Video Editors: Ashutosh Bhardwaj & Sandeep Suman
A Facebook post by two boys from an upper-caste community in Rajasthan has sparked caste tensions in Barmer’s Kaludi village between themselves and Dalits.
On 28 July, a status update posted by two boys belonging to the Rajpurohit community went viral.
The post used a set of gun emojies, and used a casteist slur for the Meghwal community.
“Give up the Jai Bhim slogan or give up your life”, read the post, which was soon shared by other Rajpurohit community members as they began tagging each other and commenting on it.
FIR Filed Against Casteist Slur in FB Post
“We had ignored their posts on social media,” says Arvind Meghwal, who had gone to Kota that day for Rajasthan’s LDC (Lower Division Clerk) recruitment exam. He is a resident of Kaludi village.
But in the world of social media, a viral post spreads like fire. Within a few days of the post going viral, a man named Rawataram, from the Meghwal community, filed an FIR at the Balotra police station that resulted in two arrests.
This irked the Rajpurohits, who called for a panchayat and, Kaludi’s Meghwals claim, announced that they were formally ostracising 70 Dalit families belonging to the Meghwal community.
They said there would be a “Hookah-pani bandh (restriction from food and water)”, essentially meaning that the Meghwals from Kaludi village have been barred from:
- Using Public Roads
- Access to wells and water tankers
- Sending their kids to school
- Demanding their daily wages
- Buying groceries from ration shops
Dalits Can’t Avail of Basic Amenities
All of us have been ostracised. We don’t have water. We have informed the Collector that drinking water should be provided to us.Dhanaramji Meghwal
This act of ostracisation, though far from unheard of in Rajasthan, has provoked fresh anger among the Dalits.
We are not allowed to wear good clothes or even play DJ during marriages.Saraswati
Grijesh Dinkar, state coordinator of ActionAid, and member of the Fact-Finding Committee that met with the villagers, fears that situation will only worsen in next few days.
Rajpurohit families have also restrained the Dalit families from using the community water-tankers. Women from Dalit households told us that they have limited stored water and groceries, and that if these get exhausted, they don’t have any other alternatives.Grijesh Dinkar, State Coordinator, ActionAid
Rajpurohits Continue to Issue Threats
The Quint had reached out to a member of the Rajpurohit community, who claimed that all these allegations are false, but said little else.
Under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015, social and economic boycott is a punishable offence with a prison term of six months, that can extend up to five years, along with a fine.
Following arrests by the police over the social boycott, the Rajpurohits have allegedly been venting their ire against the Meghwals for “taking a Facebook post too seriously”. Meghwals claim that the Rajpurohits have been issuing threats to them after they sought police protection.
As a show of strength, the Meghwal community organised a rally in Balotra village, the ‘Swabhiman Sankalp Mahasammelan’, on 9 September 2018. The event witnessed thousands of Dalits coming together to show solidarity in the face of yet another social boycott.
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