Seeking ST status: Anger in Rajasthan boils over, 14 dead

[Cheetah786]

Gurjjar Protests: Police fire as agitation by OBC community for ST status turns violent; key highways blocked, Army called in
PEEPALIKHEDA (DAUSA), MAY 29: Caste tensions simmering for the last five years boiled over in Rajasthan when an agitation by the Gurjjar community, demanding they be moved from the category of OBC to Scheduled Tribe, turned violent today. At least 14 persons were killed and over 80 injured in clashes and police firing in three districts, prompting authorities to deploy six columns of the Army.

Highways linking Jaipur with Agra, Delhi, Kota and Sawai Madhopur were blocked by agitators who hurled stones and clashed with the police in Dausa, Karauli and Bundi districts.

Police lathicharged, lobbed teargas shells and opened fire in Dausa and Bundi to disperse Gurjjars who had given a call for a ‘chakka jam’ to press their demand.

At Peepalikheda, some 40 km from Dausa, more than 20,000 Gurjjars gathered to block the Jaipur-Agra highway. As people began collecting around 5 am at Patoli village, the police present there used teargas to scatter them. But by 7 am, they were back on the streets. Officials said police had to open fire after they were attacked with lathis, sharp-edged weapons and stones.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria said: “The mob attacked the police first and cut off a constable’s hand and the leg of another. The police had no choice except fire.”

Within hours, Gurjjars from neighbouring villages gathered at Patoli and moved towards Peepalikheda. By 9 am, more than 20,000 had gathered in the fields, forcing the policemen to leave.

The crowd then set vehicles on fire, attacked a police chowky, stopped government and media vehicles, damaged roads and disrupted traffic on the National Highway.

Refusing to cremate the bodies of five persons killed in the firing, the crowd demanded a written assurance from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje that they would be granted ST status.

Col Kirodi Singh, president of the Gurjjar Reservation Committee, told The Indian Express: “The police had no reason to fire at a crowd which had gathered for a peaceful protest. We demand an inquiry by a third party — the CBI or a judicial inquiry.”

By afternoon, violence spread to the districts of Dausa, Karauli, Bharatpur and Bundi. Six persons and a policeman were killed at Bundi. At Dausa, two policemen were missing.

A Railway spokesman said there were obstructions on the Jaipur-Delhi rail route via Bandikui in Dausa and trains had been diverted.

Behind the rage

Who are the Gurjjars

• Caste group from north-west, west India. Both Hindus and Muslims

• In J-K & Himachal, pastoral and have ST (Scheduled Tribe) status. But in west UP, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat, are more settled, so classified as OBC

• In Rajasthan, form 5% of population

Why do they want ST status

• At 12-15% of population in Rajasthan, Jats dominate OBC and its 27% quota in govt jobs. Gurjjars feel competition unfair and deprives them of benefits

• Festering for decades is anger over Meenas (10% of the population) being added to the ST list in 1954. Meenas now have sizeable clout in police and administration

What’s the official stand

• In 1981, Social Welfare Dept of Shiv Charan Mathur’s Congress govt said Gurjjars were “fairly well off”, “suffer from no shyness of contact with people” and “don’t have primitive traits to be considered for inclusion in ST list”

What’s the politics around this

• Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje promised ST status while campaigning for the Assembly polls in 2003

• Says Sachin Pilot, Congress MP from Dausa: “The administration has been totally callous. It set up a high-powered committee to look into the question of ST status for Gurjjars one-and-a-half years ago, but the panel has not even been notified yet. Even the state ministers supposed to be on it don’t know whether the committee exists”

Why is Gurjjar demand such a hot potato

• Meenas, the only ST at present, finding their pie cut into, might want to migrate to SC category

• Cascading effect of this as other groups may similarly demand recategorisation

What is at stake

• Meena-Jat-Gurjjar social fabric under strain. Faultlines already visible among communities. Whispers among Gurjjars that Meena officials ordered firing on the Gurjjar demonstrators on Tuesday

How do you decide on ST

• After a representation. Centre asks State and Census Commissioner, whose Anthropological Wing checks on characteristics of group: distinct culture, remoteness, absence of caste, dialect

• Not so easy. In 1981, Rajasthan govt recommended ST status for Gaddia Lohars and Vanjaras. Until now, this hasn’t been done

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/32264.html

 

[Neo]

Who are the Gujjars?
June 03, 2007

According to Vincient A Smith’s ‘The Early History of India,’ Gujjars are “allied in blood” to the Huns who poured into the Indian subcontinent after attacking the Kishan Kingdom of Kabul.

Majid Hussain’s Geography of Jammu and Kashmir State argues that the Gujjars used to be inhabitants of Georgia (Gurjia), who crossed Central Asia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass to reach Gujarat probably in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Another theory claims that Gujjars are related to the Rajputs who converted to Islam after losing in the wars with Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and yet another that Gujjars are descended from Isaac himself.

In India, Gujjars are mainly concentrated in the north, across the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Overall, they form 10 per cent of India’s population.

Although the Gujjar diaspora is found across the world, Pakistan and Afghanistan have significant Gujjar populations. In Pakistan, they comprise as much as 20 per cent of the population.

Hindu Gujjars usually belong to the kshatriya varna, although some communities are classified as Brahmin. Gujjars can also be Muslim, Sikh, Christian and presumably Buddhist.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Story...storm_Special&&Headline=Who+are+the+Gujjars?+