Alleged disruption of event to celebrate 1818
victory of British East India Company over Peshwas leads to violence
By Michael Safi
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Members
of the Dalit community are detained by police during a protest in Mumbai.
Photograph:
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
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The commemoration of a 200-year-old British
military victory in India has spilled over into days of violence and protests
in Mumbai and across Maharashtra state.
Streets in Mumbai were deserted on Wednesday
as hundreds of Dalit protesters blocked roads and train lines and attacked
buses, forcing transport delays and the closure of schools and shops in the
financial hub.
Roadblocks, arson and the death of a teenager
were reported in towns elsewhere in the state where Dalits, formerly called
untouchables, were protesting against the alleged disruption of a memorial
event by Hindu nationalist groups.
An estimated 300,000 Dalits had gathered in
the Maharashtra village of Bhima Koregaon on Monday to celebrate the 1818
victory of the British East India Company over the Peshwas, a faction of the
Maratha empire that ruled much of the subcontinent before the British.
Hundreds of Dalits were involved in the
battle on the side of the British, forming part of battalion of 900 soldiers
that repelled Peshwa forces numbering 20,000 by some estimates.
The Dalits, who occupy the lowest place in
the Hindu caste system and have suffered thousands of years of exclusion and
extreme poverty, sided with the British in response to mistreatment by
high-caste Peshwa rulers. Today the battle is regarded as a historical moment
of self-assertion by members of the community.
The 200th anniversary memorial on Monday
turned violent when Dalit activists allege members of two Hindu nationalist
groups attacked processions near an obelisk installed by the British to
commemorate the battle.
One man died and dozens of cars were burned
in clashes between the two groups. At least 100 Dalits were reportedly arrested
in the protests that followed on Tuesday, which quickly spread to Mumbai and
drew national media attention.
On Wednesday, outside Chembur railway
station, a centre for the protests, one activist said police had been trying to
shut down demonstrations in a “brutal” fashion.
“They attacked us with lathis [clubs],” the
young man identifying himself as Sumit said. “I have a mark here on my back
from last night.”
There were reports of journalists being
attacked and vocal anger towards the media, whom one protester accused of
ignoring violence against Dalits and being “sold to politicians”.
“Our women and small children were attacked
in Bhima Koregaon and in Mumbai,” said the demonstrator, Rajesh. “Why don’t
they talk about that?”
Fleets of protesters on motorbikes were also
seen roaming the empty streets of Mumbai shouting “Jai Bhim”, a Dalit protest
slogan.
Order began to return to the city by early
evening on Wednesday after a key Dalit leader, Prakash Ambedkar, called for an
end to the protests.
The Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra
Fadnavis, has asked for a judicial inquiry into Monday’s violence.
Caste was officially abolished by the Indian
constitution in 1950 but remains deeply embedded in social customs and still
shapes the lives of most Hindus.
Additional reporting by Anish Gawande in
Mumbai
