WATCH | Bengal's Dirty Casteist Secrets

In Bairampur, West Bengal, Dalits recently entered a Shiva Temple for the first time. On March 20, the administration deployed police forces to ensure the Chamar caste members’ entry into the local Shiva temple, from which they had been prohibited so far. The Calcutta High Court’s March 17 instructions to the police to ensure that no one in Bairampur is barred from entering the temple and participating in the Gajan left the village’s Kayasthas feeling helpless and let down.

Upper-caste Kayasthas see the involvement of Dalits in the Gajan festival and the temples as a violation of age-old customs.

Sanyasi Dutta, one of the residents of Bairampur, said that the problem has been around since our fathers and grandfathers' time. Due to our caste, my father's and grandfather's generation were even chased away from the Shiva temple when they tried to worship. People said, "You are 'muchi' (cobbler) by caste; hence, you cannot enter the temple. Our children ask, "What kind of society are we living in?" We approached the High Court and the decision ruled in our favour.

The Samajik Nyay Mancha (social justice platform or SNM), a wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI(M), played a key role in helping them approach the Calcutta High Court.

Kalyan Gupta, who heads the SNM’s Nadia district unit, tells the gathering, “No matter what means they adopt to pressurise you to back out, those who want to participate in the Gajan must do so. We will keep the administration under pressure to ensure they carry out their duties. Do not forget, you have the court’s order".