Crime against Dalits

Not a single Dalit has been convicted in the Naroda-Patiya case, in which 93 Muslims were massacred. And in earlier judgments of Sardarpura, Ode and Dipada Darwaja, too, not a single Dalit was convicted and sentenced. All these judgments have exposed combined strategy of RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP to make Dalits scapegoat in 2002 genocide. After sprinkling blood of innocent, Mr. K K Shastri, president of Vishva Hindu Parishad in an interview with rediff.com intentionally appreciated role of Dalits in the riots. As if to substantiate Mr. Shastri’s claim, more than 700 Dalits were arrested in Ahmedabad city only. As the later events unfolded, none of them was involved in gruesome massacres. I gave detailed account of these arrests in my book ‘Blood Under saffron.’ (See the link: http://bloodundersaffron.blogspot.in/)

After 2002 a great debate was manufactured on the role of Dalits in anti-minority violence. Everybody was in search of a culprit, bali ka bakra (in Gujarati we say ‘holi nu nalier’) And they found poor Dalits who themselves were helpless victims of Hindu varn-vyavastha. It was really tragic that ‘Crime against humanity’, the monumental account of the genocide failed to draw a line between the perpetrators and the victims and wrongfully identified Dalits with upper caste-backward marauders. 

Crime against humanity (an inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat – findings and recommendations) writes, “Dalits and members of the de-notified tribes like Waghris and Chharas were active in the violence in urban areas, especially in the more gruesome instances of rape, killing and bestiality. The tragedy behind this pattern lies in the fact that influential and dominant sections of caste Hindu society have driven wedge among the oppressed sections, pitting Dalits, Waghris and Charas against the Muslim minority. In urban Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad, Dalits and Muslims live in close proximity. The lower castes were cynically trained to indulge in violence of a kind that dehumanizes the perpetrators themselves. The Tribunal has recorded evidences to show that, especially in the past two years, in Gujarat, the Bajrang Dal paid salaries of Rs. 3-5,000 to lure unemployed Dalit youths to camps where indoctrination against the Muslims were the main activities.” (Page 35, volume 2, patterns of violence, Crime Against Humanity). 

 In 2002, when I translated 492 pages of two volumes of this document after a request from Teesta Setalwad through her aide Raiskhan, I found that role of Dalits in the riots was blown out of proportion, I asked her about this anomaly when she came to office of Council for Social Justice (CSJ) to get some important documents and in the presence of Valjibhai Patel, secretary CSJ and Raiskhan, she confessed that it was a mistake. Sometimes even a work with most bona fide intentions results in undesirable consequences. Nobody can doubt integrity of concerned citizens’ tribunal’s role in 2002 genocide. But, tribunal had not included a single testimony from any of the prominent Dalit leaders and activists. The voluminous report gave biased version on role of Dalits and it damaged interests of Dalits nationally and internationally. Actually, tribunal should have criticized role of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, the most prestigious literary body of Gujarati writers, who unanimously elected wretched, intellectual rascal Mr. K K Shastri as president of Sahitya Parishad and directly legitimized the sins of VHP. In 1985 we, Dalit writers, protested against selection of Mr. K K Shastri in front of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in Ahmadabad. Even today, Gujarati writers are not ready to repent and apologize for their past sins. 

The reality was different. During 1981 to 1991 all Dalit mahollas surrounded by Muslim majority simply disappeared from the map of Ahmedabad city. Shahpur Vankarvas (birth place of famous Urdu poet Jayant Parmar), Maheshania vas, Jamalpur Khand ni sheri, Nadia vad, Tajpur vas, Jamalpur Pagathiavalo mahollo (birthplace of Manu Parmar, MLA and minister of Congress, who was known as Mia Manu) were deserted. The rise of Hindu Fascism in Gujarat worsened Dalit-Muslim relationship and both were victims of the fascism. (refer ‘blood under saffron’).   

Dalits of Gujarat are not puppets of RSS. We have fought our battles in our own way. The retaliation of Dalits in 1981 anti-reservation movement and subsequent boycott of Holy festival, the great rally of o.4 million people in the capital city Gandhinagar in 1985, boycott of Gujarat Samachar, the fierce response of Ramabai colony massacre in 1995 – these are few examples of Dalit power. The fighting spirit of Dalits had been dampened by combined assault of NGOs and Sangh Parivar after 1990. But, Dalits (and with them all marginalized sections of Gujarat) promise. Sooner the sky will change the color.