Skip to main content

Gujarat Dalit flogging victim receives death threat, as protesters reach Una town for rally amidst stone pelting

Sarvaiya (right)
Amidst news coming in that the Dalit Asmita Yatra has reached Una on August 14 evening through “an alternative route” because people from some of the nearby villages pelted stones on those reaching the town for an Independence Day rally, the family of Balubhai Sarvaiya has received a fresh threat that he would not be spared for “killing” a cow.
Four youths of the Dalit community's Rohit (chamar) caste, belonging to the Sarvaiya family and from Mota Samadhiyala village, were flogged after tying them with an SUV on July 11 for skinning a dead cow. The event, which went viral on social media, has triggered a major outrage in Gujarat, with radical sections of Dalits holding the Asmita Yara from Ahmedabad to Una.
The letter to Sarvaiya said that he and his family would be “burnt alive” because they were not involved in skinning a dead cattle, but had killed a living cow. “You are into the business of selling beef, which we cannot tolerate at any cost”, the hand-written letter, sent to his address of Harijan Vas (Dalit locality) in Mota Samadhiyala said.
The threatening letter which Sarvaiya received
“You should have understood as to why you were beaten up and put inside the jail”, the letter tells Sarvaiya, adding, “Yet it seems that your eyes have not opened. Time has come to break apart your legs and hands... You have been kept alive because you need to be taught a lesson.”
Called “march for freedom”, according to sources, villagers from certain villages continued to stone the Dalits who were in the buses going to Una. This continued for 45 minutes. The stone throwing was alleged to have been undertaken by those belonging to dominant castes.
One such village is Santej. It is the same village where multiple accused of the Una incident reside, said Pratik Sinha, one of the rally organizers. Rahul Sharma, former IPS official who gave the idea of the 350 km long yatra, which began in Ahmedabad, advised people not to come on the route passing through Santej, as it was blocked by dominant castee people.
Around 500-600 people pelted stones about 12 kilometres from Una”, added Mujahit Nafees, an Ahmedabad-based social activist who was on his way to Una to participate in the rally. “Even children and women were part of those who were seeking to throw stones. Those pelting stones were shouting “Gay Mata Ki Jai” (hail the mother cow) slogans. When we tried to take photographs, we were threatened”, Nafees added.
A Dalit protester injured during stone pelting
Well-known Delhi-based social activist Shabnam Hashmi, who is in direct touch with Dalit activists reaching Una, has warned ahead of the rally, which is also termed as Azadi Kooch or March for Freedom, that “the situation is not good.”
Quoting Rama Naga, general secretary, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), who was on way to Una, she said in a social media post, she says, “The people who do not want this march to happen are attacking media persons and other citizens who are going in solidarity. All the buses staffs both private and government are instructed not to carry any passenger who are from other belts (by language) and going to Una.”
Naga is quoted as saying, “We were refused by many buses to get on for Una. The last bus to Una (which did not tell us that it is going to Una even after we asked the conductor, but we got to know from other passengers) just arrived, and when we took the bus, the conductor informed some other officers that five people are going to Una.”
“We request everyone to inform other friends to take cautious, who are on their way to Una”, Naga said. Meanwhile, attack on the Dalits refusing to lift dead cows continued unabated across Gujarat. Raju Solanki, a senior activist from Ahmedabad, reported that in Mopal village near Okha town in Jamnagar district, Dalits were beaten up for refusing to scavenge cattle.

Comments

TRENDING

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.