By: Rina Chandran
Date: 22 September 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Marginalised low-caste Dalits are fighting against victimisation and demanding land that is owed to them
MUMBAI, Sept 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his home town in Gujarat state to mark his birthday over the weekend, the national media focused on the detention there of a young Dalit rights activist.
In just a few months since he led a protest after four Dalit youths were stripped and flogged by upper-caste Hindu men in Una, Gujarat, for allegedly skinning a dead cow, Jignesh Mevani has become the poster boy for Dalit rights in the country.
After first calling for dignity for the marginalised low-caste community, Mevani, 35, is now demanding land for landless Dalits and has threatened a wider protest from Oct. 1.
"When we started the Una agitation, it was a protest against the increasing caste violence, and about justice for the community," said Mevani, a former lawyer who was placed under house arrest by police as a "precautionary measure" during Modi's trip to Gujarat.
"But the injustice is related to landlessness: when you are landless, you have no power, and you're vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and violence," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation over the phone.
India banned caste-based discrimination in 1955, but centuries-old attitudes persist, and lower-caste groups including Dalits are among the most marginalised communities.
Dalits were once barred from public places including temples and water taps frequented by higher-caste Hindus. Many were restricted to jobs that were considered dirty or dangerous, such as manual scavenging and the disposal of animal carcasses.
At least half of India's lower-caste population is landless. Landless Dalits are at the bottom of the age-old social hierarchy, making them vulnerable to discrimination and attacks by upper-caste Hindus, including recent ones by hardline "gau rakshak" vigilantes who regard cows as sacred.
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