Propagandists and politicians claim that over 80 Dalit homes were burned in a caste-based hate crime in Nawada, Bihar. In reality, police and media reports indicate the incident arose from a land dispute between the Manjhi and Paswan communities in Krishnanagar. The Manjhi community’s houses were set on fire by members of the Paswan community, both of whom are Dalit.
Misleading claims disseminated from Nawada, Bihar
Several users, influencers, propagandists and political workers have disseminated misleading claims regarding the incident.
Sharing some visuals on X (Formerly Twitter) propagandist account @ambedkariteIND wrote, “Terrible Terrorist organization like Ranvir Sena have once again emerged in Bihar. In Nawada, casteist Jatankwadis set fire to the houses of more than 80 Dalit families. Many people are seriously injured. Bullets were also fired from guns. The mainstream media is silent”.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has also made a post regarding the incident and wrote, Burning down the entire Mahadalit colony in Nawada and destroying the houses of more than 80 families is exposing the horrifying picture of injustice against the Bahujans in Bihar. The cries of these Dalit families who have lost their homes and property and the terror created in the deprived society by the echo of the fierce firing have not been able to wake up the sleeping government of Bihar. Read the full statement on X.
Several other users, influencers, propagandists and political workers have also made posts regarding the incident and circulated similar casteist claims. Their posts can be seen here, @Sumitchauhaan, @The_Mooknayak, @yadavtejashwi, @kharge, @tindposting
The truth about the claims from Nawada, Bihar, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing some visuals and claims came to our notice. Subsequently, we conducted research and analysis of the incident and found that it was a result of a land dispute between two Dalit communities.
To verify the claims made by the users. We performed a relevant keyword search on Google. This led us to media reports regarding the incident. According to the media reports, several houses belonging to the Scheduled Castes Ravidas and Manjhi in Bihar’s Nawada district were set on fire allegedly by a group of people belonging to another Scheduled Caste Paswan, on Wednesday evening. The houses were torched allegedly in a bid to usurp vacant government land.
We also found a Nawada police statement (1, 2, 3) regarding the incident, according to the police, there was a land dispute going on between the two sides. The people who set the house on fire claimed that it was their land on which these people were settled.
Therefore, according to verified sources, it was a clash between two Dalit communities (Manjhi Community and Paswan Community). It was not related to caste-based hate crimes against Dalit communities. Both groups are Dalit.
Intent
Social media users, influencers, propagandists and political workers circulated misleading claims to set their narrative based on caste.
Conclusion
Claim– Miscreants set fire to houses belonging to the Dalit community in Nawada, Bihar.
Fact– It was a clash over a land dispute between two Dalit communities.
Related Article: Fact Check: Old video of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar being slapped by a youth in Bakhtiyarpur shared with distorted claims – D-Intent Data (dintentdata.com)
