Under the guidance of three Buddhist Monks, the Sarvaiyas of Mota Samadhiyala village near Una town, in Gir Somnath District of Gujarat embraced Buddhism, in the presence of a strong Dalit community and local media.
Two years ago, the Sarvaiyas were brutally assaulted by the upper caste Darbars from the neighbouring village, on charges of skinning live cattle and selling its meat.
Balubhai Sarvaiya’s sons were stripped and flogged in public by Gau Rakshaks on 11 July 2016, and the incident vent viral across India. This brought about a revival in the Dalit movement in Gujarat, who are predominantly a minority with only 7 percent population spread across the state.
The religious conversion concluded with a mass oath-taking ceremony by the Sarvaiyas and a crowd of over 500 people (all Dalits), who chanted, 'We do not accept Brahma, Vishnu or Mahesh as gods. We do not accept Ram or Krishna or any other gods or goddesses. Neither do we believe in Avatars (reincarnations) of gods nor do we believe that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu.’
The decision to convert into Buddhism was taken early in January this year after the Sarvaiyas alleged that the Gujarat Government backed out of its promise to give the victims a piece of land and government jobs.
The after-effects of the Una incident has been equally hard on the Sarvaiyas as they stopped skinning dead cattle – their family business for years. However, the injuries from the assault have still not healed as men in the Sarvaiya household are left unemployed while the women work as manual labourers in nearby farms to sustain the family.
The Una incident marked a significant change in the caste politics of Gujarat especially during the elections last year. Although their population in Gujarat is very low, the incident resulted in a mass mobilisation of Dalits across the state which culminated in the Chalo Una Movement. The Chalo Una Movement in 2016 was called by Jignesh Mewani, who went on to win the Vadgam seat during the 2017 Gujarat elections as an independent candidate, backed by Congress.
Mewani was personally invited by the Sarvaiyas to join the mass conversion programme, but he told them he didn't have the time.
Although Mewani didn’t turn up for the mass conversion, BJP MLA from Asarwa Ahmedabad joined the event after the Sarvaiyas took their oath. No representation was made by Congress either during the event.
(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.)