The participation of untouchables (and, in remote areas, tribals) was surprising, since these are the very last groups you would expect to see getting involved in Hindu communalism. Unemployed, futureless untouchable and tribal youth have in recent years been systematically recruited and trained by Hindu-right cadre who tell them Muslims stole their jobs. The negligible wages and ornamental positions these recruits receive are a big deal in their communities, where almost no one has a job or associates with caste Hindus in any way. For these segregated and despised populations, the illusory sense of belonging to Hindu society is a powerful lure.
In 2002 in Gujarat, these untouchable and tribal militants were cynically used by the brahmin-dominated, openly casteist Hindu right to do the most dehumanizing dirty work of the massacre. They did the bidding of the same forces that targeted untouchables in the 1981 and 1985 anti-reservation riots in Ahmedabad, during which many Muslims heroically protected untouchables. This use of untouchables and tribals as lumpen shock troops by the fascistic Hindu right shows why the fight against caste oppression will be strategic in the Indian revolution.