Gujarat is busy projecting its progressive and vibrant image across the globe and inviting investors from all over. But century-old caste conflicts continue to assume starker facades in the underbelly of vibrant Gujarat. If not outright violence, rural Gujarat has found a far more effective measure to keep Dalits under check: social and economic boycott.

At least in six villages across the state, Dalits are now facing such boycotts for one reason or the other. The pattern, however, remains the same. No entry for the Dalits in the village grocer’s shop, no employment for them in village farms, denial of boarding on commercial vehicles owned by the upper castes, denial of grinding wheat in the village flour mill and so on. While denial of employment strikes a lethal blow on their livelihoods, the rest of the measures ensure that living conditions go for a complete toss.

After forcing their entry into the village temple through police intervention on Sunday, Dalits of Targara village of Botad block in Bhavnagar have now been slapped with a socio-economic ban. “They had a public meeting on Tuesday evening and decided to boycott us socially,” said Harji Bala from Targara.

Babu Koli, the sarpanch of the village too did not have any qualms about admitting the boycott. “After all that the Dalits had done, we held a public meeting in the village and decided not to have any dealings with them anymore,” he said.

On Sunday, the Dalits of the village demanded that the protective thread, which is taken out of from the temple of Shikotar mata, the village deity, around the village every alternate year, should also include the Dalit ghetto, which has been traditionally excluded from the “Suraksha Kavach.” The Dalits also entered the temple, a right hitherto denied to them, in the presence of the police. Later the villagers postponed the protective thread ritual, which was a clear deviation from tradition.

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