On March 11, a Dalit man in his twenties was thrashed and paraded naked in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district, according to PTI. A video of the incident, which took place in a village near Idar town, went viral on social media, showing the man being harassed and assaulted by a mob.
According to the police, the attack was carried out by the husband and relatives of a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair.
Reports of violence against Dalits continue to surface from across the country, with a number of cases coming from BJP-ruled states.
The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) Crime in India report for 2022 documented 57,582 cases of crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs), a 13.1 per cent increase from 2021.
The crime rate increased from 25.3 per cent in 2021 to 28.6 per cent in 2022.
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar—states governed by the BJP or its allies—reported the highest number of cases.
Man beaten to death on suspicion of theft in Gujarat (February, 2025)
In February 2025, three men in Gujarat’s Ghuma village beat a 40-year-old Dalit man to death on suspicion of theft, reported The Times of India. Identified as Indravadan Parmar, he was taken to the Bopal police station in an injured state before being rushed to a community health centre, where doctors declared him dead.
Man beaten to death over inter-caste relationship in Karnataka (January, 2025)
According to Hindustan Times, in January, 2025 an 18-year-old Dalit man was killed in Karnataka’s Bidar district by the family of an upper-caste woman he was in a relationship with. The police arrested the woman’s father and brother after they allegedly beat the youth with sticks.
Dalit youth tied upside down from tree in Rajasthan (January, 2025)
A Dalit youth was tied upside down from a tree and assaulted in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, reported Indian Express. A video of the incident, which went viral, showed the victim crying and pleading as he was beaten.
Following public outrage, the police registered a case.
Man beaten to death in Chhattisgarh (December, 2024)
In December 2024, a 50-year-old Dalit man was lynched in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district over theft allegations, according to The Hindu. According to the police, the victim, Panch Ram Sarthi, was tied to a pole and beaten with sticks by a mob.
Three people were arrested in connection with the attack.
Man beaten to death in Madhya Pradesh (November, 2024)
Madhya Pradesh, another BJP-ruled state, saw a brutal killing in November 2024, reported NDTV. In Shivpuri district’s Indragarh village, a Dalit man was beaten to death by the local sarpanch and his family over a dispute about watering a field.
A video of the incident, widely shared online, showed the sarpanch and his relatives throwing 28-year-old Narad Jatav to the ground and attacking him.
Dalit man gets thrashed for asking for wages in Bihar (October, 2024)
According to NDTV, in Bihar, a Dalit labourer was thrashed and subjected to casteist slurs by his employer and the employer’s son when he asked for his unpaid wages in October, 2024,
The victim, Rinku Manjhi, alleged that the accused and two others spat on him, with one even urinating on him. The police, however, stated that those claims were still under investigation.
Three boys thrashed in Uttar Pradesh (October, 2024)
In Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district, two poultry farm owners allegedly shaved the heads of three Dalit boys, blackened their faces, and paraded them around their village in October 2024, reported PTI. The accused claimed the boys had stolen 5 kg of wheat, but their families insisted they were tortured for skipping work.
NCRB data suggests caste-based violence has escalated in states governed by the BJP. Uttar Pradesh alone saw a 16 per cent rise in crimes against Dalits between 2021 and 2022, with cases increasing from 13,146 to 15,368.
