By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
(The following is a first-person account of a youth from Amreli district)
Amerli, Gujarat: My name is Sagar Bagada. I am 18 years old, and unemployed. Due to financial constraints, I never studied after school. I want to work, but I am not sure what I can do. I tried working in Rajkot, but after three months I had a fight with one of my fellow workers who was from outside Gujarat. One day, I just ran away from work.
I saw the video of the Una incident on a friend’s phone. I have never been so angry in my life for something that did not affect me directly: I do not know the victims personally, but it did not matter. They were our Dalit brothers who were doing a dirty job so that the others can live a more comfortable life. Ever since then, I have been angry. I want to break the hands of the people who did this. When I was in school, people from all castes ate and sat together, but once I came out of school I understood that you will always be judged by your caste. The police watched silently; which shows that they don’t care if Dalits get attacked. I want to beat up the police.
For the past week, we have been waiting eagerly for the rally (Dalit Asmita Yatra) to arrive to our village, Aambardi. In our village, there are quite a few Dalit houses. My house is close to the place where you guys had lunch. We are all coming to Una. Our village has no issues between Dalits and Muslims and we have always lived peacefully and our elders say that even during 2002, our village was peaceful. I have no memories of that time, as I was very young. I believe strongly that Dalit and Muslims can work together. If we can live together, do business regularly, then why not fight for same rights?
My parents have always followed Babasaheb Ambedkar and I was also taught to follow him. I have not read his works; but my parents tell me that he always fought for our rights. This T-shirt I am wearing is one of my favourites. A number of my friends in Rajula (neighbouring village) have also got the same and we wear it with pride. The best thing I like about Babasaheb is that he asked us to never touch dead cattle. Why should only Dalits do this? Why can’t others too do this? Our generation will make sure that we never do this job again.
There is so much technology, but Dalits still need to get inside gutters to clean them. Why? I also took the pledge today when Sureshbhai Parmar asked us to never touch dead cattle again. Did you see a cowshed outside the lane? That is actually a bus stop, but currently a terminally ill cow lives in it. When it dies, I will ensure that no Dalit disposes the body. I agree with Jigneshbhai and what he said the other day: They can keep the cow’s tail with them, we will keep land. Until we have land, we will never be respected.
I will be coming to Una with loads of friends; I will be wearing the same T-shirt and will be carrying a framed picture of Babasaheb. He is the reason why today, we can ask for our rights. But at the same time, despite him putting so much effort for us, we are still fighting against caste. I want to get a job in Gujarat, so that I can stay close to home. I want to see what happens when 1 lakh Dalits come together to protest against state government. We will make sure that this is the biggest rally ever in Una.
I will come with the photo of Babasaheb on my T-shirt and his photo frame in hand. I am coming with about 60 other people. Will you be there too?