Incidents of violence against Dalits in Hyderabad, Una (Gujarat) and Saharanpur in the last 18 months seem to be giving rise to a new consciousness among over 20.4 crore Scheduled Caste population in the country.
Three incidents after the BJP came to power in New Delhi are resulting in never-seen-before Dalit assertion by the new emerging young educated leaders, who are not ready to take the violence lying down.
Violent clashes erupted in Saharanpur between the Thakurs and the Dalits on May 5 when the latter objected to a strident procession organised by the former to commemorate the birth anniversary of medieval Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap. Dalits stalled the procession.
Thakurs did not take the Dalits’ opposition kindly and went into rampage which led to the burning down of about 40 Dalit houses and shops. Atmosphere of confrontation had started building up ever since a BJP government was installed in the state on March 19, and Yogi Adityanath—a Thakur by birth—became the UP’s 21st Chief Minister.
About a month-long tension between two communities in the communally-sensitive district of Saharanpur was not merely a law and order problem. The state administration failed to analyse the real causes of the problem.Violence in Saharanpur is the latest manifestation of the politics followed by political parties for the last few decades in the country.
Atmosphere had begun to build for some time. In January 2016, protests by the Hyderabad Central University students in the wake of the suicide of Rohith Vemula, who had experienced caste-based discrimination and harassment, clearly highlighted the contradictions between words and action of the BJP government.
Similar message came out of Una where a group of cow vigilantes subjected Dalit youths to flogging over skinning of a dead cow. The incident threw up a young leader in Jignesh Mewani who mobilised thousands of Dalit undertaking a foot march.The role of the Bheem Army Bharat Ekta Mission, founded by a young lawyer named Chandrashekhar Azad, came to the forefront during the Saharanpur clashes as it protested against the caste-based violence and state administration’s apathy towards them.
Bheem Army has been working in areas of conflict resolution, spread of school education and other social action in western UP for the last two years. They command a large following by their swift interventions. They came to prominence in the national media when they organised a massive rally at Jantar Mantar in the union capital on May 21 to protest against the Saharanpur violence, where Azad turned up defying challenges.
Organisations such as Bheem Army are drawing their strengths from wide-spread discrimination in general, and the treatment and injustice meted out to Dalit research scholar Vemula in particular. Violence in Una was another factor.
Statement of Bheem Army founder—that “for elections we are Hindu and after that we are Dalits”—is a clear reminder of the BJP brand of politics attracting Dalit to the party fold in the name of Hinduatva.
At the same time, Dalits have also become victims of the cow ban politics that is the order of the day. They have been the integral part of the traditional agrarian economy where milching animals have traditionally played a determining role.
The rise of new set of leaders and their outfits is a serious challenge to established and conventional political parties. Had the new trend not been handled carefully and sensitively, the fragile social equations and delicate caste balance in society might have created civil war kind situation in the country.
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