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Dalit Warrior

By P L Mimroth

20 May, 2004
Countercurrents.org

Gopal Krishan Dhankiya a Dalit resident of village Nimora
under Bassi block of Jaipur district in Rajasthan was
worshiper of Hanuman but he was never allowed to enter
the public temple of Hanuman in his village by the
`upper castes'. Whenever, he tried to enter in the village
temple of Hanuman he was always prevented, humiliated
and harassed. Later on he himself constructed a temple
in his own house, out side the village and installed a big
statue of Lord Hanuman and started worshiping regularly.
This was not liked by the upper castes of the villagers
and many of them hatched a conspiracy to teach him
and his family members a lesson. They organised a
big community meeting of all the villagers of the area
and imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 on Shri.Gopal Krishan
and also directed him to dismantle the temple & Hanuman
statue erected by him.

Gopal Krishan defied the entire village decision and
refused to dismantle the Hanuman temple. The only
fault of Shri. Gopal Krishan was to install a bigger
statue of Hanuman than that of village temple and
continued regular worship. With Gopal Krishan refusing
to comply with the village community's verdict, the
hard core `upper caste' people of the locality
persuaded the entire village to ostraise and harassed
the entire family members of Gopal Krishan such as
not allowing them to take water from the public hand
pump, pelting stones on his house and torturing his
school going children.

After facing intolerable hardships of the village, he
approached the local police and other civil authorities
but none ensured justice and safety to the Dalit victim.
Instead of lodging an FIR against the miscreants, the
police started harassing the victim's family at the
behest of the all-powerful upper castes, who are said
to be enjoying the backing of local police and
administration against the victim.

Gopal Krishan then personally met the chief minister,
home secretary, director-general of police, collector,
superintendent of police, sub- divisional magistrate
and other for seeking justice and protection but no
result. Finally he approached the Centre for Dalit Human
Rights, based at Jaipur and sought its help in redressing
his grievances. The centre intervened and managed to
get the Gopal Krishan's FIR lodged in the local
police station by deputing a lawyer. After lodging an
FIR against the miscreants of village, the torture,
persecution and harassment against Gopal Krishan
increased many folds. Since the local police was in
hand-in-glove with the prepetrators in this case as
such the entire case of Gopal Kirshan was termed
as "baseless and false" and police closed the
case and sent a similar report to the local judicial
magistrate.

The Centre for Dalit Human Right also conducted a
fact finding which also substantiated the allegation
levelled by the victim.

On 14th January, 2004, the entire family of Gopal
Krishan was ousted from the village and the next
day, they camped in the office of the Centre for
Dalit Human Rights who presented the victims family
before the home secretary of the Rajasthan government,
Dharma Singh Sagar, who directed the superintendent
of police to rehabilitate the victim family in the village.

The CDHR also filed the case of victim before Rajasthan
state human rights commission for intervention and
ensuring justice and protection to the victim but it
is regretted to mention that state human rights
commission too dealt with this serious case very
casually and lightly and closed the case on the basis
of police report saying that police has already taken
appropriate action under Section 107 and 116 for
maintaing law and order and no further action is
needed in this case. The state human rights totally
failed to look into and investigate the violation of
Fundamental Rights of the victim. In our opinion,
this is the fittest case which needed to be reinvestigated
and probed at highest level

When Gopal Krishan's family totally failed to get justice,
protection & dignity from any corner, he he was broken
and lost his faith in the law & order, mechanism. He
publicly declared that he had no faith in Hinduism
and in the government and decided that in case his
genuine complaint is not reinvestigated and justice is
not ensured to him within a month time he and his
family would embrace Islam in the Jama Masjid of Delhi.

Gopal Krishan has also given a letter to Centre for Dalit
Human Rights indicating his above desire.

Since this is a very serious matter casting a block on
the civil society and government mechanism as such
it is requested that immediate intervention is needed
in this matter to impress upon the authorities to
render him justice.