1.00pm, Sunday, 18th August 2019 Vigil at Parliament Square,
Westminster, London SW1P 3BD
Why are we protesting?
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power the number of crimes against Dalits has risen hugely. In 2016, 40801 atrocities against Dalits were reported, an increase of more than 2000, over 2015 figures. The conviction rate against those who commit these crimes has also fallen substantially. However these figures do not give us the horrific nature of these attacks. For example, in October 2017, in Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit woman and her unborn child were killed when she accidentally touched the bucket of an ‘upper-caste’ woman.
Since the election results were declared on 23 May 2019, we have seen a blatant projection of many of the features of a Hindu state. Central to this is the horrific heightening of Hindutva violence against Muslims and Dalits all over the country. For example, immediately after the election, the home of a Dalit couple was attacked by a mob of 200-300 people from dominant castes after the husband had put up a Facebook post saying the government does not permit the village temple to be used for Dalit weddings. Other attacks on Dalits, include the institutional murder (as in the Rohith Vemula case) of Dr Payal Tadavi an Adavasi Muslim doctor who was driven to her death by the educational establishment , in this case by casteist senior doctors in Mumbai’s TN Topivala National Medical College; the attack on the Dalit boy who was tied up and beaten up for trying to enter a temple in Rajasthan; the hacking to death of Ashok a young Dalit left activist in Tamil Nadu; the killing, in Gujarat, of 25 year old Haresh Solanki, who was hacked to death in front of his pregnant wife Urmilla by 8 of his upper caste in-laws, while officials watched; the attacks on a lone Christian family in a Thakur dominated area of Lucknow who were forced to leave their home. Most recently in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district there was what can only be described as a massacre of Adivasis, with at least ten murdered following a land dispute . Meanwhile there have been innumerable attacks on Ambedkar’s statues, social boycotts and comments such as those by Justice V Chitambaresh, a sitting judge of the Kerala High Court, proclaiming that Brahmins must remain at the helm of the country’s affairs.
At the same time Muslims have been killed and attacked with inhuman brutality with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ becoming a murder cry. Tabrez Ansari, who was tied to a pole and tortured for 18 hours and then locked up in police custody, just for having a Muslim name, is just one example. There has also been a targeting of journalists, eminent lawyers (including Indira Jaising and Anand Grover how have had a long history of fighting for human rights and civil liberties and founded the well-known Lawyers Collective) and human rights activists. While this has been going on for a considerable period things have got worse since the election. Criminal defamation charges are being used indiscriminately, Prashant Kanojia an independent journalist, (himself a Dalit)was arrested without an arrest warrant and accused of defamation for sharing a video of a woman who claimed to be in love with Yogi Adityanath, the viciously Hindu supremacist Chief Minister of UP. Kanojia was one of four journalists arrested between June 6 and June 8. While the earlier cases of violence against and imprisonment of lawyers and human rights defenders (such as those involved with the Bhima Koregaon case) are still being fought, these are being joined by new incidents of threats, raids and intimidation of civil liberties activists
Demolition of Shri Guru Ravidass Mandir at Tuglakabad, New Delhi: We condemn and protest against the demolition drive of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to demolish 15th Century Guru Ravidass Mandir (Temple). Shri Guru Ravidas was a 15th century saint who challenged caste orthodoxy. The Mandir complex has archaeological and historical significance and in addition the temple has a deep spiritual significance to the faithful of the Ravidassia community who are traditionally considered as ‘Untouchable’. That the DDA wants to demolish the ancient site of the Temple demonstrates its anti-Dalit policies.
Lynching of Dalits, Muslims and Christians by RSS-led mobs, assassinations of dissenters, rapes and escalating violence against women and girls, the arrests and incarceration of human rights defenders and progressive intellectuals have turned India into a republic of fear.
Organised by Castewatch UK and South Asia Solidarity Group; supported by Dr Ambedkar Memorial Committee of Great Britain, Shri Guru Ravidass Mission International – Kanshi TV, Ambedkarite and Indian Buddhist Organisations in UK, Guru Ravidass Sabhas in UK, Bhagwan Valmik Sabhas in UK and many Human Rights Organisations.
For further information contact:
Mr Raj Manak, 07460 174843 / Mr Kundan L Jhumat, 07900 460260
@SAsiaSolidarity
@Castewatchuk, [email protected]
