Dalit Organisations have called for state wide protest shut down on Wednesday in Gujarat, India. They have decided not to take it lying down anymore.

The inhumane violence on them, clearly depicted by a video which had gone viral in which a group of upper caste Hindutva goons were seen thrashing Dalit youths mercilessly in full public view in the town of Una was perhaps the breaking point.

Image credit – NDTV

Several Dalit youths consumed poison and one died. Scores of carcasses of cows were dumped in government offices as a symbolic protest. (Traditionally in Indian villages Dalits are supposed to take care of dead animals).

Street protests saw a Policeman killed due to stone throwing. Several buses were burned and national highways blocked.

Government was forced to take action. They arrested some of the persons responsible for violence against Dalits. Few policemen were temporarily removed from their duties for allowing it to happen.

But the fact that the ruling party, the BJP, and the casteist goons belong to one and the same camp is not helping matters.

Cow protection groups actually have nothing to do with cow protection. They are meant for oppressing by violence, the marginalised sections of the society, who consume and trade in cattle like the Dalits and the Muslims. With Hindutva party in power in Delhi and many Indian states they are having a free run.

At least in Gujarat, the heart of Hindutva ideology of hate, Dalits have decided enough is enough.