Jignesh Mevani

Jignesh Mevani (alternatively Mewani; born 11 December 1980) is an Indian politician, lawyer, activist and former journalist serving as the representative of the Vadgam constituency in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly since 2017.

He is a member of the Indian National Congress party.

He is the convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM).

Jignesh Mevani was born on 11 December 1980 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat to a family of Dalits from the village of Meu in Mehsana district.

He grew up in a lower middle class family, his parents had become government clerks, and resided in the Dalit populated locality of Meghaninagar in Ahmedabad.

His father worked at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and his mother at the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Mevani attended school at the Swastik Vidyalaya and then the Vishwa Vidyalay Madhaymik Shala in Ahmedabad district.

He began his higher secondary education in the core stream of science, dropped out and completed his schooling after switching to humanities.

He attained his graduation in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the HK Arts College, affiliated to the Gujarat University.

Mevani states that in college, he was never seen as just a Dalit student.

He was particularly impressed by Saumya Joshi who was an associate professor and dramatist at the college and by the faculty member Sanjay Bhave who introduced him to various historical and contemporary figures of social activism in Gujarat.

He further states it was because of Joshi and Bhave that he came into contact with Gujarati civil society newsletters such as Bhoomiputra, Nirikshak and Naya Marg.

In his student life, Mevani performed in parallel cinema and researched the works of the Gujarati language poet, Mareez.

He was also influenced by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and the human rights activist Mukul Sinha during this period.

Following his graduation, he enrolled at the Bhavan's College, Ahmedabad for a postgraduate diploma, in journalism and mass communication, which he received in 2004.

In 2004, Mevani shifted to Mumbai and became a journalist with the Gujarati language news magazine called Abhiyaan. He worked at the magazine for three years before quitting journalism to become an activist.

He also briefly worked for a Gujarati language daily newspaper during this period.

In his testimony, he states that he "realised that idealism and realism are two different things" and came to the final decision to quit career as a journalist after watching the Gujarati documentary on farmers' suicides called Khedu Mora Re.

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Mevani states that he drew his last salary of ₹15,000 in August 2007 and relied on 10–15 friends to provide him with ₹1,000–1,500 for his monthly expenses in order to continue working as a full time activist.

Mevani started his activism through trade unions, and returned to Gujarat in 2008.

He worked with the RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala with whom he visited several places to study the causes and issues leading to farmers' suicides.

Eventually, he joined the civil rights organisation run by Mukul Sinha, called Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM).

In order to combat issues of discrimination against Dalits, he grew associations with activists such as Manjula Pradeep and Martin Macwan of the Navsarjan Trust and the Dalit Shakti Kendra.

He also worked with the activist lawyer Girish Patel and the Gandhian activists Chunilal Vaidya for farmers' rights, land reform and the development of sustainable rural economies.

Subsequently, he began leading an agitation for increasing the salaries of sanitation workers.

In 2009, Mevani had led a JSM survey in the districts of Surendranagar and Ahmedabad to study the distribution of surplus government land to landless Dalits under provisions of the Gujarat Agriculture Land Ceiling Act.

The findings of the survey revealed that the allotment of land had occurred only on paper and physical transfers of land had been denied.

He graduated for a second time with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2013, and became a practising activist lawyer at the Gujarat High Court, representing landless Dalits in their cases.

He also joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and became its Gujarat spokesperson.

Over the course of the following years, he fought a long drawn out campaign over the allotment of land, in the process filing around 110 RTIs till 2015.

Mevani was encouraged to pursue a degree in law in order to be better equipped to assist individuals in need for legal representation.

He enrolled in the DT Law College of the Gujarat University while continuing his campaign over land issues during his studies.

In 2015, Mevani initiated a public interest litigation at the High Court for the allocation of 56,873 acres of surplus government land to landless labourers in Gujarat.

Due to his activism over the years, he gathered a following and a support base among workers' groups and Dalits.

Mevani rose to national prominence during the protests following the Una flogging incident.

On 11 July 2016, seven Dalit youths were tortured in the town of Una, Gujarat on the pretext of cow protection and in the presence of the police.

The assailants had filmed the incident and it was widely shared over social media.

The incident culminated into a mass movement and large scale militancy among Dalits in the state.

In midst of the protests, around 30 Dalit rights organisations had combined to form the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti (abb. UDALS; Committee to fight against Una Dalit atrocities).