Uttarakhand: Dalit groom told to get off horse or see baraatis get burnt alive

By Pramod Dalakoti / The Times Of India

ALMORA: In Salt, Almora district, 27-year-old Vikram Kumar, employee of a private firm in Himachal Pradesh, had set out with his baraat of around 50 people to the wedding venue when he was asked to get off the horse he was riding by a group of upper-caste women who intercepted the procession. They then asked him to abandon the horse “if he didn’t wish for a repeat of the Kafalta incident” in which 14 Dalits were lynched, five of them burnt alive, after a Dalit groom insisted on riding a horse in Kafalta (Almora) on May 9, 1980.

After a complaint by the groom’s father, Darshan Lal, with the Almora DM and the SC & ST Commission on Tuesday, police on Wednesday evening lodged an FIR against five women and one man under sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 3(X), 3(XIV) of the SC/ST Act. A district administration team visited the village where the incident took place, Tadiyal, on Wednesday to gather more details.

Salt sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Gaurav Chatwal said, “There is peace and order in the village. Nevertheless, instructions have been given to ensure harmony in the village.” Govind Mehta, sub-inspector, Salt, told TOI, “If an order is issued to provide protection to the family, we will arrange that.”

The complaint submitted by 60-year-old Lal, a copy of which is with TOI, said, “Five women and one man surrounded my son, demanded he get down from the horse he was riding and threw casteist slurs at him. ‘If the groom doesn’t get down, all baraatis will be killed like in the Kafalta incident’, they said. After my son refused to comply, they said we are fortunate that the men in their families are not home, otherwise all baraatis would have been burnt alive. They added that if any other Dalit groom dares to sit on a horse again, they would be burnt alive on the spot.”

The complaint added that this was not the first time that a Dalit person had been threatened and it certainly won’t be the last. “They do it repeatedly. We demand strict action against the perpetrators. Otherwise, we will be forced to organise an agitation and the administration will be solely responsible for it,” the complaint said.

A distraught Kumar said, “A couple of months back, another groom from our community was made to get off a horse. I insisted that I wouldn’t get down from the horse as I wanted to set a precedent. No Dalit groom should be made to get off a horse at his wedding procession after me.”

The eldest of three brothers, Kumar was the first in his family to go to school. They sought to enhance the family’s position by seeking out job opportunities in cities. One of Kumar’s brothers, Narendra, works at a private firm in Chandigarh, while the other, Virendra, works in Saudi Arabia.

Lal, who used to work as a labourer to sustain his family, said he wants his sons to make their place in society. “I am proud of my son taking a stand to break the age-old norm of discrimination in our area. I commend his courage and stand by his decision. They tried to insult him, but he didn’t let them.”

This article first appeared on timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Uttarakhand: Dalit groom told to get off horse or see baraatis get burnt alive

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