Jignesh Mevani | Illustration by Jairaj T.G.
Even a day before Jignesh Mevani filed nomination papers in Vadgam, his family had no clue about it. Out of the blue he told them that he had decided to contest. Jignesh, 37, has always been like this. “He is impulsive. And his decisions are final,” said Sanjay Bhave, his English professor at the HK Arts College in Ahmedabad.
Born in Ahmedabad, Jignesh grew up in a middle-class family in a dalit neighbourhood. Both his parents worked. “Nobody in the family was an activist before,” said his mother, Chandrikaben. She taught him till class VI. Jignesh was a bright student, and scored good marks in class X. The science stream he took up after that, however, did not work well. “He failed in two subjects in class XII,” she said. He tried once more, but failed again. Then, his father, Natwarlal, suggested he should take up arts stream. It was a turning point.
“Jignesh was a passionate student,” said Bhave. During his college days he started working with activist Mukul Sinha’s Jan Sangharsh Manch. “He had come with someone to the office of JSM. He then started getting involved in the work we did,” said Sinha’s wife, Nirjhari. It is said that he studied law at Sinha’s insistence. “Sinha used to tell that all activists should have knowledge of law,” said Nirjhari.
Jignesh had been fighting cases in the High Court for landless dalits for quite some time. But he shot into limelight during the protests over the flogging of four dalits who were falsely accused of killing a cow in Una in July 2016. He led a 330km protest march from Ahmedabad to Una. After winning in Vadgam, he dedicated the victory to the Una flogging victims.
Jignesh has filled a vacuum that was present in Gujarat politics for a long time. It seems he is set to be the face of dalit politics in India.
This article originally appeared under the headline 'Three musketeers' in the December 31, 2017 issue of THE WEEK
