Thakurs, Dalits get squeezed for jobs in UP’s Saharanpur
GROWING RIFT Thakurs who employ Dalits from Shabbirpur now struggle to hire outsiders
SAHARANPUR: Not so long ago, Om Veer, a Dalit labourer and Amarpal Singh, a Thakur landlord were dependent on each other for work. But today, these two residents of Shabbirpur village do not want to even meet each other.
Two clashes in 20 days have widened the caste fault lines between the two communities in Shabbirpur — the epicentre of the Thakur-Dalit clashes in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh. “We used to work for Thakurs in the farms. Now, we are too scared to even venture near their houses. Even they will not give us work,” said Om Veer, 30.
Unwilling to work for Thakurs, Dalits, like Veer have lost jobs. Upper caste Thakurs like Amar Pal don’t want to hire them anymore. Prior to strife, the Thakur landlords would easily employ Dalit labourers from the village itself. Today, they struggle to hire outsiders.
“We don’t even look at them, forget giving them work,” Veer’s employer, Amar Pal, said.
A five-hour drive from the national capital, Shabbirpur hit the headlines on May 5 when over 50 Dalit houses were burnt down allegedly by Thakurs after one of their youths was killed during caste clashes.
On May 23, violence returned and a Dalit was killed after Thakur houses were allegedly torched before Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s visit to the affected families. Since then, there are more policemen on the road than residents in the village of 600 households.
“Our men used to work in their fields for the longest of time. But, the divide has widened, the hatred intensified. We may be attacked again,” said Kamla Devi, 55, one of the affected Dailt woman inside her half-burnt house. She was discharged from hospital after 15-day treatment this week. Villagers said the situation had started returning to normalcy between two arsons on May 5 and May 23.
“We had started mingling with them (Dalits) before May 23. But everything has changed now. Working with them seems out of question,” said irrigation department employee Ashok Kumar, a Thakur alleging Dalits torched his cow shed that day.
The village adopted by Saharanpur’s BJP member of parliament (MP) Raghav Lakhanpal is home to 4,000 people comprising 40 % Dalits and an equal proportion of Thakurs . Amid uneasy calm, fear looms large among the Dalits who are picking up the broken pieces of their lives. Thakurs, it seems, have found reason to further establish their supremacy.
“If a cyclist moving wrongly on a road hits a truck and gets injured, people will continue blaming the truck driver,” said Amar Pal Singh, referring to Dalits as a cycle and a Thakur as a Truck. The two communities living in two separate groups of houses divided by a concrete road have stopped passing through each other’s area.
Experts says the clashes will have a long-lasting impact on the caste dynamics in Shabbirpur and neighbouring villages too.
SIT TO PROBE THE CASE
The UP government has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the clashes. Inspector general (public grievance) Vijay Singh Meena said the police had registered 40 cases since the outbreak of violence on May 5. Ten inspectors had been posted in the SIT, which would submit its report within a month.