Five Years After Saharanpur Riots, Ambedkar’s Statue Awaits

Hidden behind a blue door inside a deserted school in Shabbirpur village, a statue of BR Ambedkar has been waiting to see the light of day for five years now. Days before the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Uttar Pradesh, residents of the Jatav community, a Scheduled Caste (SC), of Shabbirpur in Saharanpur district, about 150 kilometres from Delhi, remain tense. Five years ago, violence consumed the village following a conflict between Jatavs and the dominant Thakurs after the latter objected to a statue of Ambedkar being erected within the premises of Ravidas temple.

The incident snowballed on May 5, when a procession in honour of Maharana Pratap entered the colony, reportedly unauthorised. The clashes left one Thakur boy from the village dead. Over the next month violence and clashes between the two groups continued. Over 25 homes and property of Dalits were torched and reduced to cinders.

Five years after the violence, dubbed the “Saharanpur riots” of 2017, attempts have been made from both sides to reconcile. Beneath the veneer, however, fault-lines run deep. “We have not been able to put up the statue of Ambedkar even now,” says Paltu Ram, resident and member of Ambedkar Samaj Samiti, a local body formed for the welfare of the Dalit community in the area following the violence. The committee meetings are held in the very school that houses the Ambedkar statue, built by, Chandrashekhar Azad “Ravan”-led Bhim Army, on the premises of the Ravidas temple after it was vandalised in 2017. It is not active anymore. “Many people came and made promises at the time. But no one helped us in the long run,” says 66—year-old Ramvati. Her son Sonu had been accused of the murder of the Rajput boy in 2017. She claims that Sonu was at home when the police came and picked him up at night. “He was not involved in the violence. Police arrested Dalit men from the village arbitrarily,” she states.

In 2019, Sonu who had the 'draconian' National Security Act (NSA) slapped on him, returned from a court hearing, and consumed poison. “He could not take any more court hearings, I think. Waiting for the sentence, the money spent in legal fees was all too much,” Sonu’s widow Rachna states. She works in the fields owned by Thakurs and feeds her four young daughters. “The Rajputs own all the lands. We have to work on their farms as daily wage labourers. After 2017, it became hard for many of us to get work in their fields. We didn’t want to go either. But then, we had to,” she adds. “What other option do we have?”

Due to their mutual necessity, the relations between Thakurs and Dalits of the village have improved gradually. After all, the Dalits need work and the Thakurs need workers for their farms. But memories of violence persist in the minds of people like Aruna, 24, a local teacher whose brother is still fighting cases dating back to 2017 related to the violence. An aspiring documentary filmmaker, Aruna says that there are no opportunities for work in the area for Dalit youth. “There are schools in villages but no teachers. Many children work in fields for Rs 150 a day along with their parents. Educated adults are forced to migrate to other places” she states.