On 73rd Republic Day parade at Rajpath in New Delhi, Gujarat’s tableau displayed the freedom movement of the tribals in 1922, marking 100 years of the horrific Palchitaria massacre. On March 7, 1922, Motilal Tejawat, a tribal leader who was often known as ‘Gandhi’ among his Tribal followers, was addressing a crowd of over 10,000 Bhil tribals from Dadhvav villages (Sabarkantha District, Gujarat) as a part of the Eki Movement.
The front of Gujarat’s tableau represented the freedom fighting spirit of the ancestors of tribals. The rear portion of the tableau represented the massacre by British soldiers on March 7, 1922. The tribal artists dressed in their traditional costumes performed ‘Ger’ dance along with the folklore based on the incident.
The tableau of #Gujarat at #RepublicDay parade depicted the theme ‘Tribal Revolutionaries of Gujarat’ @MinOfCultureGoI | @CMOGuj | @PIBAhmedabad
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 26, 2022
#RepublicDayIndia #RepublicDay2022 pic.twitter.com/FQPDdXLfNR
The village of Palchitaria was renamed Dadhvav and now lies in Vijaynagar taluka, Sabarkantha district in present-day Gujarat. British officer Major H.G. Saturn from Mewad Bhil Corps ordered to open fire at the innocent tribals. 1,200 were shot dead, and two wells were filled with the martyred tribals.
The incident took place just three years after the Jallianwala Bagh incident, but it never found its rightful place in history. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, he brought the incident back in front of the world and built a memorial to Motilal Tejawat at the site of the massacre in Sabarkantha.
The coverup of the massacre that claimed lives of three times more than Jallianwala Bagh
There was no official record of the massacre maintained by the British. Unlike Jallianwala Bagh, which happened three years before the Palchitaria massacre, this incident was washed and forgotten in the leaflets of history. A 1997 India Today report suggested when they tried to find records of the incident in the official diary maintained by Sutton, there was no mention of the massacre at Palchitaria. Though, the diary had references to the much smaller incidents involving Bhils in the same area around that period.
According to then-98-year-old Balwant Singh Mehta, Tejawat’s colleague and a freedom fighter, there were two reasons the incident never made to the history books. First, those who died were poor and illiterate tribals. Secondly, the British government had already faced a lot of flack after the Jallianwala episode, and they took all possible steps to suppress the incident.
Notably, Rajasthan State Archives does not have any records of the massacre either. LP Mathur, an expert on reforms and movements among the Bhils, told India Today the official records of the period on Tejawat and his movement mentioned that Bhil followers had marched towards from Walren village near Khedbrahma on February 18, 1922, i.e. 17 days before the incident. Notably, Mathur claimed to have come across several such incidents that British rulers covered up.
What happened on the day of massacre?
Thousands of tribals had gathered to hear Tejawat. There were 21 demands on his agenda that he had raised on behalf of the tribals, including lowering the revenue or lagaan levied on tribal farmers. 67-year-old Kala Ramji Gameti narrated the story of the massacre. His grandparents had gone to attend the meeting. His grandmother Somiben was one of those who died in the massacre, and his grandfather Dhulabhai escaped unhurt. The meeting was held on the banks of Heir River on a three-acre land.
The MBC soldiers were present at the meeting. Somiben was standing next to a British officer, possibly Sutton, when a tribal fired a shot in the air. Allegedly, the bullet grazed Sutton Gameti said Somiben begged him not to open fire on innocents just because one of them fired a shot.
Meanwhile, Tribals started raising slogans in their native language that further irked Sutton, who then ordered to open fire at the tribals. Somiben was shot dead among hundreds of others. Another attendee who was present at the meeting, Koyaji Dhulaji Patel said while narrating the incident, “As the firing began and people started running helter-skelter, I hid behind a farm fence. What I then saw was simply unbelievable. People were literally falling like ninepins to the bullets. The sepoys were even killing people for their silver ornaments. I distinctly remember one person, Nathaji Mothaliya of a nearby village, Anodra, whom a sepoy shot dead before removing silver kadas (bangles) from his hands.” Koyaji was hit with the back of the butt of a gun by a sepoy who later asked him to escape.
There were corpses everywhere after the firing stopped. Some of the corpses were dragged away by the family members and friends of the deceased, while the remaining were dumped into a well nearby. Tejawat narrowly escaped the massacre. He suffered two bullet wounds on his thighs. His supporters picked him to safety. Till 1929, Tejawat stayed underground allegedly at the request of Mahatma Gandhi. After that, he remained in jail for seven years.
The spot of the massacre was named “Virubhumi” by Tejawat after independence when he visited the place to pay respect to the martyrs. The massacre became part of the local folklore but did not get a place in the history books.
