Protest of Hiring Practices Disrupts India's Capital

By VIBHUTI AGARWAL and KRISHNA POKHAREL
May 30, 2008 Wall Street Journal

NEW DELHI -- Clashes between Indian authorities and a group seeking preferential treatment in government hiring spilled into the capital, hampering business and paralyzing traffic.

The disturbances in New Delhi followed several days of more-violent protests elsewhere. Earlier in the week in the western state of Rajasthan, police shot and killed almost 40 Gujjars, as the group is known. A policeman also died.

Gujjars are a traditionally nomadic people who populate states across the north and west of India. The ethnic group includes farmers, businessmen and technicians. But many in Rajasthan want to be considered among the lowest on India's social pecking order so they can qualify for more extensive hiring quotas in jobs, education and the civil service in the state.

Their protests follow similar demonstrations last year. In fast-growing and increasingly prosperous India, there are many aggrieved groups seeking increased government benefits.

Gujjars, according to the Indian government, fall in a broad social segment known officially as "Other Backward Classes," which account for about 50% of India's population. While they qualify for some preferential treatment, the reservation system is more extensive for those at the very bottom, known as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, who make up 25% of the population.

The protesting Gujjars note that at the time of India's independence in 1947 they had the same socio-economic standing as Meenas, an indigenous tribe that receives a greater share of government quotas. While Meenas' condition improved significantly in the past 60 years because of the quotas, the Gujjars' situation deteriorated.

In Rajasthan's 200-member legislature, for instance, there are only eight Gujjar members, though the group represents more than 8% of Rajasthan's population, while the Meenas, with only 4.5% of the population, have 31 members.

"Meenas and Gujjars are like brothers but it's the Gujjars who have been left far behind," said Ramveer Singh Bidhuri, a Gujjar leader in Delhi.

The Gujjars also say the government of Rajasthan has reneged on a promise to extend them greater reservations in hiring.

On Thursday, Gujjars in New Delhi blocked roads and forced many markets to close. "It's not a political question, it's a survival question for thousands of impoverished Gujjars in Rajasthan," said Devender Khari, a Gujjar youth in Delhi who is a computer engineer. "We are not demanding for the well-off Gujjars in Delhi, but for our people in Rajasthan."

Nearly 40,000 police and paramilitary forces were deployed in Delhi and neighboring areas to maintain control. Police said there were minor incidents of violence, and traffic was paralyzed for much of the day.