Upper caste people in BJP-ruled Gujarat have added yet another item in the long list of reasons for which Dalits can be beaten up in the state. This time it is addition of the salutation ‘sinh’ as suffix to the names of children in the invitation card of a Dalit youth in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat.
As the upper caste Durbars consider adding ‘sinh’, meaning lion, to their names as a privilege for themselves, the Dalit family was initially threatened and later prevented from performing the post-wedding rituals at the village temple. The groom was injured in the stone pelting by the upper caste Durbars.
Apart from the infamous public flogging of a Dalit family in Una in July 2016, lower caste people in Gujarat have earlier been bashed up for various other reasons like sporting a moustache or twirling it, riding horse during wedding procession or were denied access to village wells and temples or even a haircut at the saloon.
Incidentally, the upper caste attack on the Dalit family during their wedding came on the same day that Bhavnagar police denied any caste atrocity angle in the killing of the youth allegedly for riding a horse in March this year.
Despite the victim’s father naming some upper caste people for the murder, the police have arrested a share-cropper of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) who has reportedly confessed to the crime as revenge for the Dalit youth harassing his wife.
In Golagam village of Banaskantha, the Dalit family had to conduct the wedding under police protection following which the upper caste Durbars pelted stones when the newly-weds arrived at the village temple for some rituals. The groom was injured in the stone pelting.
All these attacks happened simply because the Dalit family had added the half name ‘sinh’ behind the names of the siblings in the wedding invitation. Two Durbars have been arrested while others are absconding.