Jignesh Mevani
Jignesh Mevani is an Indian politician, lawyer, activist and former journalist serving as the representative of the Vadgam constituency in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly since 2017. He is a member of the Indian National Congress party. He is the convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch.
Early life and education
Jignesh Mevani was born on 11 December 1980 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat to a family of Dalits from the village of Meu in Mehsana district. He grew up in a lower middle class family, his parents had become government clerks, and resided in the Dalit populated locality of Meghaninagar in Ahmedabad. His father worked at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and his mother at the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. Mevani attended school at the Swastik Vidyalaya and then the Vishwa Vidyalay Madhaymik Shala in Ahmedabad district. He began his higher secondary education in the core stream of science, dropped out and completed his schooling after switching to humanities. He attained his graduation in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the HK Arts College, affiliated with the Gujarat University.Mevani states that in college, he was never seen as just a Dalit student. He was particularly impressed by Saumya Joshi who was an associate professor and dramatist at the college and by the faculty member Sanjay Bhave who introduced him to various historical and contemporary figures of social activism in Gujarat. He further states it was because of Joshi and Bhave that he came into contact with Gujarati civil society newsletters such as Bhoomiputra, Nirikshak and Naya Marg. In his student life, Mevani performed in parallel cinema and researched the works of the Gujarati language poet, Mareez. He was also influenced by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and the human rights activist Mukul Sinha during this period. Following his graduation, he enrolled at the Bhavan's College, Ahmedabad for a postgraduate diploma, in journalism and mass communication, which he received in 2004.
Activism
Early career
In 2004, Mevani shifted to Mumbai and became a journalist with the Gujarati language news magazine called Abhiyaan. He worked at the magazine for three years before quitting journalism to become an activist. He also briefly worked for a Gujarati language daily newspaper during this period. In his testimony, he states that he "realised that idealism and realism are two different things" and came to the final decision to quit career as a journalist after watching the Gujarati documentary on farmers' suicides called Khedu Mora Re.''Mevani started his activism through trade unions, and returned to Gujarat in 2008. He worked with the RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala with whom he visited several places to study the causes and issues leading to farmers' suicides. Eventually, he joined the civil rights organisation run by Mukul Sinha, called Jan Sangharsh Manch. In order to combat issues of discrimination against Dalits, he grew associations with activists such as Manjula Pradeep and Martin Macwan of the Navsarjan Trust and the Dalit Shakti Kendra. He also worked with the activist lawyer Girish Patel and the Gandhian activists Chunilal Vaidya for farmers' rights, land reform and the development of sustainable rural economies. Subsequently, he began leading an agitation for increasing the salaries of sanitation workers. Mevani states that he drew his last salary of ₹15,000 in August 2007 and relied on 10–15 friends to provide him with ₹1,000–1,500 for his monthly expenses in order to continue working as a full time activist.
In 2009, Mevani had led a JSM survey in the districts of Surendranagar and Ahmedabad to study the distribution of surplus government land to landless Dalits under provisions of the Gujarat Agriculture Land Ceiling Act. The findings of the survey revealed that the allotment of land had occurred only on paper and physical transfers of land had been denied. Over the course of the following years, he fought a long drawn out campaign over the allotment of land, in the process filing around 110 RTIs till 2015. Mevani was encouraged to pursue a degree in law in order to be better equipped to assist individuals in need of legal representation. He enrolled in the DT Law College of the Gujarat University while continuing his campaign over land issues during his studies. He graduated for a second time with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2013, and became a practising activist lawyer at the Gujarat High Court, representing landless Dalits in their cases. He also joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and became its Gujarat spokesperson.
In 2015, Mevani initiated a public interest litigation at the High Court for the allocation of 56,873 acres of surplus government land to landless labourers in Gujarat. Due to his activism over the years, he gathered a following and a support base among workers' groups and Dalits.
Una incident and Dalit protests
Mevani rose to national prominence during the protests following the Una flogging incident. On 11 July 2016, seven Dalit youths were tortured in the town of Una, Gujarat on the pretext of cow protection and in the presence of the police. The assailants had filmed the incident and it was widely shared over social media. The incident culminated into a mass movement and large scale militancy among Dalits in the state. In midst of the protests, around 30 Dalit rights organisations had combined to form the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti. The committee announced that a mass demonstration and assembly against caste based atrocities and discrimination was to be held in Ahmedabad on 30 July 2016. Mevani was one of the key organisers of the event, and was appointed the convener of the committee.Dalit ''mahasabha'' and #Chalo Una march
The Dalit mahasabha was held on 31 July 2016, after several refusals and delays in the grant of permission by the state administration. The government granted the venue of Archer Depot, a small water clogged ground to the organisers. It witnessed an assembly of around 20,000 people, consisting of ragpickers, scavengers, tanners, landless farm labourers, among others. The assembly which consisted mostly of young people also saw non-Dalits participants such as upper caste liberals, human rights activists, Muslims and other backward castes. The gathering became one of the largest demonstrations for the cause of Dalits in the recent history of Gujarat. Mevani gave a speech during the assembly and was received with a wave of approval from the participants. The assembly invited a number of other speakers from a variety of backgrounds but due to the small size of the ground, many of people left early as they had to stand outside across the road.The momentum garnered in the demonstration led the assembly to conclude with the decision to carry out a swabhiman yatra on foot, from Ahmedabad to Una, covering a distance of 380 km. The march was alternatively designated as the Dalit Asmita Yatra, the Azaadi Kooch, or the #Chalo Una march. It began on 5 August and was led by Mevani along with a core group of 70 marchers, the numbers swelled up to thousands throughout the duration of the march as Dalits from across the state joined along various parts of it. The marchers also included activists from the Navsarjan Trust, the Jan Sangharsh Manch and the Communist Party of India.
One of the primary messages of the march was to encourage the Dalit community to leave their traditional caste based occupations and to demand the distribution of 5 acres of land to every landless Dalit in the state. Mevani was instrumental in making the issue of land reform and the allocation of land to landless Dalits a major demand of the protest reasoning that if Dalits had the land, they would not have to engage in their traditional occupations such as skinning and disposing of dead cows. His speeches drew massive crowds which was credited to his understanding of Dalit issues combined with oratorical skill. He coined the slogan "Gaaye nu puchhdu taame rakho, aamne amaari jameen aapo" which came to be in widespread use throughout the protests. In the process, Mevani became a notional leader for the protests across the state since the incident.
On the route, the march received support from Scheduled Caste villages and no opposition or support from others. Activities such as meetings, distribution of radical literature, etc were confined to the SC villages. Large number of Dalits across the state took oaths to refrain from handling cow carcasses, including the tanners of 25 villages who took collective vows to stop performing their caste based occupation of disposing of dead cows. The procession stopped for the night at various towns and villages through their ten day foot march; Dholka town on 5 August, Koth village on 6 August, Dhandhuka town on 7 August, Barvala village on 8 August, Botad town on 9 August, Gadhada town on 10 August, passing through Amreli and halting at Savarkundla on 11 August, and reaching the town of Rajula on the night of 12 August. From 13 August onwards, the eighth day of the march, as the group approached closer to Una, locals from non-SC villages and Hindu nationalists began attacking the procession with stones, blockading their route and harassing the participants.
The march eventually came to an end on 15 August after covering 350 km and with a mass meeting in the small village of Mota Samdhiyala. Situated near the town of Una, the village was the residence and place of origin of the victims of the Una incident, and witnessed a gathering of around 15,000 Dalits from around the state in the mass meeting. The assembly also saw the attendance of the Republican Panthers among Dalits, as well as a significant number of Muslims and students from various educational institutions. Due to the attacks on the march, the organisers were fearful of an incident on the day and decided to invite only two speakers who were already in the media spotlight, Mevani himself and the student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. Mevani presented a charter of 10 demands of the UDALS which included justice for the victims of the Una atrocity, alternative livelihood options, legal frameworks for the protection of Dalits against similar atrocities and 5 acres of land for every landless Dalit household in the state, along with a 30 day ultimatum seeking a response from the government. Radhika Vemula, the mother of Rohith Vemula, was also present and concluded the event with a flag salutation.