Caste Demands Demotion to Win State Jobs

India's army moved to restore order in Rajasthan yesterday, after nine people died in rioting by 30,000 members of a caste demanding to be downgraded to put them on a par with untouchables who benefit from affirmative action to gain government jobs and university places.

Police shot four people dead in battles with Gujjars, traditionally sheep-rearers, who blocked traffic near Jaipur. Crowds then gathered in Bundi, three hours' drive from Jaipur, and four more protesters died, while an officer was said to have been beaten to death; the crowds were reportedly armed.

Some 30,000 protesters were last night blockading the highway linking the pink palaces of Jaipur with Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. Rajasthan's director general of police, Kanhaiya Lal, told CNN-IBN TV news: "More troops are coming in."

The Gujjars claim to be a tribal group subject to thousands of years of discrimination. Untouchables, the lowest strata, and tribal groups benefit from India's affirmative action scheme, the largest in the world, but the issue is explosive when employment and education are at stake.

Gujjars represent more than 10% of Rajasthan's 55 million population, and are near the bottom of the hierarchy - but not low enough to guarantee easy access to quotas. "Gujjars benefit from some government affirmative action schemes," said Chandra Bhan Prasad, a writer on caste and himself a dalit or untouchable. "The problem for the Gujjars is that they face too much competition from rival farming castes. They want an easier competition, from the lowest castes such as dalits and tribals, and therefore agitate to be socially downgraded. But their claim has no social, cultural or historical validity."