When a Scheduled Caste Jatav was Murdered for Selling Snacks to Upper Castes

"Even as early as the 1920s, the caste gave a public demonstration of its offensive stand. At that time a certain Jatav named Karan Singh sold snacks in Belaganj, Agra. A high caste person bought and ate, unknowingly, fried food from Karan Singh’s hand. In India food cooked by a lower caste person is polluting to an upper caste person; especially is it so when the cook is an Untouchable. When the fact of the seller’s caste became known there was a quarrel, and in the melee Karan Singh was beaten and died from the blows. The Jatavs organized a procession and angrily paraded through Belanganj. In an act of defiance they took out a bamboo pipe from the water stand (piao) there. The bamboo pipe was for the use of Scheduled Castes only; they were too polluted to receive a drink of water directly from the spigoted brass pot (sakha) meant for the touchable castes. After that, a law suit against the alleged killer was instituted and financed from donations by Jatav. Karan Singh is now proudly remembered as the first Jatav martyr (shahid).