Declaring a rail roko in Gujarat on September 15, Mevani came to Delhi to invite all progressive organisations to take further the resistance that has erupted after the Dalits in Una were thrashed by ‘gau rakshaks’ on July 11.
Late on Sunday evening in New Delhi, the jampacked hall of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, erupted into thunderous applause when the man on stage announced, “A different Dalit temperament is out on the streets in Gujarat and it has emerged from the Hindutva laboratory.” “It is a slap on the face of the Sangh parivar and it is a ray of hope,” said Jignesh Mevani, the 35-year-old journalist turned lawyer and activist, now widely recognised as one of the faces of the ongoing Dalit movement across Gujarat.
Declaring a rail roko in Gujarat on September 15, Mevani came to Delhi to invite all progressive organisations to take further the resistance that has erupted after the Dalits in Una were thrashed by ‘gau rakshaks’ on July 11.
“The hope is that all our comrades, feminists, farmers, trade unionists, workers will join us and create a broad front,” Mevani told dna on his plans to sustain the movement against caste atrocities. A Dalit Adhikar Manch will be formed, a manifesto drafted soon.
For now, he is on a nationwide tour on the heels of a hugely successfully padyatra to Una on August 15, and a rally in Ahmedabad where 20,000 dalits pledged to never collect dead cow carcasses again, or engage in menial work; a refrain of the pledge Ambedkar had asked Dalits to take.
Land is key for Mevani, who claims to “have always been fighting for land rights.” His narrative is heavily invested in material gains; Dalits getting five acre plots of land in their village as required under Section 3(1)(f) of the Atrocities Act, Dalit factory workers be made permanent and be paid minimum wage, safai karamcharis in the state be given the benefits of the seventh pay commission, special courts in every zilla to deal with atrocities cases.
“The fight for dignity will always continue, but no compromise on the fight for material rights,” said Mevani.
He is acutely aware of the pivotal nature of the moment, when such numbers have turned out, risked upper caste backlash and violence to demand their due. It is vastly different from Thangadh in 2012, where three Dalit men were killed in police firing and no policeman has been arrested yet. “Social media has caused this change,” said Mevani, referring to the video of the gau rakshaks hitting dalit men with rods. “That and an accumulated sense of injustice.”
With the UP and the Punjab elections looming, Mevani says that Dalits from everywhere are watching them. To preserve the movement’s unity and, presumably, his own place at the vanguard, Mevani quit the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday. He told dna that BJP and some “jealous” factions within the Dalit movement accused him of carrying out the party’s agenda.
The sailing however, is not as smooth as Mevani would prefer, as he faced much criticism in Delhi for his stand on Dalit Muslim solidarity. “Secularist friends” he told the gathering had advised them to not bring the issue to the forefront as it would give the Sangh Parivar a way to polarise the issue. When generations of activist in the room loudly disagreed, asking him to familiarise himself with dalit resistance history, Mevani backpedalled, saying that Dalit Muslim solidarity would be very much present at the grassroots.
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 "Jignesh Mewani")
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