Low-Caste Rioting Leaves 12 Dead

Members of Hinduism’s lowest caste burned buses, hurled stones at police and blocked trains in Bombay during a second day of widespread rioting to protest police killings and the desecration of a monument. Two people were killed, bringing the two-day death toll to 12. Police arrested 2,111 rioters in Bombay, India’s financial hub, and in the surrounding state of Maharashtra. There have been several caste clashes in northern and western India, but this was the worst caste violence in the southern part of the nation. It began in a slum Friday when someone draped a garland of shoes--a supreme insult in India--around the bust of Babasaheb Ambedkar, a low-caste hero who had fought for independence from British rule. It was unclear who had desecrated the monument.