LucasRowan at 15:31, 1 December 2024

2024-12-01T15:31:11Z

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{{Short description|Mass panic by police on protesters in India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox news event
|image=Adivasi_Gowari_Stampede_Memorial.jpg
|caption=Memorial of the Adivasi Gowari Stampede at Zero Mile, Nagpur
|date=23 November 1994
|time=5:30 [[Indian Standard Time|IST]]
|place=[[Nagpur]], India
|casualties1=114 dead
|casualties2=500 injured
}}

The '''1994 Gowari stampede''' occurred at [[Nagpur]], India on 23 November 1994 in which 114 people from the [[Gowari|Gowari community]] were killed and 500 more injured.<ref name="Highbeam">{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-920766.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019185843/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-920766.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-10-19|title=State Orders Probe After Stampede Kills 114|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1994-11-25|work=www.highbeam.com}}</ref> [[Nagpur Police]] were trying to disperse almost 50,000 Gowari protesters using a [[baton charge]] but it created panic and triggered a stampede amongst the protesters.<ref name="Indian Express">{{cite web
|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981231/36550294.html
|title=Dani exonerates Pawar; Govt rejects report
|accessdate=2008-05-02
|date=1998-12-31
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511073706/http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981231/36550294.html
|archive-date=11 May 2008
}}</ref> [[Gowari]]s are an ethnic group of central India and are predominantly present in Nagpur. The majority of casualties were women and children who were crushed to death under the crowd's feet as they scrambled to escape the police line. Some were victims of barbed wire piercing as they were climbing over high fences to escape. The [[Maharashtra]] state government appointed the one-man [[Justice S S Dani Commission]] to investigate the event,<ref name="Highbeam"/> but it held nobody responsible and referred to the tragedy as an "unfortunate" one. The Commission justified the police action of baton-charge to control such a huge crowd. The commission also cleared state Chief Minister [[Sharad Pawar]] and the rest of the government for any responsibility in the incident.<ref name="Rediff">{{cite web |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/dec/30dani.htm|title=Inquiry clears Pawar of blame for Gowari tragedy|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1998-12-30}}</ref> Maharashtra's Tribal Development Minister [[Madhukar Pichad]] later resigned, accepting moral responsibility for the tragedy.<ref name="Rediff"/>

== Stampede ==
Every year, the [[Winter Session of Maharashtra State Assembly|winter session of Maharashtra state assembly]], [[Vidhan Sabha]], is held at [[Vidhan Bhavan, Nagpur]]. For quite some time, the [[Gowari]] community had been demanding [[Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes|Scheduled Tribe]] status to avail themselves of the benefits of [[Reservation in India|reservations in government jobs and education]]. On 23 November 1994, Gowari protesters, led by Gowari Sanghatana, were trying to reach Vidhan Bhavan and present their demands to the state government. Nagpur police had earlier banned all protest marches during the winter session of the assembly. Nagpur Police stopped the march of 50,000 protesters at Nagpur's Vasantrao Naik College of Arts and Social Sciences (Morris college). However, no government official turned up to talk with protesters and resentment grew. Disturbances started amongst the crowd as they tried to break the police barricades. Police gave out repeated warnings to maintain order but the situation was getting out of control. [[Chief Minister]] [[Sharad Pawar]] had already flown back to [[Mumbai]] after concluding the day's session. At 5:30 pm, a car with a red light atop it arrived and protesters at the front rushed towards it. They assumed some minister had arrived to take up their petition. However, police feared trouble and started wielding batons to push back the protesters. This initially caused them to retreat, but word of the police attack spread, causing a panic, with protesters trying to run away.<ref name="Indian Express"/>
Women along with children who were part of the protest march got caught in the midst of the chaos. They were trampled and asphyxiated under the feet of running protesters.<ref name="Rediff"/> In all, 114 people lost their lives in the tragedy. [[Autopsy|Autopsies]] conducted on the victims concluded that their deaths were caused by [[traumatic asphyxia]]. They were the result of [[Compressive asphyxia|chest compression]] and obstruction of the [[respiratory system]].<ref name="Indian Express"/>

== Enquiry ==

Soon after the tragedy, the Maharashtra government appointed a one-man commission - Justice S S Dani - to investigate the causes of the tragedy.<ref name="Highbeam"/> Meanwhile, the opposition [[Bhartiya Janata Party]]-[[Shiv Sena (1966–2022)|Shiv Sena]] coalition took immediate political advantage of this tragedy and it became one of the factors for the [[Indian National Congress]] losing the state elections of 1995. After many extensions, the Dani Commission finally tabled its report in March 1998 and found nobody responsible.<ref name="Indian Express Mar 1999">{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990305/ipo05012.html
|title=Govt in bind over reservations for `disputed' Scheduled Tribes|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1999-03-05|work=Mannan Haque}}</ref> It noted that Pawar was neither aware of the protest taking place outside of Vidhan Bhawan nor the nature of the protesters' demands. Pawar, who was now leader of the opposition in the [[Lok Sabha]], had initially stated that he feared state government was trying to frame him by altering the commission's report.<ref name="PRESS TRUST OF INDIA">{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981226/36050204.html |title=Govt implicating me in Dani report: Pawar|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1998-12-26}}</ref> The commission concluded that the police were right to initiate a baton charge on the surging crowd in order to maintain order while the assembly session was going on. It also noted that almost all deaths were caused due to people getting trampled under the feet of the stampeding crowd and suffering asphyxia, and not due to injuries caused by the baton charge. However, the commission suggested that [[Water cannon|water sprayers]] and [[rubber bullet]]s be used first and that police should carry out baton charges only as a last resort, after giving two warnings. The Commission based its report on statements given by local press and photographers along with independent witnesses at the site.<ref name="Indian Express"/> The BJP-SS led government quickly rejected the report.
[[Chief Minister]] [[Manohar Joshi]] was quoted as saying <blockquote>"''Any one of them going and talking to the protesters could have averted the tragedy''".<ref name="Tribune India">{{cite web |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98dec31/nation.htm#3|title=Ruckus over Dani report
|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1998-12-31}}</ref></blockquote>

== Current situation ==
[[File:Name_plaque_of_victims_of_Gowari_Stampede.jpg|thumb|256px|Names of victims at the memorial]]
After coming to power, the Bhartiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-led government had announced a Special Backward Caste (SBC) category for 47 such communities with 2 percent reservations in education and government jobs. However, the [[Supreme Court of India]] ruling that reservation quotas cannot exceed 50 percent has created legal problems for SBC quotas. Political efforts to assimilate 2 percent SBC under already existing scheduled tribe or [[other backward caste]] (OBC) quotas have faced tough opposition from their respective legislators' lobby.<ref name="Indian Express Mar 1999"/> After losing the [[2004 Maharashtra state assembly elections]], the BJP seems to have lost interest in Gowari incident.<ref name="Indian Express Dec 1999">{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19991125/ige25030.html
|title=Five years after stampede, Gowaris are still a lost tribe|accessdate=2008-05-02|date=1999-12-25}}</ref> The Gowari issue surfaced periodically during assembly sessions.<ref name="Times of India">{{cite news |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-24/nagpur/27980717_1_gowaris-suicide-note-farmer
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020152043/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-24/nagpur/27980717_1_gowaris-suicide-note-farmer
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=2012-10-20
|title=Settle Gowari issue, govt told|accessdate=2007-11-24|work=[[The Times of India]]
|date=2007-11-24}}</ref> The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on 15 August 2018 ruled that Gowari community in Maharashtra should get benefits under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, pointing out that Gowaris were categorised as a tribe more than hundred years ago in the records of British India.<ref name="THE INDIAN EXPRESS">{{cite news |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gowari-community-should-get-benefits-as-st-category-rules-bombay-hc-5307011/
|title=Gowari community should get benefits as ST category, rules Bombay HC|accessdate=2018-08-15|work=THE INDIAN EXPRESS|date=2018-08-15}}</ref>

A monument has been built in central Nagpur to commemorate those who died in this tragedy. Also, the flyover in Sitabuldi has been named Aadivasi Gowari Shahid flyover.

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Human stampedes}}
{{Nagpur}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 Gowari Stampede}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1994]]
[[Category:Violence in India]]
[[Category:History of Nagpur]]
[[Category:1994 disasters in India|Gowari Stampede, 1994]]
[[Category:History of Maharashtra (1947–present)]]
[[Category:Disasters in Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Human stampedes in India]]
[[Category:Human stampedes in 1994]]
[[Category:History of Vidarbha]]

1994 Gowari stampede - Revision history

LucasRowan at 15:31, 1 December 2024