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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
The '''Worli riots''' refers to the violence that occurred in the ''[[chawl]]'', or tenement, in the [[Worli]] neighborhood of [[Mumbai]] between January and April 1974. The riots began on 5 January 1974 after the police attempted to disperse a rally of the [[Dalit Panthers]] that had turned violent. Regular clashes between the Dalit Panthers, the [[Shiv Sena]], and the police continued for several months. Six people were killed in the riots, and approximately 113 injured; widespread property damage also occurred in the tenements. The riots have been described as anti-[[Dalit]] violence by scholars.

==Background==
A larger number of unemployed youth lived in the Worli neighborhood of Mumbai in the 1970s. These youth frequently organized themselves into gangs which included individuals from multiple caste backgrounds, brought together by their lower-class status and their shared life in the Worli ''chawls'',<ref name="GT1979">{{cite journal|last1=Gokhale‐Turner|first1=Jayashree B.|title=The dalit panthers and the radicalisation of the untouchables|journal=The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics|date=1979|volume=17|issue=1|doi=10.1080/14662047908447324}}</ref> or tenements.<ref name="Rao">{{cite book|last1=Rao|first1=Anupama|title=The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India|date=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25559-3|pages=182-216|via=[[Project MUSE]]|url-access=subscription |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/25913}}</ref> These youth were often associated with the [[Shiv Sena]], a [[Hindutva|Hindu nationalist]] political party, which gave them "ideological and organisational focus", and which used them to mobilise support during elections.<ref name="GT1979"/> However, the formation of the [[Dalit Panthers]], which drew inspiration from the [[Black Panthers]] in the United States and advocated for [[Dalit]] rights, led to Dalit youth moving towards the new organisation, leading to conflict between the two groups. Support for the Sena declined. The Sena accused the Dalit Panthers of damaging [[Maharashtra|Maharashtrian]] unity by raising issues of [[Caste system in India|caste]]. The Panthers stated that the Sena only represented upper-caste Hindus, and did not offer Dalits a way to overcome systemic inequality.<ref name="GT1979"/>

The Worli riots occurred during a time of dissatisfaction with the [[Indian National Congress]] government in Maharastra. This dissatisfaction resulted in political tension; for example, on 2 January 1974, various communist organisations had called for a "Maharashtra Bandh Day" ("Shut Down Maharashtra Day"); the call had the support of several opposition parties, as well as the Dalit Panthers.<ref name="GT1979"/> A [[by-election]] to the Maharashtra legislative assembly had been scheduled for January 1974. The candidate of the Congress had the support of most of the [[Republican Party of India]], which had historically commanded substantial support among Dalits. The Dalit Panthers opposed any agreement with the Congress, and asked Dalit voters to boycott the bypoll.<ref name="GT1979"/>

==Riots==
The riots began on 5 January 1974. The events which triggered the riots are in dispute. The violence began after speakers at a rally of the Dalit Panthers were stoned: they were accused of having made obscene statements about Hindu deities.<ref name="GT1979"/><ref name="Rao"/> Bhagwat Jadhav, a member of the Dalit Panthers, was killed by a grinding stone thrown at the rally.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-13/nashik/31336719_1_dalit-leaders-jogendra-kawade-rpi|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130820024728/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-13/nashik/31336719_1_dalit-leaders-jogendra-kawade-rpi|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 August 2013|title=Dalit Panther founder launches new body|date=13 April 2002|work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=5 March 2018}}</ref> Reacting to the violence, the police attempted to disperse the crowd using [[tear gas]] and baton charges. The crowd was pushed into the close-packed slum area of the neighborhood; 70% of the inhabitants of this area were non-Dalits. Members of the Shiv Sena followed the gathering, and began to attack them; the Dalits retaliated.<ref name="GT1979"/><ref name="Rao"/><ref name="Zelliot1996">{{cite encyclopedia|editor-first=Anne|editor-last=Feldhaus|encyclopedia=Images of Women in Maharashtrian Literature and Religion|first=Eleanor|last=Zelliot|title=The New Voice of Women Poets|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooV3Rz9zQvQC&pg=PA65|year=1996|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-2837-5|pages=65–}}</ref> Dalits and non-Dalit Hindus were reported to have attacked each other with stones and glass bottles.<ref name="Rao"/>

The violence continued the next morning; intermittent violence would continue in the Worli tenements until April 1974, and also spread to other parts of the city of Mumbai; an eyewitness stated that gangs of people threw stones at each other, often from terraces of the tenements.<ref name="Rao"/> Electric bulbs, acid, and kerosene bombs were also thrown.<ref name="Rao"/> Being in a numerical minority in these neighborhoods, Dalits bore the brunt of this violence.<ref name="Rao"/> The local police supported the attacks on the Dalits; one of the Dalit men killed in the violence was the victim of police firing.<ref name="Zelliot1996"/><ref name="Mhasker">{{cite news|last1=Mhasker|first1=Sumeet|title=Violence Against Dalits in Maharashtra Is Not New, but Dalit Reaction to It Is Changing|url=https://thewire.in/caste/violence-dalits-maharashtra-not-new-dalit-reaction-changing|access-date=24 March 2018|work=The Wire|date=15 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="Gupta2007">{{cite encyclopedia|editor-first1=Christa Davis|editor-last1=Acampora|editor-first2=Angela L.|editor-last2=Cotten|encyclopedia=Unmaking Race, Remaking Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpc1hFWsrIMC&pg=PA203|year=2007|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-7979-7|title=Dalit Women's Literature|first=Nandita|last=Gupta|page=203}}</ref> A number of the eye-witnesses stated that the police sided with the Shiv Sena, and that members of the police who were not on duty were part of the Hindu mob.<ref name="Rao"/> Six people were killed in the violence, and 113 were estimated to have been injured. The police opened fire on violence mobs on 19 occasions. 70 complexes within the Worli tenement were damaged, affecting over half of its residents.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Group Violence in a Neighbourhood – A Case Study of Worli BDD Chawls in Bombay | author =R N Sharma | author2 =C A K Yesudian | journal =Indian Journal of Social Work | volume =43 | issue =4 | pages =420–421 |date =January 1983 }}</ref>

Scholarly analysis of the 1974 riots has generally described the incidents as anti-Dalit violence. Historian [[Eleanor Zelliot]] described the riots as an attack on Dalit Buddhists by their Hindu neighbors.<ref name="Zelliot1996"/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jaoul|first1=Nicolas|title=Politicizing victimhood: the Dalit Panthers’ response to caste violence in Uttar Pradesh in the early 1980s|journal=South Asian Popular Culture|date=2013|volume=11|issue=2|pages=169–179|doi=10.1080/14746689.2013.784067}}</ref> Scholar Jayashree Gokhale‐Turner stated that the nature of the police's response to the violence was seen as a warning to the Dalit Panthers to moderate their methods.<ref name="GT1979"/> Scholar Anupama Rao stated that the Worli were part of a systematic attempt by non-Dalit Hindus to undermine the influence of "neo-Buddhists", or Dalits who had followed [[B. R. Ambedkar]] in converting to Buddhism.<ref name="GT1979"/><ref name="Rao"/> Rao referred to the riots as "an important landmark in Dalit politics".<ref name="Rao"/>

==Inquiry and aftermath==
The Maharashtra Government ordered a judicial inquiry into the matter. The inquiry was led by S. B. Bhasme, a high court judge, and lasted until April 1974. The commission's report described the riots as a conflict between "caste Hindus and neo-Buddhists" and attributed much of the severity of the conflict to the physical proximity of Hindu and Buddhist chawls which facilitated stone throwing. Much evidence was also presented to the commission regarding partisan police behavior against Dalits, with some witnesses describing a "police riot".<ref name="Rao"/> The report did not mention the role of the Shiv Sena as an organisation, but stated that a large number of the perpetrators of the violence were supports of the Sena.<ref name="Rao"/>

The violence significantly lowered voter turnout among Dalit voters, and the Congress candidate lost the election to [[Roza Deshpande]], a candidate of the [[Communist Party of India]].<ref name="GT1979"/><ref name="Rao"/> The repression faced by the Dalit Panthers after the riots led to the organisation moderating its methods.<ref name="StraussO'Brien2007">{{cite encyclopedia|editor-first1=Julia C.|editor-last1=Strauss|editor-first2=Donal Cruise|editor-last2=O'Brien|encyclopedia=Staging Politics: Power and Performance in Asia and Africa|title=Dalit Processions|first=Nicolas|last=Jaoul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFKNH-U06VQC&pg=PA173|date=15 May 2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-367-4|page=179}}</ref> The riots brought the neighborhood of Worli into national prominence.<ref name="GT1979"/> The performance of the police was criticized in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly by a member of the legislature.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lok Rajya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ceRQXSMNWKEC|year=1973|publisher=Directorate-General of Information and Public Relations.|page=9|volume=29}}</ref> The riots have been described as triggering the end of a period of unity among the Dalit Panthers; the organisation would break into two factions later in 1974.<ref name="GT1979"/> Members of the Congress party were rumoured to have attended the rally, hoping to come to an agreement with the Panthers about the election. Though the rumours were never substantiated, they were the subject of a disagreement between factions of the Panthers, which played a role in the split that followed.<ref name="GT1979"/> The riots were referred to several times in Dalit poetry from the period.<ref name="Zelliot1996"/> In 2010, Dalit activist [[Namdeo Dhasal]] described the Worli riots as "showcasing the worst of [Indian] democracy."<ref>{{cite news|title=A nation’s progress|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/A-nationrsquos-progress/article16135236.ece|access-date=24 March 2018|work=The Hindu|date=14 August 2010}}</ref>

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author1=Sujata Patel|author2=Jim Masselos|title=Bombay and Mumbai: The City in Transition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmPuAAAAIAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-566317-4}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Riots in India}}

[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in India]]
[[Category:Dalit history]]
[[Category:Caste-related violence in India]]
[[Category:History of Mumbai (1947–present)]]
[[Category:1974 in India]]
[[Category:20th century in Mumbai]]
[[Category:1974 riots]]
[[Category:1974 crimes in India]]

Worli riots - Revision history

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