Violence in Maharashtra as Dalits protest death of 28-year-old in Bhima Koregaon clashes, bandh called in state
Violence roiled
Maharashtra on Tuesday as angry Dalit groups burnt vehicles, blocked railway
tracks and pelted stones to protest the death of a 28-year-old man near the
bicentennial celebrations of a British-era war in Pune district. Protesters damaged at least 20 government buses near Chembur in
Mumbai, blocked roads and
halted services on the city’s harbour railway line for about 15 minutes, police
said. In Thane, hundreds of protesters sat on the roads, forced shops to down
shutters and smashed seven state-owned buses. Reports of violence and stone
pelting were also reported from Pune and Solapur with police blaming workers
from the Republican Party of India (RPI).
Anand Teltumbde: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend
The East India Company fought and won
several battles from the first one in Plassey in 1757 before the last battle of
the Anglo-Maratha war. Obviously, all of them were not against the Peshwas.
Most of them were not even against the Hindus. They were simply wars between
the two ruling powers, which their soldiers fought just as their duty. To make
them appear as anti-caste or anti-religion will not only be factually
incorrect, but also an erroneous understanding of historical caste. Caste,
until after the late 19th century when there was a substantial spread of
education among the Dalits, has been the life-world of people. They took caste
as a natural order and their oppression as the fate that they had to meekly
endure. Therefore, there was no question of any resistance to caste, leave
apart physical war against them. Contrary to such myths of bravery, there is no
evidence of any militant resistance the Dalits ever posed against the Brahmanic
oppression.
Chief minister
Devendra Fadnavis called for a judicial probe into the death of Rahul
Phatangale, who succumbed to his injuries on Monday evening after
being hit with stones during violence near Bhima Koregaon, around 40 kilometres
from Pune. Four people were injured in the violence and around 40 vehicles
burnt or damaged. “A sitting high court
judge will head the inquiry,” Fadnavis told reporters and announced a
compensation of Rs 10 lakh to his family.
Hundreds of thousands
of people gather at Bhima Koregaon every year to mark the anniversary of an
1818 war between the British and the Peshwa. Many Dalit leaders believe the war
was won by the British with the help of Dalit soldiers in the regiment, who
defeated a large army of the Peshwa, who were said to have instituted
oppressive caste practices. The celebrations
gathered momentum in 1927 after BR Ambedkar visited the spot and called the
Bhima Koregaon battle a war against caste. Historians are divided on the
subject. But this year, the celebrations have been controversial with several
right wing groups, such as the Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasangh, calling the
event anti-national. The protests also took
a political colour with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar blaming
the government for not preventing Monday’s violence near Bhima Koregaon. But
the chief minister defended the administration and said six companies of police
were deployed with the roughly 300,000 people expected at the venue.
“However, it seems
there were some organisations who wanted riots to break out. There was stone
pelting, violence and arson but the police exercised great restraint to prevent
the situation from going out of control,” Fadnavis told the media and appealed
for calm. “Strict action would be taken against those who use social media to
spread rumours,” he added. But that appeared to
not have impressed many with Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar blaming the police
for lax arrangements and called for a statewide bandh. In Mumbai, protests
broke out in Ghatkopar, Chembur, Powai and Mulund. Angry men damaged a bus near
Chembur golf course, blocked roads at PL Lokhande Marg and Amar Mahal junction
in Chembur and in Adarsh Nagar at Govandi, while RPI blocked a local train at
11.45am for around 25 minutes... read more:
