Caste The Stone

Caste violence raised its ugly head in Punjab last fortnight, the clashes between Dalits and Jat Sikhs in Talhan village here taking even the police and local administration by surprise. The violence spread to the nearby Jalandhar and Phagwara towns with many incidents of arson and stone-pelting. Trouble broke out in Talhan over the control of a Sufi shrine called Gurudwara Shaheedan, which had of late been drawing annual collections of Rs 4-5 crore. Dalits, who outnumber Jat Sikhs in the village by six-to-one, saw the shrine as a community resource and wanted to be on the 13-member managing committee. But the feudal Jats would have none of this and in January called for a social boycott of the Dalits. Sources say tensions have been on the rise since with the administration looking the other way.