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BHARATHPUR, INDIA, December 4: At least a dozen people were injured, three of them seriously, when Dalit (formerly “Untouchables”) activists and “upper-caste” people engaged in fisticuffs when the later tried to bar Dalits from entering a Hindu temple in Bharatpur Municipality Saturday. Reports said the scuffle began when the upper-caste people present at the Laxmi Benkateshwor Temple premises barred Dalit activists from going inside for puja (worship). Reports also said that human rights activist Krishna Pahadi and Dalit leader Padam Lal B. K. who were leading the Dalit group had requested the non-Dalits to allow at least one Dalit member to go inside the temple. Both sides clashed for nearly two hours from around 2:00 p.m. The Daliits have been demanding for permission to perform puja at the temple for a long time. but the upper-caste people were against it, reports added. (HPI adds: It is illegal in India to bar someone from a temple on the basis of caste.)

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