ABSTRACT
four dalit villagers and i engaged in a conversation on village politics in early March 2003, on a wooden cot in Rajubhai’s front room. During the course of my stay in Rajubhai’s house, it had become a regular practice for Dalit labourers to gather at his house to talk about various things. On that occasion, we discussed the forthcoming anti-war demonstration in Calcutta scheduled for 22 March. Many villagers from Dumari were planning to go to Calcutta for the demonstration. One of them recalled, rather nostalgically, the demonstrations organized by the Sangathan in the early 1980s. He described how men, women and children from Dumari had enthusiastically taken part in every one of them. But his tone changed as he contrasted those demonstrations with the prevailing situation. ‘Comrade, you have been with us for almost a year,’ he said to me, ‘you surely have observed that not many people from Dumari go for demonstrations and meetings now. We are not happy with the way the Sangathan is going about things’.
