Caste riots spread in India

2008-05-26 21:06

Jaipur - Protests by one of India's lower castes over demands to be considered even lower spread to new areas on Monday while government forces tried to disperse mobs blocking highways and train tracks in western India, officials said.

Four days of bloody demonstrations claimed 37 lives in Rajasthan state, the epicentre of the violence, and disrupted road and rail traffic across a wide swath of western and northern India, said Rohit Kumar Singh, Rajasthan's information commissioner.

The Gujjars were demanding to be formally declared one of the lowest castes so they could qualify for government jobs and university places reserved for such groups. The government refused, insisting the Gujjars remain among the second-to-lowest official classification.

Violent protests

After a lull in violence on Sunday, the Gujjars were back on the streets on Monday, burning tyres, setting up road blocks on a highway running near New Delhi and stopping trains for nearly two hours in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said the state's spokesperson, Surendra Srivastava.

Thousands of army, police and paramilitary forces patrolled villages to control the violence and struggled to clear the roads and rails.

Attorneys also disrupted court proceedings in Noida, a suburb on the outskirts of New Delhi, to express their support for the Gujjar community's demands, Srivastava said.

Police fire on protests

Police repeatedly opened fire on violent protests by the community on Friday and Saturday in half a dozen villages and towns in Rajasthan. Apart from the 37 people killed - a number that included one police officer - another 70 were wounded in the violence.

Gujjars took to the streets after a government panel set up to look into their demands recommended a US$70 million aid package for their community but ruled out caste reclassification.

Talks refused

The government offered over the weekend to hold talks with the Gujjars but the community's leaders rejected their overtures.

Gujjars were considered part of the second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes, a step up from the Scheduled Tribes and Castes, the lowest classification.

The Hindu caste system was outlawed soon after independence from Britain in 1947 but its influence remains powerful and the government awards aid packages to different groups.

Last year 26 people died in Gujjar riots in the same area.

- AP