In West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district, 130 Dalit families have been barred from entering the Gidheshwar Shiv temple, the only place of worship in the locality, believed to be around 200 years old.
The victims alleged that families residing in the Daspara area of Gidhgram village have been forcibly kept away from the steps of the Shiv temple by the committee and other villagers, solely because they belong to a “low caste.”
The village, located about 150 km from Kolkata, has become the center of a struggle for rights led by approximately 550 men, women, and children from these 130 Dalit families, provoking an economic boycott imposed by the dominant upper-caste villagers. This has affected the livelihoods of the families, all bearing the surname ‘Das’ and belonging to the traditional community of cobblers and weavers.
“For years, we have not been allowed to climb the steps and enter the temple. They call us ‘choto jaat’ (low caste) and ‘muchi jaat’ (cobbler caste). It’s either the temple committee or the locals who stop us,” Ekkori, a farmer, told The Indian Express.
On February 24, six Das families submitted a complaint to the Katwa Sub-Divisional Officer, informing them of their decision to pray at the temple on Shivratri and seeking the administration’s protection.
“We are abused, mistreated, and thrown out of the temple whenever we go to pray. A section of villagers say we are untouchable cobblers belonging to low castes and, as such, have no right to visit the temple. Lord Mahadev will turn impure if we worship him at the temple,” reads the complaint written in Bengali.
Despite recent interventions by the police and administration, accompanied by two MLAs, to ensure that Das families could pray at the temple during Shivratri on February 26, and despite an official truce agreement between the opposing communities, the issue remains unresolved.
An administrative meeting attended by Katwa and Mangalkot MLAs, both from the ruling Trinamool Congress, the SDO and SDPO (Katwa), a local community development officer, and six members each from the temple committee and the Das families, passed a signed resolution to allow the aggrieved families to pray at the temple in the future.
The resolution highlighted that “Currently, India is a secular nation, and the Constitution has erased all discriminations based on caste, color, or race. All citizens of all castes and religions in this country are equal, and everyone has equal rights to enter a temple to pray,” only for it to remain on paper.
The following day, the police contacted the group, advising them not to visit the temple due to the ongoing Shivratri fair, citing concerns that it could escalate the law-and-order situation. Left with no choice, they complied with the request.
Later, the police assured them that they could visit the temple once the fair concluded and arranged for their visit on Friday, March 7. However, upon arriving at the temple, accompanied by the local Block Development Officer (BDO) and with police personnel present, they sensed tension in the area. Despite the security arrangements, the temple gates were closed and locked, preventing them from entering.
The Dases, who now work as farm laborers and cattle rearers, have been subjected to an economic boycott, with companies, under villagers’ instructions, stopping the collection of their milk from the village dairy center on Friday evening, impacting the livelihoods of 30-40 families.
“We will either take this fight to the end and knock on the doors of Kolkata and Delhi or pack our belongings and leave this home of our ancestors,” Ekkori Das, a villager, told PTI news agency.
