This essay is part of a series by Prof. V. Krishna Ananth where he recalls the events that determined the course of politics in post-colonial India, sometimes reinforcing the “idea of India” and otherwise distorting that. The essays revolve around specific events and their consequences and the facts are placed in context and perspective to comprehend the times in which they are being recalled and re-presented. The series recalls the events on their anniversary, they do not follow a chronological order and are seen as moments in history.
There were 180 families from the scheduled Dusadh caste living in the villages of Laxmanpur and Bathe in the Jehanabad district of Bihar on the cold evening of 30 November 1997. The dwellers of the Dalit basti of these two villages had neither electricity nor were there motorable roads connecting them to the rest of Bihar. Located on the banks of the Sone River, residents needed a boat-ride to travel to Bhojpur. However, they hardly travelled anywhere as they made a living as paid laborers in the land owned by members of the Rajput castes. In the night between 30 November and 1 December 1997, over 100 members of the Ranvir Sena, a private army set up by the landlords, armed with guns and other weapons, reached the basti by boat late at night to massacre whomever they found. Their aim was to silence the landless Dalits, who in this…
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