In Pictures

Gallery|Human Rights

India’s Dalits demand freedom from caste discrimination

Massive protests in Gujarat state after cow vigilantes assault members of Dalit community for skinning a dead bovine.

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The rally passes through Thimdi village. Most reactions to the protest have been peaceful. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
By Javed Iqbal
Published On 16 Aug 2016

Una, Gujarat – Thousands of people belonging to the Dalit community, the former untouchables, have staged a massive protest in India’s Gujarat state in response to atrocities against the community.

The 10-day “Dalit Pride March” culminated in Una town in southern Gujarat on August 15 – India’s Independence Day – as Dalits pledged to seek “freedom from atrocities and caste-based discrimination”.

The latest development started as a reaction to an incident last month in Una when members of a Dalit family were publicly assaulted and humiliated by members of a Cow Protection Committee for skinning a dead cattle.

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A group of mostly young people and civil society members formed the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti [Una Dalit committee to fight atrocities] demanding an end to the practice and the right to at least five acres of land, as most Dalits are landless.

Amid the chanting of Jai Bheem – a form of greeting popular among India’s Dalits – people vowed not to dispose of dead cattle – a task that has been traditionally carried out by the lower caste people for centuries.

Members from the Muslim community – which has borne the brunt of the cow vigilantes – also joined Dalits in the 400km-long march that started in the state capital, Ahmedabad.

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Jignesh Mevani, a lawyer and a former journalist, has emerged as the face of uprising due to his fiery speeches and organisational skills. The core of the movement is largely led by young men, from students to ex-factory workers, almost all part of a new Dalit self-consciousness. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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Across Gujarat, Dalits have been abandoning truckloads of dead cattle in front of government offices in protest. The government would often find it hard to even find drivers to take the carcasses away, let alone pick them up. The countryside is littered with rotting carcasses as Dalits have abandoned the practice of disposing of cattle. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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The people who attended the 10-day march included people like Deepak Parmar, who still suffers from a bullet injury he received in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom, and Manisha Mashaal, a Dalit woman activist. Many members from the far left from the northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar state, as well as Ambedkarites from Punjab, participated after driving as far as 1,600km. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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The most common slogans focused on Dalit assertion and identity, Dalit-Muslim unity, and freedom from casteism, capitalism, feudalism and patriarchy. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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The Republican Panthers, a group from Mumbai city, perform a day before the main protest. Days before the rallies, songs and performances, a cultural mainstay of the Dalit movement, were enacted. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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People like 51-year-old Kuchal Shreshti from Surendranagar district were part of the Yatra (march) from the beginning. He was also a witness to the 1981 and 1985 anti-Dalit riots in Gujarat, when upper-caste members deliberately targeted Dalits over positive discrimination efforts of the state. 'With police firings they finished the movement,' he told Al Jazeera. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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The day before the rally, villagers from Samter, mostly from the dominant Darbar caste whose members were arrested for the Dalit assault, staged a roadblock against the march. Some journalists were also reportedly attacked. The same night, a convoy of villagers from Botidar going to the rally came under attack. Jai Singh Rathod was injured in the violence. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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The same night they also attacked the villagers from Thangadh, from where five people, mostly senior citizens, were injured. In 2012, three Dalit boys were killed in police firing in Thangadh. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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India's national flag was unfurled by Radhika Vemula, mother of a Dalit student, Rohit Vemula, who committed suicide earlier this year. In her speech she advocated education among the Dalits. 'I came here because I don't want what happened to my son, to happen to any of your children,' she said. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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Jignesh Mevani gave a rousing speech. He gave the government a 30-day deadline to fulfill their demands, after which they will conduct a Rail Roko (Stop Rail campaign). [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]
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Mevani fiery speech ended with a pledge by the crowd to never pick up dead cattle again. [Javed Iqbal/Al Jazeera]