After his cousin was attacked last week over allegedly sporting a moustache, a 17-year-old Dalit student was brutally stabbed in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Tuesday, 3 October. The attack was allegedly carried out by two upper caste boys who were unhappy over the 17-year-old signing a police complaint as a witness to the thrashing of his cousin.
Class 11 student Digant Maheria, who turned 17 on Monday, 2 October, was rushed to the Gandhinagar Civil Hospital for treatment with multiple stab wounds that have left him with 15 stitches on his back. Superintendent of Police Virendrasinh Yadav visited the teen and gathered details of the incident from him and his family.
He must have gone hardly 200 metres from his school up to a fork where one road leads to our home, when he was accosted by two motorcycle-borne boys. They asked him if he had filed a police case (in the attack on his cousin Piyush Parmar, 24, for keeping a moustache), and when he said yes, they pushed him and asked him why.Kirit Maheria, Digant’s uncle
The two allegedly attacked Maheria, stabbing him repeatedly before fleeing the spot.
Regarding the earlier incident, Satish Maheria, who stays in the same village, told IANS, that Digant Maheria was with Parmar when three people from the Rajput community came and told the latter that Dalits had no business to sport a moustache like Rajputs. After an argument on the topic, the trio beat him up, he alleged.
Meanwhile, a police complaint has been lodged for Tuesday's attack with the Kalol police station, under whose jurisdiction the village falls, in Gandhinagar.
Maheria's father works as daily wager in agricultural fields.
On 29 September, a Dalit man named Krunal Maheria, 30, of the same village had alleged in his complaint that he was assaulted by some Rajput men for "sporting a moustache".
Dalits Protest by Changing Their WhatsApp Display Pictures
To protest against these alleged attacks, more than 300 Dalit men belonging to villages near Sanand are using an image depicting a moustache and a crown, accompanied by text ‘Mr Dalit’, as their WhatsApp display photos.
Regarding this manner of protest, Anirudh Solanki, a resident of Sanand, was quoted by Indian Express as saying:
It is our way of telling people that Dalits will sport a moustache and twirl it like a king without a care in the world. We are sure that more people will join us and change their Facebook and WhatsApp display pictures in the coming days.Anirudh Solanki
On other social media platforms, several people have posted pictures flaunting their moustaches to protest the beating up of the Dalit men. Some have expressed their support for the victim Piyush Parmar.
Tuesday’s incident comes just a few days after a 21-year-old Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death by a group of men belonging to the upper case Patel community for attending a garba event in Gujarat’s Anand district.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)