Gujarat – Midnight attack on Chara Community by Ahmedabad Police #WTFnews

by-ShabnamHashmi

Just now spoke to senior theatre and film director of Budhan theatre Dakxin Chara and a number  of other activists

According to the information available : There was some altercation between a few chara boys who were drunk at night and they had some fight with the policemen on duty.

Police returned around midnight in full force – hundreds of them from what i have been told by a number of local activists- attacked the chara colony, breaking  vehicles, cars, getting into people’s homes,  breaking whatever they could lay hands on, attacking men, women and children, even media and lawyers who tried to intervene.

It requires immediate attention. Dakxin himself has been beaten up, his old mother in law attacked. Another theatre actor Atish Indrekar attacked and taken away . He objected to police attacking people and breaking his bike .

None of the political leaders are available – their phones are either switched off or out of range .

Anyone seeing this from media please intervene.

I called the CP Ahmedabad twice he didn’t pick up.

This is like the attacks on Muslim colonies which used to take place while Modi was CM now the Hindu Rashtra which they are building treats not only Muslims like dirt, Dalits were treated like that too now extending to denotified tribes.

Resist and raise your voice you will be the next target

Historically, Chharas comprised a group of nomadic people in India.  When the British attempted to maintain the colonial regime in India, they utilized theories of crime being hereditary to undermine these nomadic communities as criminal.  In 1871, the Criminal Tribes Act made legal the enforcement of restriction and harsh punishment for members of criminal tribes, punishments quite distinct from other non-criminal tribe members.  In 1959, the Habitual Offenders Act replaced the CTA, and while there was discussion of rehabilitative processes for tribes known as criminal, this act only further allowed police the opportunity to identify these groups, target them, and further marginalize them.  This act remains in practice today, and so, rather than have any protection by the government, there is no guarantee that members of these groups, known as Denotified Tribes (DNTs) will receive jobs or education, often forcing them into illegal practices, i.e liquor brewing in the dry state of Gujarat.  The theory that people can inherit innate criminality has withstood the test of time and despite the revocation of the CTA, formerly nomadic peoples and current DNTs are considered criminal by nature and have been unofficially deemed second-class citizens.  The formerly nomadic Chharas are known by other names throughout the country, including Sansis, Kanjar, Kanjarbhat, and Adodiyas.

Theatre and film personality Dakxin Bajrange is fighting a battle on two-fronts. Notions about his community, the Chhara denotified tribes, being ‘born criminals’ are deep-rooted, while the restrictive Dramatic Performances Act of 1876 is still in vogue in his home state of Gujarat.

http://www.budhantheatre.org/