Where one community lives in fear and the other is too dominant for parties to offend

At Dangawas, 2 km from Merta city, Meghwals congregate at the house of slain brothers Pancha Ram and Ratna Ram at Meghwalon ka Mohalla. While neighbours and friends refuse to speak up against the Jats and insist all is well, Sugna Ram, a relative of the deceased, says, “What has happened is horrific. Though this village has always been peaceful, there were some incidents over the past few months and Meghwals were being targeted.”

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The Meghwals say they had stopped visiting their own fields that are close to the spot where the violence happened on May 14, a Jat-dominated area. While the Meghwals huddle in a closed room, the Jats gather at the open village square playing cards and throwing angry glances at visitors.

A little ahead along a dirt track leading to the fields, the caste divide appears clearer: the Meghwals’ crematorium is cramped and small while the Jats’ crematorium is sprawling and neatly done up.

“It is not a fight between Jats and Dalits. It is the Meghwals versus the entire village,” says a middle-aged Jat man, who refuses to give his name. “You can ask any of the other Dalits, there are so many of them here, the Harijans, the Raigars and the others, if they feel intimidated by the Dabangs (Jats). This whole caste conflict is fabricated. We have been living peacefully for ages. Yes, there was a land dispute and as in all villages this one was also being resolved by the panchayat.”

An older member of the Jat community alleges, “The Meghwal family was wrongfully encroaching on land that they had sold to a Jat family. Pokar Ram, who was a distant relative of the family and lived in a different village, was at the one-room house built on the disputed land when the incident took place. He is a history sheeter and has several cases of land grabbing and cheating against him. He was carrying a firearm and was the first to shoot and this incited the rest of the village.”

The community claims the rest of the village was united against the Meghwal family and because of that Rampal Goswami, who was not a Jat and had nothing to do with the land dispute, went along with the villagers and died after being hit by a bullet in the clashes.

Dangawas with 1,600 Jat families and 120 Meghwal families, apart from Harijans, Muslims, Raigars, Brahmins and Baniyas, is a miniature of the caste equations of the region. Nagaur is one of the two seats in north India that was won by the Congress even in its abysmal performance in 1977 thanks to its Jat sympathisers.

Political parties have avoided taking sides from the clash that has claimed five lives from a single Meghwal family. In Rajasthan, 34 of the 200 MLAs are Dalits from the ruling BJP. Of these, 16 belong to the Meghwal community but none apart from Chandrakanta Meghwal has spoken out in favour of the community. The state also has four Dalit MPs of whom two are Meghwals but neither has intervened.

The only support the Meghwals have found has been from human rights organisations and Dalits from neighbouring districts. Merta MLA Sukhram Meghwal, who is believed to have got tacit support from the dominant Jats of the village leading to his victory, says he feels “stuck” between the two groups. While the CBI inquiry is yet to start and the aggrieved Meghwal family had the title deed of the land, the MLA has formed his opinion. “It was the Meghwals’ fault. They were illegally occupying land and they were the first to fire. It is a new legislation that disallows Scheduled Caste land to be bought by other communities but 50 years ago such transactions were allowed.

In this case, the Jat buyer did not get the mutation done and so he could not prove his ownership. Both parties have suffered in the clashes. But I am getting stuck between them. Had it been any other community I could have taken sides but here I cannot. So I have decided to stay away from the matter.”

Ramganj Mandi (Kota) MLA Chandrakanta Meghwal visited the bereaved family to offer condolences as the sitting MLA refused to upset Jats. The Congress has alleged that the state government could have prevented the clash had it quickly responded, but neither former CM Ashok Gehlot nor PCC chief Sachin Pilot has stood up for any side.

“Dalits in this village first got the right to vote as late as 1984. Before that, not a single Dalit had cast his vote,” points out Satish Kumar, director, Centre for Dalit Rights. “They have had no voice so far and even now they are being silenced. Land has been at the centre of all disputes.”

Soon after the incident on May 14, congratulatory messages circulated on social media lauding the Jats for showing the Dalits their “place in society”. The messages boasted of the “victory” over the Dalits and how the Meghwal women were taught a lesson and burning pieces of wood were inserted into the eyes of the victims. An FIR has been filed at the Merta thana by a local Dalit activist. seeking action against those who have made such comments.