Jaipur: As many as 15 Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi organizations jointly celebrated Independence Day in Jaipur and offered their support to the Ahmedabad-Una Dalit march.
Several social activists and academicians gathered at the city’s Baba Ambedkar Circle on August 15 to unfurl the national flag and raised slogans in solidarity with Una Dalit march.
The organizations assured police that the program was peaceful and in support of Ahmedabad-Una Dalit Yatra as well as against the atrocities by communal forces, twocirlces.net reported on August 18.
They shouted slogans such as “Victory to Dalit, Muslim, Adivasi unity forum,” “We are the people of this nation. We are not slaves,” “Stop atrocities on Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis in the name of cow protection.”
The Jaipur police allegedly forced the group to wind up their program. However, the activists managed to hoist the national flag and sing the National Anthem.
“We insisted to unfurl the flag. And we did it and sang the national anthem to the chagrin of police,” said Rashid Hussain, state president of the Welfare Party of India, one of the organizers.
He alleged that the police officials were uncomfortable with the placards depicting various demands for Dalits and Muslims and against cow vigilantism.
“The police was incensed by seeing placards by different organizations which spoke of their right for unity and communal peace, freedom from atrocities by communal forces and police,” he added.
In a press statement, the organizers unanimously condemned the act of police on the Independence Day restricting them from unfurling the Tricolor and demanded end to atrocities meted out against marginalized communities.
On the same day, thousands of people belonging to the Dalit community staged a massive protest in Gujarat state in response to atrocities against the community.
They were part of a 10-day “Dalit Pride March” that culminated in Una, a town in southern Gujarat, where 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.
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.
The marchers 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 400 km march that started in the state capital, Ahmedabad.
Across Gujarat, Dalits abandoned truckloads of dead cattle in front of government offices in protest. This led to countryside being littered with rotting carcasses.
Many members from the far left from the northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar state, as well as Ambedkarites from Punjab, joined the march driving as far as 1,600 km.
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.
The most common slogans focused on Dalit assertion and identity, Dalit-Muslim unity, and freedom from casteism, capitalism, feudalism and patriarchy.
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.
The same night they also attacked the villagers from Thangadh, from where five people, mostly senior citizens, were injured. In 2013, three Dalit boys were killed from police firing in Thangadh.