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A Bhagwat Katha narrator was brutally beaten and humiliated by the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district.

Mukut Mani Singh Yadav, a kathavachak (holy text narrator), was invited to Dandarpura village for a Bhagwat Katha (a Hindu religious recital) from June 21 to 27.

However, on his first day, Brahmins from the village questioned his motives and accused him of being a Dalit and intentionally hiding his caste.

What followed was a vicious assault on Yadav. He was thrashed, tonsured, his clothes torn and forced to rub his nose on a woman’s foot. Another shows him being denigrated as a “false Pandit” and being forced to touch the feet of local village elders.

The Brahmins broke his harmonium, his only source of livelihood. 

The videos went quickly viral on social media platforms. The following day, Yadav spoke to local media, narrating the ordeal.

“They asked me, ‘how dare you come into a village of Brahmins, posing as a pandit while being a Chamaar?’ They cut off all my hair and brought the urine of a village elder’s wife to throw on me,” he said.

Yadav’s companion, Shyam Kethariya, who was also invited, faced similar humiliation. “They cut off our hair, and then chanted slogans of ‘Jai Bajrangbali’,” Kethariya told reporters.

Heartless, undemocratic govt: Oppn

Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh have strongly condemned the incident and accused the Yogi Adityanath government of Dalit atrocities.

On Tuesday, June 23, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav presented Mukti Mani Singh Yadav and Kethariya with an amount of Rs 21,000 each and the Samajwadi Party announced a help of Rs 51,000 each, at a special facilitation ceremony held at the party office. “The Bhagavat Katha is for everyone; when everyone can listen, why can’t everyone speak?” he asked reporters.

Earlier, in a post, party chief Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at the ruling government, stating that the Indian Constitution does not allow caste-based discrimination. “This is a crime committed against the fundamental right to live with dignity and respect. All the accused should be immediately arrested, and a case should be registered under the appropriate sections. If strict action is not taken within the next 3 days, we will call for a major movement to ‘protect the dignity and honour of PDA,” he said in an X tweet.

Azad Samaj Party President and Nagina MP, Chandrashekhar Azad, described the assault as a representative of a larger trend against Constitutional values and the lower castes. “This is not only a shameful act of casteist terrorism but also a direct attack on the self-respect, Constitution, and humanity of the Bahujan community. This cannot be tolerated under any circumstances,” he wrote on X. 

Azad further demanded that all accused be arrested and refused political protection, the creation of a special judicial committee to supervise the investigation, the application of stringent sections of the SC/ST Act, and Rs 10 lakh from the government to be given to the victims as compensation, along with security.

Four persons arrested so far  

“So far, four people have been arrested. They were responsible for shaving Yadav’s head. Over 50 people face FIRs under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava told reporters.