Aided by affirmative action, India’s most marginalised communities, the scheduled castes, are slowly but steadily breaking out of a centuries-old cycle of penury and oppression. Launching a petition to the local police station in February, bridegroom Sanjay Jatav’s fight for an equal wedding and permission to take out his wedding procession through the upper caste dominated areas in Nizampur –his bride’s village – in Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh became as important for the village as for the nation at a time when caste conflicts seem to have turned on their axis. Jatav’s wedding etched a landmark because he refused to back down in a scenario that has frequently triggered boycotts or bloodshed in the region.
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Updated on Aug 13, 2018 01:58 PM IST
Sanjay Jatav (C), 27, is escorted by the police as he reaches his bride’s village in Nizampur with his wedding procession on July 15, 2018 in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh. Jatav’s wedding became grander as the day loomed closer, from the number of cars in his baraat (finally fixed at 100) to the number of VIPs in his guest list. He hadn’t always planned on a spectacle however. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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All Jatav wanted, after he was matched with a girl in the adjoining district, was to lead his wedding procession through her village before arriving at her house for the rituals. The Thakurs of Nizampur village wouldn’t hear of it, though. No Dalit man had ever crossed a Thakur home on the way to his wedding; no exception would be made to the rule. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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Police personnel prepare for an inspection of the procession’s route a day prior. In a village where the Thakurs outnumber Dalits 9:1, their word was law. Not this time, though. Launching with a petition to the local police station in February, Jatav’s fight for an equal wedding became as important for Nizampur as for the nation at a time when caste conflicts seem to have turned on their axis. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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Beetu Kumar Jatav (R), The bride’s brother speaks to reporters. “We have been told that the price of this baraat will be heavy. We have to live in the village. We hope nothing bad happens. The Thakurs are not happy,” Jatav said. The wedding etched a landmark because Sanjay refused to back down in a scenario that has frequently triggered boycotts or bloodshed in the region. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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The bride, Sheetal Kumari (C) shares a moment with a relative at her residence at Nizampur, a village of about a hundred households flanked by fields. The family had been on tenterhooks leading up to the wedding. Since April, when Sanjay Jatav won the baraat battle, the family had received a bouquet of threats and ominous signals from the Thakurs. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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The road to this day was rocky. First, Jatav appealed to the village police station in the village. He was told that Dalits aren’t allowed to lead wedding processions across an upper-caste dominated village according to a Supreme Court order. Jatav was also given the argument that the procession could possibly disrupt peace in the village. His appeals were turned down progressively by the district’s administrative hierarchy. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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Sheetal Kumari is dressed and made up for her wedding. Jatav then made appeals to Yogi Adityanath, the Allahabad high court, the Prime Minsiter’s office and also announced his decision to move the Supreme Court. An active member of the Bahujan Samaj Party at the block level, he mobilised political support for his cause. Things finally moved in March when district administration called for a negotiation between Thakurs and Dalits. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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Police personnel inspect an area in the fields where a tent was being erected for the procession. At the negotiation in April, Thakurs refused to give in to Jatav’s demand to ride a horse around the village. So, the officials drew up an alternate route for the baraat that cut halfway through Nizampur. Everyone agreed to it, at last. (Anushree Fadnavis / HT Photo)
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Family members of the bride welcome the incoming wedding procession. As Jatav’s convoy entered the village, greeted by a phalanx of press, senior police and administration officers and political leaders cutting across party lines, even the Thakur families left everything they were doing and rushed to their rooftops to witness the breach of the village “tradition”. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Dressed in a powder-blue suit tailored in Aligarh, Jatav arrived in a pristine white car followed by an armed bodyguard and holding a filigreed dagger in his hands. He grew more and more excited as his vehicle approached Nizampur. One moment he declared that he looked as lavish “as a Thakur”; the next moment he said he felt like a “cabinet minister.” (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Out in the fields, a group of Thakur men had got into a huddle by then to discuss their next step. The group decided to lie low for a week, until the media and the police left. “Then we shall see what is fit to do done; we will show them we are still the thakurs of the village,” said their leader before walking off in a huff. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)