India Matters: A Manganiyar's Murder

On September 27, Ahmed Khan Mangniyar was killed in Dantal village, 60 km from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. This village crime became national news partly because the incident got linked to the rising communal violence in recent times across the country and partly because the Mangnayars have become the famed symbol of Indian folk music. But what lies at heart of the murder are reasons infinitely more complex like changing cast equations and crumbling feudal orders.