Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas
Cameraperson: Aishwarya S Iyer
“I am going back to school in Class 9,” Sheetal says while we sit in her bedroom, painted pink, in Basai Babas village where she now lives with her husband Sanjay Jatav.
Over the last one year since Sheetal and her husband defied the Thakur tradition and made their wedding procession go past Thakur homes, a lot has changed. Sheetal is looking forward to having a baby. Sanjay is hoping to make it big in politics.
But at the same time, the historic step to end caste discrimination has left Sheetal’s family who are left behind to live in the contentious village, Nizampura, in distress. The Thakurs remain bitter and upset about being ‘disrespected’ and Sheetal’s family lives in constant fear because of this disruption in caste equation.
One year since the wedding, which made international headlines and was extensively covered by The Quint, we went back to Basai Babas village in Hathras – Sheetal’s in-laws’ place – and Nizampura in Kasganj to see how their lives (and fates) changed a year later.
Wedding That Challenged the Caste Dynamics
Let’s go back to the day all of it began.
On 15 July 2018, the Dalits of Nizampura village in UP’s Kasganj district danced with abandon without the fear of having to follow norms laid down by the Thakurs.
The celebrations were at Sanjay and Sheetal Jatav’s nuptials, where the wedding procession (baraat) – equipped with a live DJ, a horse-driven chariot and hundreds of people – had flooded the streets in the Thakur neighbourhood. Their wedding procession had crossed Thakur homes, thereby pulling off an action that was, until then, ‘forbidden’.
“Never has a Dalit wedding crossed Thakur homes, how can it now?” is what the Thakurs said, fuming over the decision by the Dalits. Unnerved and upset, they kept trying to justify their disgruntlement with the argument of ‘conserving age-old paramparas (traditions)’.
But despite the anger and threats, Sanjay and Sheetal’s wedding was carried out with much celebration and mirth.
However, the victory the Dalits tasted that day didn’t come to them served on a platter.
There was a six-month standoff between both the communities, during which the Thakurs were outraged and the Dalits, led by Sanjay, refused to back off. The local administration got involved, tried and failed to mediate, denied Sanjay the permission to carry out the wedding procession, but eventually gave into media pressure.
On 9 April 2018, police gave all clearances to carry out the wedding. The date was fixed for 15 July. The wedding was then held under heavy police security to ensure a riot does not erupt due to the flouting of the ‘age-old tradition’.
Sheetal and Sanjay Are Now ‘Happily Married’
One year later Sheetal, clad in a blue saree that is one of her favorites, seems happily married. She wants to have a child and is going back to school in Class 9 in her husband’s village in Hathras district. She says her husband went along with her to complete all the formalities.
Despite all that has changed post marriage, one thing that remains the same is the tension she had in the run up to the wedding. She was worried then about her brother and family’s safety, and she is worried now.
Her husband Sanjay, who was the one writing countless letters to get the permit to take his wedding procession across Thakur homes, was tensed but eager to see his dream come through last year. There was the constant stress that their lives were under threat.
Now, however, he seems quite relaxed.
There is no denying, however, that the wedding gave Sanjay Jatav the political mileage he has aspired for since he was a child.
Hailed by many as the face of Dalit struggle in the region, he had big plans to contest 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well. He says many political parties “wanted to give him a ticket” but he put his support behind the BSP-SP alliance. He also adds that he “spends his time with former UP CM Mayawati and her brother, Ajay Anand”.
Sheetal’s Brother Left to Live in Unrest
In stark contrast to Sanjay’s demeanor, Sheetal’s brother Bittoo seems reticent at first. He was Sanjay’s point of contact in Nizampura. Ever since his sister’s wedding, he has been living under stress, with wife Soni, who continuously rebukes him, and their 10-month old child.
Taking some time to talk freely, Bittoo eventually says, “Sanjay should have reached out to me before unilaterally taking this step.”
“We are the ones who have to deal with the repercussions, not them. They got married and left,” he says, hinting at his unhappiness with the way the wedding had taken place.
Bittoo says that he has visited his sister’s home, which is barely 40 min away, just once since the wedding.
Hostile and Angry: Thakurs of Nizampura
While Bittoo deals with what Sanjay left for him, the Thakurs have, over time, grown increasingly hostile towards the media. As the media presence in the village increased over the course of the standoff, they retreated behind doors and categorically refused to talk to The Quint.
This was not always the case. In the initial months, the Thakurs would blatantly say that “a Thakur is a Thakur”, and that they will “not allow the wedding procession to cross Thakur homes, as they valued old traditions”. However, over time, when they realised their view didn’t have takers in the media, they began to keep their distance.
Bittoo, meanwhile, remains concerned as he feels that the Thakurs “feel that they were insulted”.
“If Sanjay wanted to take this step, he should have told us. We would have spoken to the Thakurs and figured an amicable way. He didn’t do any of that and just announced his fight. As the media attention grew and investigation continued, it became impossible for us to back out from the wedding,” he says.
While Thakur traditions were defied and Dalits asserted themselves, to say that this has changed the mindset or hearts of the Thakurs in Nizampura would be incorrect.
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