Jignesh Mewani mobilised a Dalit gathering in Ahmedabad, where he had given a call for a march to Una.
The rapidly-growing Dalit agitation in the Gujarat has found a face - 35-year-old Jignesh Mewani. The journalist-turned activist hasn't halted his Una Chalo Dalit Padyatra (a Dalit foot march to Una), despite running a viral fever for the last two days.
Organised to highlight the atrocities on Dalits in the state, the walk, which Motwani is spear-heading, has entered its seventh day. On Independence Day, it will reach its destination - Una, where four Dalit men were stripped and flogged last month by cow vigilantes, rousing anger among the Dalit population in the state.
In protest against the reports of increasing cow vigilantism, Dalits in some pockets of the state have already gone on strike, refusing to life carcasses of animals and demanding that the state allow them to carry arms for self-protection.
On July 31, Mr Mewani mobilised a Dalit gathering in Ahmedabad, where he had given a call for a march to Una.
The walk, started by a group of about 100 activists, students and professionals, is drawing a sizeable crowd. On Thursday, they reached Savarkundla in Saurashtra, covering 30-odd villages over the 250-km trek.
Staring his career as a journalist in a vernacular magazine, Mr Mewani joined the Jan Sangarsh Manch - a non-profit which works for social justice - in 2008.
While working with the NGO, he completed his law studies, but instead of practicing full-time law, he chose to become an RTI activist, taking up cases not just of Dalits but farmers as well.
Over the last few years, Mr Mewani has forayed into politics, developing contacts with the Aam Aadmi Party and the Communists. But after the July 11 atrocity on the Dalit men in Una, he decided to take up the issue apolitically, he said.
The yatra, he said, is a success in terms of creating an awakening among the Dalit community, but maintained it is not about an individual but the suppressed community.
"This is not Jignesh Mewani's yatra. It is about each and every Dalit... the biggest element is that youth are chipping in big numbers. That has given it energy -- a sort of militant element,'' he told NDTV as the protesters wended their way out of Dhasa taluka of Botad district.
Twenty-five-year-old law student Subodh Parmar, who is accompanying Mr Mewani, says social media has played a role. "We no longer have to depend on print and TV medium. Also, increased education among Dalit youths have helped in increased awareness,'' he said.
Mr Mewani concurs, saying Dalit associations in US, Australia and Canada have expressed their solidarity with the march online.