Rajasthan: Rajputs raging over encounter of gangster Anand Pal Singh at Nagaur

On July 12, a large Rajput crowd had gathered to mourn the death of gangster Anand Pal Singh at Nagaur's Sanwrad village. Singh had been killed in a police encounter on June 24, and the family and community members had been refusing to cremate the body.

Soon, anger spilled over with the Rajputs going on the rampage, ransacking the local railway station, uprooting tracks and nearly setting ablaze three Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. One civilian died and 25 police personnel, including a woman IPS trainee, sustained injuries.

The Vasundhara Raje government finally cracked down and forced the cremation the next day, but the incident brought to the fore the discontent among Rajputs. It was obvious the administration had been caught napping.

Blaming political rivals for the violence, the chief minister's supporters said it was an attempt to sabotage community talks, which were almost in the final stages. The police say they exercised "great restraint" during the violence, while later booking several Rajput leaders besides raiding Rajput Bhawan in Jaipur (the grounds of which are sacred for the community).

But why did the community take to the streets for a brigand? Analysts say the Rajputs are suffering from a collective persecution complex, engendered by the steady loss of political clout and dominance in government jobs since Independence. This, while the state's Jats gained power and influence. And Anand Pal Singh had the image of having taken on the 'Jat mafia'.

The Jats, who influence results in a fourth of Rajasthan's assembly constituencies, were granted quotas as OBCs, which helped them corner a majority of government jobs. A similar demand for reservations by Rajputs, who are scattered across the state, has not seen any action from successive governments in two decades. Analysts say that the current campaign around the gangster's killing was all about the community trying to assert itself (a parallel is being drawn with their Sati protests in 1987).

Aware of the growing anger, Raje has tried to make overtures, including participating in the commemoration of Rajput icon Tan Singh in Jodhpur in January. But her attempts have left the Rajputs cold. They point to the numbers in her lopsided administration-not one of the 33 district collectors or police superintendents is a Rajput. Raje, on July 18, has even agreed to refer the cases related to the Singh encounter killing and the ensuing violence to the CBI. But what the Rajputs really want is a position of prominence in what was once the warrior community's unquestioned bastion of Rajputana. That will be a tall order, even for Raje.