Three killed in caste protests
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Mumbai, 1 Dec. (AKI/Asian Age) - Three people were killed, two of them in police firing in India's Maharashtra state, and a curfew has been imposed in four areas across the state after protests by low-caste Hindus. Violent mobs went on the rampage, protesting against the desecration of a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a low-caste hero, in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Ambedkar, the chief architect of India's constitution, came from Maharashtra in the west of India. A low caste Hindu, or Dalit, he later converted to Buddhism. Dalits account for nearly 13 percent of Maharashtra's population.
Mumbai bore the brunt of the anger of the low-caste Hindus or Dalits stoned buses on the highway and roamed the streets, moving southwards from the eastern and western suburbs to the central part of Mumbai city, asking shops to shut down and stopping trains in some areas.
The mobs did not spare the stately train Deccan Queen, which was coming in from Pune. Near Ulhasnagar they torched five carriages of the train. Eyewitnesses said they asked the people to get off the train before setting it on fire.
Many Dalit leaders were shocked at the intensity of the violence. Namdeo Dhasal, a well-known poet who in the 1970s led the Dalit Panthers Party, said "the Dalits are justified in protesting against the desecration of Dr Ambedkar's statue, but burning of trains is not what Dr Ambedkar had stood for in fighting caste prejudices. It has gone beyond limits."
The violence also comes after four members of a Dalit family were killed a few months ago. Explaining why dalits reacted to the beheading of the statue of Dr Ambedkar, Mr Anandraj Ambedkar, grandson of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, said, "Following the killing of the Bodmange family in Bhandara district, a young Dalit was allegedly chopped to pieces in Beed district by a Dandavate family over a land dispute. This was followed by the burning of 20 huts of Dalits in Tulzapur, in Pandharpur district near Pune, during the recent municipal council elections. In none of the cases have the persons who committed the killings and the atrocities been punished," he said. "The five Dandavate brothers are free and so are the people who burnt the 20 huts of the Dalits in Tulzapur."
News agencies reported violent protests from Surat where a mob threw stones and damaged vehicles in Pandesara. "A mob of about 50 people took out a rally in the area to protest the statue desecration," Surat police commissioner Sudhir Sinha told the Press Trust of India.
In Mumbai, 76 people were arrested and more than 100 buses and 35 private vehicles were damaged during the protests, Mumbai police commissioner A.N. Roy said. He told reporters that Bhandup bore the brunt of the violence and the police resorted to tear gas to disperse protesters. The police also used canes in Trombay, Roy said. Thirteen policemen, including additional commissioner of police (east region) K.L. Bishnoi, were injured in the clashes.
A, Ambedkar said that Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and state home minister R.R. Patil had promised an inquiry into the killing of the Bodmange family but till date nothing has been finalised. He said the leader in the Beed district, Potbhare, had also taken out a procession asking for the arrest of the Dandavate brothers but nothing was done. The Dalits are angry, he said, and this anger has been building up.
Added to the atrocities against the Dalits is the large-scale unemployment among the dalits, said A. Ambedkar, adding, "Because of the reservation policy in education they are educated but they do not get jobs. This causes a lot of unrest and discontent among the youth.
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