This is the taluka where Tata Motors has parked its small car project. Nano has become a symbol of Gujarat's pride and became a centre of attraction at the last Vibrant Gujarat investment summit in January 2009. .
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But scratch the surface, and the scene is gloomy beneath this economic boom in the state. Bhikhabhai Solanki, 50, a native of Lodariyal village, has never shaken hands with non-Dalits in his life. Bhikhabhai, an agricultural labourer, is Valmiki by caste - the lowest of the socially downtrodden. "We are untouchables and nobody touches us here," he says. .
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The farmer he works for keeps a tea-cup outside his house. Whenever Bhikhabhai arrived for work in the morning or leaves after finishing in the evening, tea is poured into the cup. Strangely, this form of untouchability goes in the name of religion. These cups are called 'Ram patra'.
The practice thrives across Gujarat, without exception, and has been documented extensively in a first-of-its-kind study on a large scale, representing 98,000 Dalits across 1,655 villages in Gujarat. The study has been carried out by Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust with three US-based organisations - the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Dartmouth College at the University of Michigan and Robert F Kennedy Centre for Social Justice and Human Rights, Washington, D.C. Full story...
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But scratch the surface, and the scene is gloomy beneath this economic boom in the state. Bhikhabhai Solanki, 50, a native of Lodariyal village, has never shaken hands with non-Dalits in his life. Bhikhabhai, an agricultural labourer, is Valmiki by caste - the lowest of the socially downtrodden. "We are untouchables and nobody touches us here," he says. .
.
The farmer he works for keeps a tea-cup outside his house. Whenever Bhikhabhai arrived for work in the morning or leaves after finishing in the evening, tea is poured into the cup. Strangely, this form of untouchability goes in the name of religion. These cups are called 'Ram patra'.
The practice thrives across Gujarat, without exception, and has been documented extensively in a first-of-its-kind study on a large scale, representing 98,000 Dalits across 1,655 villages in Gujarat. The study has been carried out by Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust with three US-based organisations - the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Dartmouth College at the University of Michigan and Robert F Kennedy Centre for Social Justice and Human Rights, Washington, D.C. Full story...
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