I wont join the movement again

With the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit to be out on September 24,The <i>Sunday Express </i>tracks the lives of four kar sevaks,who were among the thousands who thronged Ayodhya on December 6,1992

Hari Shankar Bairwa,Chakwada Rajasthan

For Hari Shankar Bairwa,who braved bullets,carried bricks and tools and spent 15 days in jail in Ayodhya in 1992,all that mattered for most of his adult life was the construction of a temple in Ayodhya. But 18 years later,the September 24 Allahabad High Court verdict is the last thing on his mind.

A Dalit from Rajasthan,Bairwa says he was attracted to the Hindutva movement since his youth. For as long as I can remember,the RSS has played a central part in my upbringing. Even as a child,I attended shakhas in the village and tried to convince others to come and join us, Bairwa recalls.

The 80s,says Bairwa,was a heady decade. From mere talk,the movement suddenly took concrete shape. More and more people were talking about the Babri Masjid and the Ram temple. says Bairwa.

So,when the call to Ayodhya came,he was ready. Fifteen of us went from Chakwada and I was the only Dalit, says Bairwa,who let the movement take precedence over his work. I have three sons,they were young then but my wife understood what I had to do, says Bairwa,60.

In the days that led up to the destruction of the Babri Masjid,Bairwa found himself part of a large group. For the first time in his life,he says,he was no longer a Dalit. I was a kar sevak and part of an army that could do anything. We all ate food together,drank water from the same bottle and shared the same sleeping quarters. Never before had I been part of an identity this big and I knew this was my calling, says Bairwa.

While they were returning from Ayodhya,Bairwa and eight others from Chakwada were arrested in Bulandshahr in UP. I didn8217;t mind it. The jail was full of kar sevaks, he says.

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After returning home,Bairwa remained an integral part of the Rajasthan VHP for the next 10 years. But that association finally snapped in 2002 when upper castes in Chakwada passed a resolution that Dalits could not bathe in the village pond. Bairwas brother Babu Lal says,There was nothing much to do. We were 200 and they were 2,000. Even the district administration and the police could not stop them. Babu Lal eventually defied the diktat and jumped into the pond to take a dip even as Bairwa rushed to Jaipur to meet his brothers.

I went to the Jaipur VHP office and asked for their help. They recognised me and told me that they would support us and come to Chakwada, Bairwa recounts. But neither the VHP nor the RSS stood up for Bairwa and the Dalits of Chakwada.

Then I knew that regardless of what they the VHP say and what they do,I will never join the Ram Janmabhoomi movement ever again.

Now,Bairwa is happy just to tend to his fields.