalit leader and Independent MLAfrom Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani visited the memorial in BhimaKoregaon.
Yesterday, he attended "Elgaar parishad" in Pune tocommemorate the 'victory battle'.
Police have appealed to people to maintain calm andnot to believe in rumours.
Section 144 of CrPc was already imposed in the area.
PTI SPKNSK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.