Dalit residents of Sigaranahalli in Holenarsipur taluk, who have been demanding entry into a temple and a community hall in the village since 2015, had one of their demands fulfilled on Tuesday evening.
The hall, constructed using Lok Sabha member and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s Local Area Development Fund, was named ‘Vokkaliga Samudaya Bhavan’ and Dalits were not allowed to enter it.
But on Tuesday, in the presence of senior police officers in the village, the name board was completely coated with white paint, obliterating the name. The ‘upper caste’ (Vokkaligas), who had earlier opposed changing the board, did not protest.
“When the community hall was constructed in 2001, in the first few months, it was open to all. But things changed on December 21 that year, when we held a programme in the community hall,” recalled Raju, a Dalit of the village. Two boys of the Vokkaliga community, who participated in the programme and had lunch with us, were pulled up by the community and fined. Since then, Dalits have not been allowed into the hall, he alleged. “The hall was soon called the ‘Vokkaliga Samudaya Bhavan’,” said Dasappa’s son Swamy alias Guddaiah, who organised the ceremony.
The Dalits raised this issue again, after a gap of 14 years, in September 2015. Then on August 31, 2015, four Dalit women, who had entered Basaveshwara temple in the village, were asked to pay penalty. This prompted the Dalits to protest and demand equal access to all public places in the village. One of the demands they placed before the administration was to change the name of the community hall.
