In November and December 2006, the

desecration Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual. Detail Many consider acts of desecration to ...

of an Ambedkar statue in Kanpur triggered off violent protests by

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

s in Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Background

There was resentment among the Dalit in Maharashtra, due to murder of four Dalits, allegedly by a mob of

Kunbi Kunbi (alternatively Kanbi , Kurmi ) is a generic term applied to caste system, castes of traditional farmers in Western India. These include the Dhonoje, Ghatole, Hindre, Jadav, Jhare, Khaire, Lewa (Leva Patil), Lonare and Tirole communities ...

s in Khairlanji village in September 2006. On 28 November 2006, the brewing resentment in the Dalit community in Maharashtra took form of violent protests, when a statue of Dalit icon B. R. Ambedkar was desecrated by a vandal in Kanpur. Several people remarked that the protests were fueled by the Khairlanji killings, including the Maharashtra Chief Minister

Vilasrao Deshmukh Vilasrao Dagadojirao Deshmukh (26 May 1945 – 14 August 2012) was an Indian politician who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, first term from 18 October 1999 to 16 January 2003 and second term, from 1 November 2004 to 5 D ...

, and the

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Police Commissioner A. N. Roy. According to

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, the political parties had not responded appropriately to the outrage over the Khairlanji killings, resulting in heightened tensions. Later, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray claimed that the protests were stoked by certain political parties in their bid to oust Maharashtra Home Minister

R. R. Patil Raosaheb Ramrao Patil, better known as R. R. Patil (16 August 1957 – 16 February 2015) was an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was an MLA for Tasgaon vidhan sabha constituency from 1991 to 2015. He was an important lea ...

Protests

On 30 November 2006, violent protests took place in several places in Maharashtra. The Dalit protestors set three trains on fire, damaged over 100 buses and clashed with police.

North Maharashtra

Osmanabad Osmanabad (; pronounced as ''Usmānābād''),is a city and a municipal council in Osmanabad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Osmanabad derives its name from the last ruler of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. Osmanabad city is the adm ...

, two persons were killed in police firing on a protesting mob. Two more deaths were reported, one each in Nanded and

Nashik Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashi ...

, during the violent protests. Subsequently, a curfew was imposed in Osmanabad, Nanded and Nandurbar towns of Maharashtra. In

Aurangabad Aurangabad ( is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a hilly upland terrain in the Deccan Traps, Aurangabad is the ...

, a crowd of 1,000 Dalit gathered to protest against desecration. Some of the protestors started pelting stones at passing vehicles, injuring six persons, including sub-inspector and a constable. The police resorted to firing in air to disperse the crowd. In

Akola Akola () is a municipal corporation and the third largest city in Vidarbha after Nagpur and Amravati and tenth largest city in Maharashtra. is located about east of the state capital, Mumbai, and west of the second capital, Nagpur. A ...

, a truck was set on fire on the national highway, and there was heavy stone-pelting on State Transport buses. Heavy deployment of police forces took place in affected areas. Around 1,500 people were put under preventive arrest and three persons were detained in connection with the lynching of a youth in Nashik. In Akola, the police arrested 14 persons for burning an effigy of chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Pune District

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

and

Pimpri-Chinchwad Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune is the northwestern city limits of Pune, India. Geographically, it is located at an altitude above sea level, at a distance of about northwest of its historic centre. The neighbourhood is home to extensive industry and ...

areas, 60 vehicles were damaged and set ablaze by agitators and 13 policemen were injured. A curfew was imposed in

Pimpri Pimpri is an affluent neighbourhood in the northwestern city limits of Pune, India. Demographics The main language spoken in the town is Marathi. It is a business hub in India famous for its clothing and eateries. Well versed with religious s ...

on 30 November. On 1 December, a municipal corporation bus was stoned at Bopodi chowk in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Mumbai and its neighborhoods

On 30 November, a mob of over 6000 protestors stopped the

Deccan Queen The 12123 / 12124 Deccan Queen is a daily Indian passenger train service operated by the Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways connecting the cities of Mumbai and Pune. Introduced on June 1, 1930, the Deccan Queen was India's "first sup ...

passenger train near

Ulhasnagar Ulhasnagar is a city in Thane district, Maharashtra, India. This city is a part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region managed by MMRDA. It had an estimated population of 506,098 at the 2011 Census. Ulhasnagar is a municipal city and the headquarters ...

, asked the passengers to alight and set afire its five bogies. One compartment of a local train was set ablaze at

Matunga Matunga (Marathi pronunciation: aːʈuŋɡaː is a locality in the heart of Mumbai City towards downtown Mumbai. It is serviced by the Matunga Road station on the Western line, Matunga station on the Central Line and King's Circle station on ...

. There were no injuries. Some compartments of a commuter train were also torched at Ulhasnagar, and the police fired in the air to control the violent crowds. The mob in Ulhasnagar also vandalised the railway station. Suburban train services were affected in parts of Mumbai as protestors squatted on the tracks. Shops and establishments in the city were also closed in view of the protests. Incidents of protestors setting up road blocks and pelting stones were reported in Mumbai suburbs like

Kanjurmarg Kanjur Marg (Marathi pronunciation: aɲd͡zuɾmaːɾɡ is a suburb in east central Mumbai. Kanjurmarg railway station is the main access point for IIT Bombay, KV Powai, L&T, Hiranandani Gardens, and other locations in Powai. The station was ...

Mulund Mulund (Pronunciation: uluɳɖ is a suburb in the north-east of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is also a railway station on the Central Railway line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It is also the first railway station of Mumbai Suburban dis ...

, Bhandup,

Trombay Trombay is an eastern suburb in Bombay (Mumbai), India. History Trombay was called Neat's Tongue because of its shape. Once, it was an island nearly 5 km East of Mumbai and was about 8 km in length and 8 km in width. The island ...

, Kurla,

Kalina Kalina may refer to: People * Kalina people, or Caribs, an indigenous people of the northern coastal areas of South America * Kalina language, or Carib, the language of the Kalina people * Kalina (given name) * Kalina (surname) * Noah Kalina, ...

Chembur Chembur (pronunciation: ͡ʃembuːɾ is an upmarket large suburb in central Mumbai, India. History Before reclamation, Chembur lay on the north-western corner of Trombay Island. It is suggested that Chembur is the same place referred to as Sa ...

, Kurar in

Malad Malad (Pronunciation: aːlaːɖ is a suburb located in North Mumbai. Malad has a railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on ra ...

, Goregaon, Pali Hill in Bandra, and

Worli Worli (ISO: ''Varaḷī'', �əɾ(ə)ɭiː is a locality in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other being Colaba, Bandra and Malabar Hill. The sea connects it with Bandra via the B ...

. The police reported that gangster Chhota Rajan's brother Deepak Nikhalje was responsible for violence in Chembur. Police used '' lathi'' charge and fired in the air at Kherwadi junction on the Western Express highway in

Vakola Santacruz or Santa Cruz (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːn̪t̪akɾuːz is a neighbourhood of Mumbai. The Santacruz railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, the domestic terminal (T1) of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Internatio ...

, after an

angry mob Mob rule or ochlocracy ( el, ὀχλοκρατία, translit=okhlokratía; la, ochlocratia) is the rule of government by a mob or mass of people and the intimidation of legitimate authorities. Insofar as it represents a pejorative for majorit ...

blocked traffic and indulged in stone pelting. In Thane, corporation-run buses were off the road due to stone pelting. A Municipal Transport Corporation bus going from Kalyan to Dombivili was set on fire at Manpada by a violent mob. Protestors also forced owners of shops and establishments to down shutters. Over 100 buses and 35 private vehicles were damaged in stone pelting. The Mumbai Police Commissioner A. N. Roy put the loss at around Rs 30 lakh. BEST said 91 of its buses were damaged and four drivers and a woman passenger injured in stone pelting. At least 13 policemen, including Additional Commissioner of Police K. L. Bishnoi, were injured in the protests. 176 people were arrested in Mumbai. The Thane police arrested 19 persons and detained another 29.

Outside Maharashtra

The protests also spread to some parts of Maharashtra's neighboring states,

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. In Surat, Gujarat; a mob pelted stones and damaged vehicles. Eight persons were arrested in connection with the violence. In

Hubli Hubli, officially known as Hubballi, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. The twin cities Hubli–Dharwad form the second largest city in the state by area and population and the largest city in North Karnataka. Hubli is in Dharwad distr ...

, Karnataka; activists belonging to various Dalit organizations stoned a dozen city buses.

Arrest of the vandal

Many Dalit leaders, including the UP RPI vice-president S. R. Darapuri remarked that the desecration of Ambedkar statue displayed the deep-seated animosity towards Dalits in India.

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

president

Subramanian Swamy Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu n ...

claimed that the desecration was the work of "anti-national" elements. Later, the Kanpur Police arrested a Dalit youth Arun Kumar Balmiki for desecrating the Ambedkar statue. According to the police, the youth had "admitted to having damaged the statue in a drunken state along with two friends". Earlier in a similar case, a Dalit youth was held for desecrating an Ambedkar statue in Gulbarga, Karnataka. However, some Dalits in Kanpur alleged that the youth was falsely implicated to protect the real culprits. Some Dalits protesting against Balmiki's arrest damaged vehicles and blocked traffic in Kanpur. Meanwhile, the old desecrated statue in Kanpur was buried with full honors and quickly replaced with a new one.

Political fallout

The Maharashtra Chief Minister

requested Dalit leaders to maintain calm. The Police Commissioner of Mumbai, A. N. Roy, requested the state government to declare a holiday on December 6 (Dr. Ambedkar's death anniversary), but the Government decided against doing so. Deshmukh also called an all-party meeting. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi also pitched in to settle the issue. Raj Thackeray accused the "anti-

forces" of fueling the riots. He also drew attention to another incident in Khairlanji, in which a Dalit man allegedly raped a girl and killed her. Thackeray demanded action on those responsible for the rape and the subsequent death of the girl, and also remarked that nobody helped the girl's family. In Kanpur, a Congress delegation, led by former bureaucrat P. L. Punia sat on a '' dharna'' (strike), when the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police prevented them from visiting the site of desecration. RPI president

Ramdas Athawale Ramdas Bandu Athawale () (born 25 December 1959) is an Indian politician and social activist from Maharashtra. He is the president of the Republican Party of India (A), a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the S ...

also reached Kanpur to visit the site of desecration. Earlier, he had said that he will hold protests in Kanpur against the "heinous" act. However, he alleged house arrest, after police put him under tight security in a local circuit house in Kanpur. At the 22nd National Conference of Dalit Writers in New Delhi, the former Governor of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

, Mata Prasad declared that the agitation will continue through Dalit literature.