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A tribe in India is challenging the nation's centuries-old caste system by demanding that their official status be lowered in order to provide them better access to jobs and education.
Members of the Gujjar tribe blocked major roads and highways into Delhi in sit-down protests and set fire
to tyres as they vowed to create gridlock across India's capital and the surrounding area.
Some train services were suspended and many IT and outsourcing companies with offices in Delhi's satellite cities sent staff home early. In some places police fired tear gas at the stone-throwing demonstrators.
"This will go on until our demands are met," said Surjit Singh, a Gujjar protester who was standing in front of hundreds of cars.
According to Indian law, the Gujjars - many of whom live in the nearby desert state of Rajasthan - are classified as belonging to the country's second-lowest group, known as Other Backward Classes (OBC). In the complex, divisive system this category is one step up from the lowest level known as Scheduled Tribes and Castes (STC) otherwise known as Dalits, or "Untouchables".
The Gujjars say they have been discriminated against in terms of jobs, health care and education - particularly in Rajasthan - but by being reclassified as STC they will be eligible for government positions and university places reserved for that group.
The Indian Government reserves about half of all seats in state colleges and universities for lower castes and tribal groups - a huge affirmative-action plan it says is designed to counter centuries of discrimination.
Many have criticised the quota system, however, saying it accentuates caste differences at a time when India is seeking to modernise and develop economically and socially.
A government panel set up to look into the Gujjars' claims recommended a £40 million ($100 million) aid package be set aside for their community but ruled out reclassifying the tribe. That has not satisfied the Gujjars.
The unrest was the latest in several weeks of confrontations between the tribe and the police; 40 people have died in violence across the north and west of India. In a number of villages and towns in Rajasthan, police used live ammunition to suppress demonstrations, killing dozens of people. In one case, a policeman was lynched by protesters.
This time last year, 26 people were killed in similar demonstrations.
In Rajasthan yesterday, protesters blocked roads with the bodies of those demonstrators who were shot dead by police. They said the bodies would not be cremated until the government agreed to their demands. "The Rajasthan government must realise the mood of the people and not delay the implementation of quotas for Gujjars," said Avatar Singh Bhadana, a Gujjar leader and MP.
During the 1857 uprising against British colonial rule, Hindu and Muslim Gujjars fought tenaciously against the imperial troops and in support of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Moghul emperors. In the aftermath of the uprising, brutally suppressed by the British, the Gujjars and some 150 other ethnic groups were then listed as "criminal tribes".
This listing was officially lifted in 1952 under India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Two years earlier, India's constitution had outlawed discrimination based on caste though the practice remains widespread.
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