Thangarh police firing: Gujarat Dalit families want govt to file FIR against cops responsible for death of 3 youths

Thangarh family members with Manjula Pradeep

By A Representative
In first of a series of shows of strength following the success of the August 15 Una rally, called to protest against flogging of four Dalit youths on July 11, the Gujarat Scheduled Caste Anti-Atrocities Struggle Committee on Sunday held a well-attended rally in Gadhinagar in order to highlight the plight of the three Dalit families who had lost their sons in police firing in Thangarh four years ago.
Held against the backdrop of the families sitting on dharna in Gandhinagar for about a fortnight demanding to reopen the case, closed recently by the Gujarat crime branch, a strong demand was put forward to file a first information report (FIR) against the cops who had fired on the three youths on September 22-13, 2012.
Finding that the rally might embarrass the Gujarat government ahead of a two-day session of the Gujarat state assembly, starting on Monday, senior Dalit rights activists taking up the cause of the Dalit families were called for a compromise late on Friday evening.
Soon after the meeting with Gujarat ministers, the state government declared setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) and a special court to probe the incident, which has become a symbol of Dalit atrocities in Gujarat for the last four years. It also declared appointment of a special special public prosecutor to ensure early completion of the probe.
The SIT will include Rajkot police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat deputy commissioner of police (zone-2) Parikshita Rathiod, and Porbandar district police chief Tarun Kumar Duggal. The rally saw a section declaring it as a victory for their struggle. However, others seemed reluctant to reach to the conclusion.

Addressing the gathering, members of the Dalit families said, they are “not satisfied” with the offer of SIT, pointing out, “Our main demand remains unanswered: To take prompt action against the cops responsible for the firing incident, in which three Dalit youths died.” They said, they wanted a
CBI inquiry, and not SIT, adding, they were "taken for a ride."
Addressed by Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust founder Martin Macwan and executive director Manjula Pradeep, among others, a list of 16 demands were put forward at the gathering, which included holding mass hearing in each village on atrocities against Dalits and other marginalized groups, and disbanding the village level social justice committees, whose main job is not to look into caste discrimination but to look after cleanliness.
Also, there was a demand to look into the problems of the Dalits of tens of villages who have been forced to migrate and live in nearby towns because of attacks from dominant castes. Nothing has been done to rehabilitate them, the speakers at the rally pointed out. Activists wanted the two-day Gujarat state assembly to discuss these issues theadbare.
Activists wanted the state government should reveal the findings of senior IAS bureaucrat Sanjay Prasad, who looked into the Thangarh firing. The inquiry report was submitted to the then Narendra Modi government on May 1, 2013, but has not been made public, allegedly because it contains names of some senior police officials, who had ordered to fire on the Dalits.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Search This Blog