Two summers of Gujjar highway and rail blockades in Rajasthan, in 2007 and 2008, failed to win the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status they demanded. Police firing and clashes killed more than 70 people by PTI's count. The Vasundhara Raje government settled in June 2008 with a 5% quota in a new "special" category, which the Rajasthan High Court stayed in 2009.
OBC in Rajasthan, ST next door
Rajasthan's Gujjars went onto the OBC list in 1994. In Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Gujjars are STs. So are the Meenas, who live alongside Gujjars in eastern Rajasthan and have held that status since 1954, according to Outlook Tribune Outlook. The Tribune and Mainstream reported that Gujjars felt squeezed once the better-off Jats joined the OBC list in 1999 Tribune Mainstream.
Claim · Gujjar leaders Gujjar leaders say Vasundhara Raje promised in the 2003 Assembly campaign to recommend them for the ST list, and a PUCL chronology dates the promise to a Kishangarh meeting on 18 June 2003 PUCL draft via Kafila. Government's position Raje denied it, saying ST status is a constitutional matter for the Centre Tribune.
Kirori Singh Bainsla, from Karauli, rose from sepoy to colonel and retired in 1991 Tribune. The Gurjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (GASS) was formed under him at a Jaipur meeting on 18 June 2006, and he led it until his son took over. Gujjars blocked rail lines at Hindaun that September PUCL draft via Kafila.
Five highway sites and Section 144
Meeting in Hindaun on 10 May 2007, GASS announced road blockades at five sites on national highways. Among them were Patoli-Peepal Khera on the Jaipur-Agra road (NH-11) and the Bundi stretch of the Jaipur-Kota road. Bainsla's pamphlet asked people to protest peacefully PUCL draft via Kafila.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 took effect in six districts from the evening of 27 May. According to the PUCL account, police began arresting local Gujjar leaders the next day PUCL draft via Kafila.
29 May 2007: firing at Patoli and Bundi
Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said 12 protesters died in police firing in Bundi and Dausa districts that day and a policeman was "bludgeoned to death". The Army was sent to Dausa Al Jazeera.
Protesters' and civil rights account
A 24-member team from PUCL Rajasthan, PUDR Delhi and AFDR visited the firing sites on 9 and 10 June 2007. It said the violence at Patoli "was initiated by the police" through a night-long operation on 28 May. It said police fired around 7.30 am on 29 May "even though the highway was not blocked". At least three of the dead were shot in the back, and bodies were found 100 to 300 metres from the road, the team said. It found the firing "Unwaranted, Excessive and Inhuman" and said the mandatory warning was ignored PUCL-PUDR-AFDR. Gujjar leader Avinash Badana said police fired on "unarmed people" Al Jazeera.
Police and administration account
Dausa district collector HK Damor said police first tried to negotiate, then tried to move protesters, which "sparked the clashes", and fired only when the protest turned violent Al Jazeera. Dausa SP P. Ramji told the PUCL team that crowds came armed, began stoning between 6 and 7 am, and that firing was ordered after a constable was dragged away. "Then we fired in self defence," he said, adding that more than 23 constables were seriously injured and that only people on the highway were hit PUCL draft via Kafila. Witnesses said Gujjars "armed with swords, guns and sticks" fought pitched battles with police Al Jazeera.
Gujjars against Meenas
Meenas feared losing their share of ST jobs and seats VOA, and on 2 June 2007 the two sides fought with sticks and stones in Dausa district BBC via Financial Express.
Claim · PUCL-PUDR-AFDR The civil rights team alleged that "senior functionaries" of the government provoked Meenas against Gujjars, and that police stood by during an attack at Ghata near Lalsot that killed four PUCL-PUDR-AFDR. No government response to this was found.
Food and civil supplies minister Kirodi Lal Meena told Outlook he had told a tribal rally in October 2006 "that under no condition would the Gujjars be given ST status". By his account, 23 of the state's 32 district magistrates had reported that Gujjars did not qualify Outlook. Outlook also reported that Meena youths attacked two elderly Gujjar men on the morning after the deal.
A deal, a "national shame", and the Chopra report
On 4 June 2007 Gujjar groups blocked roads into Delhi. That evening Raje and Bainsla agreed on a committee to examine the ST demand VOA, three members headed by a retired High Court judge, reporting in three months. The next day the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the damage, calling it a "national shame" Business Standard. Retired Justice Jasraj Chopra chaired the committee, and its term was extended in September 2007 UNI via Oneindia.
The report went in during December 2007 and was not made public. According to The Tribune, it found Gujjars could not be given ST status under the existing criteria, while saying those criteria needed updating. The state cabinet sent it to the Centre "as it is" and set up a sub-committee to draw up a special package Tribune. A committee under BJP leader Ramdas Agarwal later proposed Rs 282 crore for Gujjar areas. Bainsla turned it down and called the May 2008 rail blockade Tribune.
Bodies on the tracks at Pilupura
About 3,000 people blocked the Delhi-Mumbai line near Dumariya station in Bharatpur district on 23 May 2008 UNI via Oneindia. Kataria said police used tear gas, 80 rubber bullets and shots in the air before opening fire, as protesters threw stones and lynched a policeman. Protesters later pulled up about 3 km of track. The state ordered a judicial inquiry by retired High Court judge Fateh Chand Bansal PTI via Tribune, whose findings were not found in the sources reviewed. Officials said a Karauli arrest warrant against Bainsla was pending PTI via Tribune. Outlook had reported that he was charged with murder Outlook.
About 31 people died in two days of firing at Pilupura near Bayana and at Sikandra in Dausa, PTI reported PTI via Tribune. Bharatpur SP Rohit Mahajan said 84 Gujjar villages around the site kept it supplied. The state fenced the area, cut water and power to nearby villages and jammed mobile phones Tribune.
The bodies of the dead stayed on the tracks. Bainsla said this was "so that the government does not fabricate the post-mortem reports" Tribune. After autopsies, 13 of the 16 bodies at Pilupura went to families on the night of 2 June, and post-mortems began at the Sikandra protest site that day UNI via Oneindia.
On 26 May Raje recommended 4 to 6% reservation for Gujjars as a denotified or nomadic tribe, which Bainsla called "a farce" PTI via Tribune. Three days later the blockades reached Delhi, where police detained over 120 people and 18 trains were cancelled Tribune.
Protesters' account
Bainsla said "unarmed, innocent people are being killed with impunity" and demanded that Raje come to the protest site Arab News. In a petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), S.K. Bainsla and Anurag Kasana alleged that at least 50 Gujjars were killed and that police fired "without following the established norms". The NHRC sent a team to Bharatpur in June 2008 NHRC.
Police and government account
Officials said police fired on a mob that stoned them, used batons, and fired country-made rifles, and that vehicles including a police jeep were set alight UNI via Oneindia. At Sikandra, the SHO said a mob overpowered police and set the station on fire before police opened fire PTI via Tribune. Claim · Ajai Sahni In an Outlook column, security analyst Ajai Sahni wrote that the policeman was killed "well before" police used force, and that police fired only after tear gas and rubber bullets failed SATP (Outlook column).
Death counts by source
No official total for both years was found, and the figures below cover different periods.
- 29 May 2007: 12 protesters and one policeman, per home minister Kataria Al Jazeera.
- May-June 2007 round: 23, per the BBC on 2 June and VOA on 4 June BBC via Financial Express VOA; 25, including two constables, per the civil rights team PUCL-PUDR-AFDR; 26, per The Tribune Tribune.
- 23 May 2008: 15, including a constable, per Kataria and police; 17, per local media; 19, including three police, per the state Congress UNI via Oneindia.
- May-June 2008 round: 31 after two days, per PTI PTI via Tribune; 37 by 27 May, per Arab News Arab News; "nearly 40", per a Tribune editorial Tribune; 42, per Ajai Sahni SATP; at least 50 Gujjars, per the petition to the NHRC NHRC.
- Both years: about 70, per The Tribune in June 2008 Tribune; "over 70", per PTI in 2022 PTI via Tribune; 72 Gujjars, per MLA Hanuman Beniwal in 2019 The Wire.
The 18 June deal: 5% for Gujjars, Rebaris and Banjaras
Preliminary talks were set for Bayana on 9 June 2008 PTI via Tribune. The final round, on 17 June in Jaipur, ran nine hours between an 11-member Gujjar team and a government team led by BJP leader Ram Das Agarwal PTI via Tribune.
Raje announced the next day 5% reservation for Gujjars, Rebaris and Banjaras as a special category, plus 14% for the poor among upper castes. The quota "would not have any adverse effect on the present reservation system", she said. Bainsla thanked her PTI via Tribune.
We hope there will be no need for any more agitation on the issue.
Kirori Singh Bainsla, Jaipur, 18 June 2008 (PTI via Tribune)
68% and the 50% ceiling
According to lawyer Rajeev Dhavan, the Assembly passed the law on 16 July 2008 DailyO. The Act kept quotas of 16% for SCs, 12% for STs and 21% for OBCs and added 5% for Special Backward Classes (SBC) and 14% for economically backward classes, 68% in all. Ashok Gehlot's Congress government, in office by then, notified four communities including Gujjars as SBC on 25 August 2009. On 12 October 2009 the High Court issued an interim order barring reservation above 50% The Wire Governance Now.
A High Court division bench found in 2010 that the Chopra committee had not provided adequate data, and the state hired a research institute to collect data on 82 OBC castes The Wire.
The Supreme Court's suo motu case on the 2007 damage ended in a 16 April 2009 judgment adopting guidelines on liability for damage to property during protests iPleaders. In that case the Rajasthan DGP had told the court in 2007 of 352 FIRs and 2,081 preventive arrests UNI via Oneindia.
From ST status to a separate 5%
After 2008 Gujjars pressed for a separate 5% quota rather than ST status, and every version ran into the 50% ceiling. In 2010 they marched on Jaipur to demand that the stayed quota be put into effect Governance Now, and an agreement that May offered 1% to stay within 50% DailyO.
A new SBC Act in 2015 took total reservation to 54%. The High Court struck it down on 9 December 2016, and the five communities went back to the OBC list Sabrang SCC Online. The Malarna Dungar rail blockade won a 5% "Most Backward Classes" law in February 2019, and Bainsla died on 31 March 2022 PTI via Tribune. The 2019 law, the protests of 2020 and 2025 and the demand for Ninth Schedule protection are covered in the 2019 Gujjar quota agitation.
Neither the Bansal inquiry nor the NHRC investigation into the 2008 firing has published findings that could be found. Ajai Sahni wrote in 2008 that cases from the 2007 violence had not been followed up SATP. The ST status that started the movement was never granted.
Sources
- Al Jazeera (agencies): India protest turns violent, 29 May 2007
- BBC via Financial Express: More killed in Rajasthan violence, 3 June 2007
- VOA: India's ethnic community calls off protests, 4 June 2007
- Business Standard: Reservation? Me too!, June 2007
- Mainstream: Harbinger of Genuine Change?, 9 June 2007
- PUCL, PUDR and AFDR: Civil rights investigation into police firings on Gurjar agitation (interim report), 11 June 2007
- UNI via Oneindia: Police of four states file affidavits on Gujjar violence, 15 June 2007
- Outlook: Scorched Pasture (June 2007 report, archive)
- UNI via Oneindia: BJP favours economic status based reservation, 12 Sept 2007
- Tribune editorial: Ire of Gujjars, 21 Dec 2007
- PTI via Tribune: 15 die in Bharatpur police firing; judicial probe ordered, 24 May 2008
- UNI via Oneindia: Situation tense in Bayana; Gujjars stage dharna with bodies, 24 May 2008
- PTI via Tribune: 15 Gujjars die in Dausa firing, 25 May 2008
- PTI via Tribune: Gujjars reject Raje's letter, stir to go on, 27 May 2008
- Arab News: Gujjar agitation spreads; death toll reaches 37, 27 May 2008
- Tribune: Gujjars soften stand; Gujjars block roads in Delhi, 30 May 2008
- UNI via Oneindia: Bodies removed from dharna site, 3 June 2008
- Ajai Sahni, Outlook (via SATP): The Lowest Form of Politics, 6 June 2008
- PTI via Tribune: Preliminary talks likely today, 9 June 2008
- Kafila: Kavita Srivastava's (PUCL) draft report on the 2007 Gujjar confrontation, 11 June 2008
- NHRC: A six member NHRC team visiting Bharatpur, 12 June 2008
- PTI via Tribune: Gujjars, govt strike deal, 18 June 2008
- PTI via Tribune: 5% quota for Gujjars, 19 June 2008
- Tribune editorial: Gujjar agitation ends, 19 June 2008
- Tribune Spectrum: Storm in the desert, 22 June 2008
- iPleaders: Re Destruction of Public and Private Properties v State of AP, case study
- Governance Now: Gujjars are back!, 15 Apr 2010
- Rajeev Dhavan, DailyO: How Rajasthan government and Kirori Singh Bainsla are fooling each other, 1 June 2015
- SCC Online: High Court quashes 5% reservation beyond the 50% ceiling, 22 Dec 2016
- Sabrang: Gujjars and 4 other castes re-included in OBC list, 2017
- The Wire: Rajasthan govt likely to take a major decision on Gujjar agitation this week, Feb 2019
- PTI via Tribune: Face of Gurjar quota protests Kirodi Singh Bainsla dies at 84, 31 Mar 2022