Bhind (Madhya Pradesh): Picture this. Nearly 4,500 square km of land in the Chambal region once notorious for bandits, where arming oneself in self-defence was not just a deterrent against dacoits but a way of life. A district that saw 50 murders last year. A district with 23,000 gun licenses, and a large section of the population owning unaccounted for country-made weapons. And a heavily armed upper-caste community living alongside Dalits who make up 14% of the population across the district.
Upper Caste Rajawat’s at the Mehgaon police station to deposit their guns and ammunition. Credit: Anant Zanane
Despite these deadly ingredients, veteran journalist Sathyanarayan Sharma recalls no history of large-scale caste or communal conflict in the district. As in other parts of north India, individual incidents of oppression were part of the social landscape confronting the district’s Dalits. Yet, Bhind had never witnessed a bloody caste clash that saw the killing of innocents. The recent ‘Bharat bandh’ changed everything.
The sequence of events
Dalit groups had called for a nationwide protest on April 2 against amendments to the Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act by the Supreme Court.
On April 2 at around 4 am, nearly 500 Dalits blocked the highway in Malanpur.
The district SP Prashant Khare responded by rushing most of the police force from the nearby Gohad and Mehgaon police stations, leaving behind just 15 policemen in Mehgaon to deal with what was to come.
At the crack of dawn, ten to 20 Dalits came to Mehgaon’s main market area. CCTV footage shows more Dalits trickling in after 8 am. The crowd was led by young men with sticks, carrying blue flags and sporting blue bandanas. There were some women and boys too.
The crowd grew to nearly 2,000 people. Its attempts to shut down the market were resisted by local shopkeepers. The pushback triggered violence and vandalism. The Dalits were driven out and forced to retreat to an intersection on the highway where they vandalised some shops, including an ATM.
The mob pelted stones on the police station. Injured in the stone pelting, the SDM ordered the police to fire shots in the air. What followed, however, was a free for all. Heavily armed upper-caste Rajawats opened fire on the crowd.
By the time reinforcements came in and the violence had been controlled, 15-year-old Aakash Garg, a Dalit, lay dead barely 100 meters away from his house. He had been shot.
Twenty-two-year-old Pradeep Jatav was injured by a gunshot wound in his leg. He bled to death in the hospital in Gwalior.
Five more Dalits were injured with gunshot wounds.
Macchand
A similar pattern of violence unfolded 20 km away, in Macchand. In this area, dominated by 32 Rajawat villages, Dalit protesters were soon outnumbered.
The rampaging mob of Dalits quickly came under a fierce counterattack by the Rajawats. Dalits ran to take refuge in the police post. Inside were just six policemen. When Rajawats tried to set fire to the post, the administration says the police had to fire in self-defence. One bullet hit Mahavir Rajawat.
As Dalits were being chased by the Rajawats, 45-year-old Jagrup Singh Narwariya alias Dashrath Jatav was beaten to death by six men. His body was discovered a day later in the fields.
Jagrup Singh Narwariya, 45-year-old Dalit man allegedly killed by six men from the upper caste Rajawat community in Macchand. Credit: Anant Zanan
Bhind city
In the city of Bhind, multiple Dalit marches took place. One group was led by a former BJP leader Sanju Jatav’s husband Gajraj Jatav.
The mob stopped trains and led a procession through the city.
Here too, shopkeepers resisted the shut down and the pattern of violence repeated itself.
The police lathi charged, and local businessmen joined in. Some of them, like Kaushalendra Kushwaha – a self-proclaimed gau rakshak and a former leader of the Bajrang Dal – was seen leading a mob shouting “Jai Shri Ram” slogans. When the police tried to stop them,Kushwaha in a video can be seen threatening them. “I am ready to stop, but if they burn our shops, harm our shopkeepers, then we are willing to spill our blood for them!” An unidentified officer is heard pleading: “We are trying to stop everyone. If you move forward then things will only worsen.”
Fresh triggers were unleashed through WhatsApp. In one video, Shiv Kumar Chaudhary, a shopkeeper, is seen dabbing his blood-stained forehead. The man recording the video makes him repeat his name. The intent, perhaps, was to establish his caste identity. The message: that Rajawats are under attack.
Eventually, the Dalits fled in different directions. Gohad and Lahar, two other tehsils of the district also witness violence.
Bhind was on the boil for some time
Once again, social media emerged as an effective tool of mob mobilisation. Sample these hate messages whirling on WhatsApp.
A day before the bandh, a post on a pro-Dalit group called Aazadi Ka Aandolan read: “No calls are given for a rally for pride and self-respect. People whose blood boils join on their own.”
Six days before the bandh, another widely circulated message urged “Bhim Sainiks” to head out into the streets armed and with their families. The message was provocative: “Don’t be afraid if someone tries to scare you. It is a fight unto death. Because now that the law (SC/ST Act) is dead, life is no longer worth living. And it’s better to die.”
Even as violence continued to spread across Bhind, provocative posts poured in on groups like Mera Bahujan Samaj Buddha Maye. A post on the group said: “Wake up, stand up and fight. Fight till the time you win. Everyone has to die one day. Now is the time to kill.”
Aware of the Dalit discourse, a counter social media campaign was also unleashed, urging people from the upper castes to defy the bandh. “I urge people, that they must step out of their homes so that the bandh called against amendments to the SC/ST Act should fail. This will boost the morale of the Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra who has taken this decision in the interest of the country. This will embolden some brave leaders to raise their voice against reservation as well. Please circulate this message far and wide amongst the upper caste people.”
Another message by “General Category Yuva Peedhi” praised the Supreme Court for ruling in favour of the general category for the first time. It urged people to fight for the future of their children and ensure that the bandh fails.
Intelligence inputs ignored?
The state’s intelligence department was keeping a close eye on the bandh buzz. Ten to 12 days before the bandh, an ‘Alert Advisory’ sent to senior state police officials flagged the growing Dalit discontent. It mentioned how people were venting on WhatsApp in the aftermath of the Supreme Court verdict on the SC/ST Act and how various fringe groups were making calls to protest the apex court’s decision on April 2 with a bandh. The advisory warned that protests could take the shape of “a large group of leaderless Dalit youth.”
So were these intelligence inputs ignored? The district SP says: “Intelligence inputs have been discussed at a senior level. This happened at a mass scale. It was a nationwide call for bandh. So these inputs will have to be reviewed at a much wider scale.”
District collector Ilayaraja T. says, “The bandh unfolded in a violent and sporadic way. The force was spread out. There was a reaction from the other community that refused to shut shops. So there was a clear-cut conflict that started to happen within the two communities. We did not expect sporadic violence.”
A leaderless mob
In a riot, a leaderless mob is perhaps the police’s worst nightmare.
Gajraj Jatav, the husband of a former BJP leader, has been arrested for leading one of the mobs. But locals describe him as a publicity seeker who lacks legitimate leadership within the Dalit community. Many say his involvement should only be seen as a distraction.
Another former BJP leader, local corporator Mukesh Garg, has also been booked. Speaking to The Wire, Garg says he was 85 kms away in Gwalior on the day of the bandh. According to him, his wife was roped in by the police for crowd control. 2wedz
Growing Dalit discontent?
There has been a recent spate of atrocities against Dalits in Bhind.
In November, a video of school teacher, Kalyan Jatav, being mercilessly beaten by upper-caste men linked to Congress MLA Hemant Katare went viral on WhatsApp.
A few days later, a march taken out to protest the assault on Kalyan was also attacked.
The perceived dilution of the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, sent shockwaves within the community.
In neighbouring UP, the Adityanath government’s deliberate insertion of ‘Ramji’ in Ambedkar’s name was perceived as a perversion perpetrated by the upper castes.
These messages mixed, with the constant fear of losing rights under reservation, were dished out on social media and violent rebellion was suggested as the only recourse.
But the odds were always against them. Dalits constitute just 14% of Bhind’s 18 lakh population. Any assertive behaviour by the Dalits was bound to meet with brute force.
In the end, Dalits became the casualty of their own protest. Three persons were killed. One upper-caste person was killed in police firing. Five Dalits sustained gun-shot wounds.
Dalit groups and their involvement
It was a mix of lesser-known local Dalit groups like the Akhil Bhartiya Koli Kori Samaj, scheduled students and youth union among others that took permission for the bandh. But one organisation that did not apply yet has a greater recall among locals is Bhim Sena or Bhim Army.
Mukesh Chaudhary, BJP MLA from Mahgaon says Bhim Sena is responsible for mobilising the violent mob. His aide handed over a list of names that he claims represents the local leadership of the Sena and who have now been booked for rioting.
Bhim Sena has its roots in western UP and gained traction within the community after the Saharanpur caste clashes in May last year. Its leader, Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, was booked under the stringent National Security Act. Azad is currently in jail.
Bhim Sena’s Praveen Gautam denies the charge of violence. “We supported the nationwide bandh, but our cadre didn’t arm Dalits and did not orchestrate the violence,” he says.
In Bhind, 295 people have been identified as rioters and 136 of them have been arrested. But those who opened fire and killed Dalits are still on the run. The district SP does not confirm or deny Bhim Sena’s involvement. He says “Lots of small organisations have been identified. FIRs are being lodged. Nobody will be able to escape the law.”
BJP MLA from Basti Narendra Singh Kushwaha blames the BSP. The mob, he says, “were carrying blue flags with the elephant symbol.”
In one video, BSP’s district president Dilip Bauddh can be seen pacifying protestors. Bauddh says, “We called the cops to manage the crowds. BSP had no role in planning and executing the bandh. We decided to stay away from a leaderless movement that was mobilised using hate messages.”
Political implications
Bhind has been a hub of Dalit politics in Madhya Pradesh.
At the height of the Mandal era in 1993, the BSP’s Chaturilal Barahadiya became an MLA from the Gohad assembly seat and Naresh Gurjar from the Mehgaon seat.
The BJP has been consistently winning the Bhind Lok Sabha Seat since 1989. But the BSP has come second thrice since 1989 and the Congress has been runner-up five times.
In the 2013 assembly elections, the BSP’s Sanjeev Singh lost the Bhind assembly seat with less than 6,000 votes. The Congress finished third.
Together the Congress and the BSP had more than 50% vote share in the constituency. Currently, the five seats in the area are divided between the BJP and the Congress:
| Seat | Party | Candidate |
| Gohad (SC) | BJP | Lal Arya |
| Mahagaon | BJP | Mukesh Chaudhary |
| Bhind | BJP | Narendra Singh Kushwaha |
| Lahar | INC | Govind Singh |
| Ater | INC | Hemant Katara |
The Bhind parliamentary seat is with the BJP; a former IAS officer, Bhagirath Prasad, is the sitting MP.
Undoubtedly, these clashes will have a polarising effect on the electorate and may cause an upper-caste consolidation for the BJP and Dalit consolidation for the BSP. This could weaken the Congress, as it relies on both sets of voters. If the Congress and BSP attempt a pre-poll alliance, a stronger BSP with a significant presence in nearly 60 assembly seats in MP could play political hardball while negotiating seat sharing.
For now, leaders across the political spectrum are shying away from any political predictions.
BSP’s district president Dilip Baudh says, “Its too early to talk of political gain or loss.”
Going forward
Life in Bhind is yet to become normal. After WhatsApp rumours of an upper caste bandh, a curfew was imposed on April 9 and 10. The curfew will resume for Ambedkar Jayanti, April 14. No permission will be given for any public celebrations. The collector says additional forces will be deployed.
But Bhind needs long-term healing for any chance of recovery.
“We have to invest in a system right down to the village level, where we keep communicating decisions of the government and court orders. Even if there is a problem with the decision, there are remedies. These alternative remedies should be properly communicated to the people,” says the collector.
Bhind takes pride in having sent 50,000 servicemen to the country’s defence and paramilitary forces. A caste divide that takes the lives of innocents should not be its emerging identity.