Explained: What was the Pal-Dadhvav massacre, whose centenary the Gujarat govt is observing?

🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️

The incident

The Pal-Dadhvav massacre took place on March 7, 1922, in the Pal-Chitariya and Dadhvaav villages of Sabarkantha district, then part of Idar state.

The day was Amalki Ekadashi, which falls just before Holi, a major festival for tribals. Villagers from Pal, Dadhvav, and Chitariya had gathered on the banks of river Heir as part of the ‘Eki movement’, led by one Motilal Tejawat. The movement was to protest against the land revenue tax (lagaan) imposed on the peasants by the British and feudal lords.

Tejawat, who belonged to Koliyari village in the Mewad region of Rajasthan, had also mobilised Bhils from Kotda Chhavni, Sirohi, and Danta to participate. The impact of the protest was felt in Vijaynagar, Dadhvaav, Poshina and Khedbrahma, which are now talukas of Sabarkantha; the Aravalli districts, Banaskantha and Danta of Banaskantha district; and Kotda Chhavni, Dungarpur, Chittor, Sirohi, Banswada and Udaipur of Rajasthan, all of which were then princely states.

Tejawat had been outlawed by the Udaipur state, which had announced a Rs-500 reward on his head.

The Mewad Bhil Corps (MBC), a paramilitary force raised by the British that was on the lookout for Tejawat, heard of this gathering and reached the spot.

An account in the Gujarati book ‘Gujarat na Krantiteertho’ (Gujarat’s revolution pilgrimages) (2009), written by Gujarat Sahitya Akademi chairperson Vishnu Pandya and his late wife Arti, says, “On a command from Tejawat, nearly 2000 Bhils raised their bows and arrows and shouted in unison- ‘We will not pay the tax’. The MBC commanding officer, HG Sutton, ordered his men to fire upon them. Bullets rained on them but where could they go? There was a stampede.”

Nearly 1,000 tribals (Bhils) fell to bullets, writes Pandya. Pandya’s account, collected from government gazettes and local historians, says others jumped into two wells. Tejawat was shot at twice, but was taken to safety by the villagers on a camel. He later “returned to the spot to christen it ‘Veerbhumi’.”

While the British claimed some 22 people were killed, the Bhils believe 1,200-1,500 of them died. In the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13, 1919, 500-1,000 people are said to have been killed after General Reginald Edward Dyer’s forces opened fire on peaceful protesters.

Republic Day tableau

The Pal-Dadhvav massacre was brought into focus at the Republic Day parade this year. Pandya had told this paper that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea to theme the tableau on this incident. When Modi was the Gujarat CM, the state had in 2003 built a memorial to Tejawat on the massacre site, surrounded by a ‘Shahid Smriti Van’, where 1200 trees were planted in memory of the martyrs.

The R Day tableau featured a seven-ft statue of Tejawat, inspired by the statue at the memorial. It also had a statue of British officers, including Sutton shooting at the tribals, and the two wells. A song describing Tejawat as ‘Koliyari no Vanio Gandhi’ was sung at the tableau.

Who was Tejawat

Born into a merchant (Baniya) family in the adivasi-dominated Koliyari village, Tejawat was employed by a landlord, where he worked for eight years. “During this period he saw closely how the landlords exploited tribals and would threaten to beat them with shoes if they did not pay the tax,” Pandya’s book says.

Outraged by the atrocities and exploitation of the tribal people, Tejawat quit the job in 1920 and devoted himself to social work and reform. To this day, local tribals recount the Pal-Dadhvav massacre in songs sung at weddings and fairs. One such song is ‘Hansu dukhi, duniya dukhi’.

A Gujarat government release on the centenary of the massacre on Monday described the incident as “more brutal than the Jalliawala Bagh massacre of 1919”. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who attended the event virtually, was quoted as saying, “Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav is being celebrated this year with the inspiration of the Prime Minister to bring such a forgotten event of freedom and the rarity of freedom struggle in the minds of the people” (sic).

However, former Lok Sabha MP from Sabarkantha and senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, who has been to Tejawat’s village in Rajasthan, claimed the BJP was talking about the massacre only for electoral gains.

“Congress leaders have also recognised this memorial. The area remains underdeveloped. The BJP government is paying attention to it now only because it intends to win the 28 seats reserved for tribals in the Gujarat Assembly,” Mistry claimed.

Tribal population

Gujarat has a near 14 per cent tribal population that resides along its northern-eastern stretch, called the ‘poorvi patti’, bordering the districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Bhils are the dominant tribe in this stretch, which covers the districts of Aravalli, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Panchmahal, Chhota Udepur, Mahisagar, Narmada, Dahod, Tapi, Navsari and Dang.

Newsletter | Click to get the day’s best explainers in your inbox