Kavitha is one of the 65 villages in the

Borsad (Vidhan Sabha constituency) Borsad is one of the 182 Legislative Assembly constituencies of Gujarat state in India. It is part of Anand district. List of segments This assembly seat represents the following villages. This assembly seat represents the following segment ...

Anand district Anand District is an administrative district of Gujarat state in western India and whose popular nickname is Charotar. It was carved out of the Kheda district in 1997. Anand is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is bounde ...

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 ...

, a state in Western India.

History

Prior to India's independence, as mentioned by

Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly of India, Constit ...

in his writings, Kavitha was one of the villages known for incidents of

caste based discrimination Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural ...

against

Harijans 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 ...

. In 1935, when the untouchables of the village demanded from the Hindus of the village that their children should be admitted in the common school of the village along with other Hindu children, the Hindus were enraged at this outrage and took their revenge by proclaiming a complete social boycott. Ambedkar notes that the

Garasia Garasia, alternatively spelled Girasia, Girasiya or Garasiya, is a title used by the Koli chieftains of petty states or Jagirdars in India who held the villages as ''Giras'' granted by rulers. Many of the Chunvalia Kolis held the title of Gir ...

boys of the village threw Kerosene in the well used by the

Dhedh The Dhedh are a menial worker and weaving caste of India. Historically, other Hindu communities considered them to be an untouchable group, outside the Hindu ritual ranking system known as varna. This community too observes untouchability in re ...

and

Chamar Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...

people.

References

Villages in Anand district Discrimination in India {{Anand-geo-stub