Author Sabatini Chatterjee
The last two months have been full of tensions surrounding an eighteenth-century fort in Jaipur. It is believed that the hoisting of the saffron flag has caused extreme chaos between the indigenous people of the local Mina community and the local Hindu organizations, and the local police are trying to handle the matter through possible understanding. Leaders of the Mina tribal community at Amgar fort in Jaipur allege that people belonging to the local Hindu community are trying to illegally interfere in their tribal culture. Incidentally, Hindu organizations have already attacked people belonging to the Mina tribal community and tried to lower the flag of saffron color, the symbol of their heritage, from the fort at Amgar. At the same time, Hindu organizations have been urging their followers on social media to hoist the new flag on August 1 in the presence of all.
In this context, the leaders of the Mina tribal community have resorted to the law against the leaders of the local Hindu community and have lodged complaints against them for tarnishing their tribal culture and heritage. Extreme chaos and vandalism have been observed in this fort for the last several years. Neel Kamal Saheb, ACP of the local Adarshnagar, said that after receiving an FIR in the issue in June, the police had detained some teenagers belonging to the Muslim community.
Commenting on the history of the fort, Ramkesh Mina, MLA of the local Gangarampur city, said, “The Amgar fort was built by Minaras hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately a few days ago some of these idols of gods and goddesses were stolen and vandalized. And later it was found out that some people had placed a long saffron colored flag on top of the fort.” MLA Ramkesh Mina is the president of Rajasthan Adivasi Mina Seva Sangha.
In this context, it is important to know that Mina is considered as a Scheduled Tribe in Rajasthan. To the people of the Adivasi community, their gods and goddesses and culture are very important. Indigenous people belonging to the Mina community do not want to belittle their religious sentiments in any way. The Congress-backed MLA claimed that some of the deities’ names have been changed over time to “Ambika Bhabani”, respectively. Rather, according to him, the Hindu organizations are extremely guilty of vandalism because they are trying to give a communal color to the whole incident in order to enter and occupy the fort.