In India, one ethnic group fights to be lower on the social ladder

SIKANDARA, Rajasthan, India - Sitting in the middle of a highway under a baking hot sun is not Mansingh Burja's idea of a good time. But it's the best way, he says, for him and hundreds of fellow protesters to vent their anger over being classified by the government as a "backward" class near the bottom of India's social ladder.

They want to be lower.

The demonstrators, members of an ethnic group known as Gujjars, have blocked traffic for two weeks here on the road leading to the famed Taj Mahal, ever since dozens from their ranks were killed in a hail of bullets during clashes with state police. They vow to remain where they are until the government reclassifies them, putting them at the bottom of the official social hierarchy.

Such a move would in essence drop the Gujjars to a level similar to that of India's former "untouchables," who were pariahs under the ancient caste system. But it also would entitle them to more favorable quotas in education and public-sector jobs that the government has set aside for the nation's most oppressed and least modernized groups in an effort to redress historic wrongs. Read more.................................In India, one ethnic group fights to be lower on the social ladder

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