MUMBAI (Reuters) – Thousands of low-caste Hindus attacked police, vehicles and shut shops in India’s financial hub Mumbai on Thursday to protest against the desecration of a statue of their leader and founder of the constitution. Violence also flared in several towns across the western state of Maharashtra, where protesters burnt buses and threw stones at passing traffic, injuring dozens of people.
Protesters said they were angry that a statue of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a low-caste Hindu who authored India’s democratic constitution that prohibits caste-based discrimination, had been damaged on Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh state. “We want police to arrest those who broke Baba Saheb’s (Ambedkar’s) statue. Otherwise, we will burn Maharashtra,” a man shouted at reporters before being dragged away by police in Mumbai.
“There are reports of some sporadic incidents. However, things are under control,” said Arup Pattnaik, Mumbai police joint commissioner. But huge groups carrying posters and banners were seen closing shops and clashing with police in several areas of the city. Witnesses said police used batons and fired tear gas shells to disperse unruly mobs in the city’s Worli, Bandra and Chembur neighbourhoods. Police denied the reports but added “several” people had been arrested. Curfews were imposed in some towns.
Low-caste Hindus or ‘dalits’, the name for those called “untouchables” in the past, make up about 16 percent of India’s 1.1 billion population, and are at the bottom of the 3,000-year-old Hindu caste hierarchy.
Though caste-based discrimination is banned, ‘dalits’ are still often beaten or killed if they use a well or worship at a temple reserved for upper castes.