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Dhule lynchings: A week after lynching, fear grips nomadic community

On Saturday, at least 100 members of the community undertook a morcha in Sakri in Dhule to demand protection for members of their community and to bring all those responsible for the lynching to justice.

Since the lynching, community members have been pressing the authorities in various districts of the state to fulfill certain demands. Among them are the announcement of measures for the community’s development.  (Photo: Prashant Nadkar)

OVER A week after five members of the Nath Panthi Davari Gosavi nomadic tribe were lynched in Dhule, community members are in the grip of fear — over loss of livelihood and their safety. For instance, 65-year-old Baban Ingole and his wife 60-year-old Vimal from Phaltan in Satara, who sing ballads in neighbouring districts in return for food or money, have not ventured outside their home since the lynching on July 1. “We have not ventured out since we heard of the attacks in Dhule. A majority of the community depends on begging for livelihood, since we do not have any land or education. Mine is the seventh generation in this profession. We have never caused any trouble to anyone when we seek alms, and yet five were killed in Dhule only on the basis of suspicion. The incident has scared us and there is no assurance given by anyone for our safety,” says Baban.

The Nath Panthi Davari Gosavi tribe is among the over 40 denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes in Maharashtra, and members of this community travel to various parts of the country with their cattle in search of livelihood, sometimes dressing up as seers, policemen or fortune-tellers, singing Gondhal, a religious folk art. Due to the wandering nature of their work, many settle in makeshift tents on the outskirts of villages. Since they are the first target of suspicion as ‘outsiders’, many local organisations of the community have been issuing them identity cards.

“The identity cards are not considered of much value before authorities or in the face of a suspicious mob. One of our demands to the state government is that identity cards should be issued to community members for their safety,” says Bharatkumar Tambile, spokesperson of
the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Nath Panthi Samaj Mahasangh.

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Since the lynching, community members have been pressing the authorities in various districts of the state to fulfill certain demands. Among them are the announcement of measures for the community’s development. “A similar incident of lynching of three community members took place in 2012 in Nagpur. If the state government had taken steps for the rehabilitation of the community, we would not have seen another incident now,” says Tambile.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Denotified Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes this year recommended constitutional protection for these communities under a separate schedule after Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Twenty such recommendations submitted in January 2018 by the commission are yet to be implemented. “In our three-year term, we received 4,000 complaints from these communities. After the report was submitted, the commission’s tenure has ended. We have also recommended that a permanent body should be constituted to look into the issues faced by these communities,” says Bhiku Ramji Idate, who headed the commission. Other recommendations include special housing, education and health schemes for the communities.

Festive offer

“For years, the community has demanded access to basic amenities like identity cards, ration cards. While the state government announced compensation to the family members of the five men who were killed in Dhule, the issue is not only restricted to them. Most people in the community do not have access to schools and those who do get education, struggle with jobs. There is no recognition of their skills or representation of its members. A comprehensive survey on the current socio-economic status needs to be undertaken on these communities,” says Kalidas Shinde, a PhD scholar from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Shinde, one of the few PhD scholars from the Nath Panthi Davari Gosavi community, says their literacy rate remains dismal, especially among girls.

Tambile says that while local-level protests have been ongoing since July 1, a protest has also been sought on July 10 in Nagpur, where the ongoing monsoon session of the state assembly is under way.

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In the aftermath of the Dhule lynching, the Maharashtra Police drew a list of members of the Dongri Nath Panthi Gosavi community and forwarded it to the SPs of various districts, where the tribe is believed to have travelled to beg for a living. “The Solapur SP (from where the victims hailed) was asked to prepare a list of members of the community and map their current locations. The same has been forwarded to the concerned district commanders and commissionarate heads to ensure the safety of the members and that they were not victims of similar brutality,” adds Bihari.

On Saturday, at least 100 members of the community undertook a morcha in Sakri in Dhule to demand protection for members of their community and to bring all those responsible for the lynching to justice.

First uploaded on: 09-07-2018 at 03:49 IST
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