Etawah: The tent was up, invitations distributed, halwais booked—but a call from the police upended Gangaram Yadav’s dream of holding Bhagwat Katha in his Garhi Bhagwant village. The reason: he had invited a Brahmin priest to give sermons. It’s the latest avatar of Etawah’s Yadav vs Brahmin Kathavachak battle.
Just a week ago, on 21 June, two Yadavs were assaulted by Brahmins for reciting the Bhagwat Katha in Dadarpur. Now, after a viral video and SP vs BJP caste allegations, the tit-for-tat has led to Brahmin Kathavachaks (storytellers of Hindu epics and texts) being boycotted.
On the surface, there is no violence between the two caste groups. But the rupture is evident in the hushed whispers, furtive glances, posters and police deployment. More and more Yadavs are calling for the boycott of Brahmins, and scheduled programmes are being cancelled. Only Yadav Kathavachaks hereon, some declare. Brahmin men bemoan the politicisation of the incident and say they don’t believe in or practise caste.
The politically active Yadav OBC caste isn’t backing down. Brahmin mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh is only a recent development and has been rather patchy, after gangster Vikas Dubey’s encounter killing in 2020.
“The atmosphere in nearby villages has only worsened since then. There’s talk of boycotting Brahmins—not inviting them for pujas or community events. But here, no one had objected to this Katha. It was the police who advised us to avoid controversy,” said Gangaram Yadav, the event organiser, who had already spent over Rs 3 lakh on the preparations.
Since the assault on Yadav kathavachak by Brahmins in an Etawah village in Uttar Pradesh, a traditional Samajwadi Party pocket borough, tension has bubbled up. A boycott war between the Yadavs and Brahmins is underway. Signs hanging from electric poles now declare, “We won’t conduct pooja by Brahmins”. Local media’s screaming headlines— ‘Don’t invite Brahmins’, ‘Worship by Brahmins is banned’—and a flaming social media outrage have not let the matter rest, after a viral video showed two Yadav Kathavachaks beaten, tonsured, and forced to touch the feet of Brahmins during a religious gathering in a Brahmin-dominated neighbourhood. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav to CM Yogi Adityanath have waded in. The CM said those who do caste politics for vote banks are dividing the society. And YouTubers are streaming from the tense Dadarpur village.
“I spent 3 lakh rupees on this event. This event was scheduled way before the assault took place. Right now, I am not worried about the money, but how this incident has divided Brahmins and Yadavs. My village has had a tradition of both Brahmins and Yadavs giving Kathas,” said Gangaram Yadav as he guided the labourers to dismantle the tent in his village, 90 kilometres from Dadarpur.
Dadarpur is still reeling in shock after that night, which landed four Brahmin youth in jail and brought shame to the village. The Brahmin-dominated village is nestled in a Yadav-dominated district. But it has been largely peaceful, even though the caste relations have never been healthy. That the Yadavs have strong political patronage from the Samajwadi Party has also fueled resentment among the Brahmins. But this is the first time tensions have surfaced in such a violent manner in Dadarpur village.
Now, the village’s accused are getting the sympathy and protection of the rest of the Brahmin community. Brahmin youth stand guard at the village’s entrance, children stay indoors, and the accused Brahmin family at the centre of the storm now hosts a steady stream of sympathisers, politicians and local caste leaders. The Yadav Kathavachaks have absconded from their villages. Nearly 20 more, mostly Yadavs, from across the state were detained in the following days for inflammatory posts on social media. What should have been a simple, routine retelling of Lord Krishna’s tales with harmonium and dholak has instead ripped the fragile social fabric of western Uttar Pradesh.
“The caste tensions have always been here in the region, whether it’s SP or BJP, every party has used caste to divide and mobilise. In this case, both the parties are at fault. They shouldn’t hide their identity. What happened with Kathavachak is very bad. What happened in Dadarpur is not about one community—it’s about how leaders have normalised hate for political gain,” said Rana Pratap Singh Chauhan, a village elder in his late 60s from the neighbouring Marhi village. Chauhan was a local journalist and is regarded by the residents of Etawah as an expert on the tensions in the region.
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Tensions run high
Dadarpur village is silent. The doors of Brahmin homes are tightly shut, but family members peep through the window to keep an eye on street activity and visitors. Fear is palpable. Police guard shops. One woman constable watches the home of Renu and Jay Prakash Tiwari, who hosted the Kathavachaks before the event. They volunteered to provide lunch for the performers as their home is 150 metres away from the temple where the event was to take place.
Tension flared on 26 June, when more than 500 people, led by a Yadav group called Ahir Regiment, tried to enter the village and threw stones at the police and destroyed police vehicles.
Brahmin youth now frisk every visitor entering the village.
“The YouTubers and journalists have done enough damage already; they encouraged Renu Tiwari to say problematic things, and now a complaint has been registered against her as well, so we have to see who is coming to the village and for what purpose,” said Monu Tiwari, standing with six others.
Renu Tiwari’s name was tossed around in many social media posts as committing deeply offensive acts. She can be heard saying, “Women from the Kathavachak’s families should be stripped naked and paraded on the road,” in a YouTube video.
Now, she is receiving a steady stream of Brahmin sympathisers from all over the state, showing solidarity. A jute cot, plastic chairs and a water jug have been placed in the verandah of her home to welcome these visitors. “What’s done is done, and whoever did something wrong is in jail. Why stretch the matter,” said a visitor, sipping water.
Dadarpur village is about 35 km from the Etawah district headquarters. There are 103 Brahmin houses here; they are the majority. There are also Thakur and Dalit families. The incident took place at the village temple at one end of the village.
This temple is maintained by Ramswarup Das. Last month, the villagers decided to host a Bhagwat Katha and started donating money for the same.
“The Katha was happening right there,” said Jay Praksash Tiwari, Renu’s husband, pointing at an empty field near the temple. Around 80 people, almost all Brahmin, had gathered that evening to listen to the katha. A stage was set up in the field.
He claimed that neither the villagers nor his family had a problem with the Kathavachaks being Yadavs. The problem was that they lied about their identities, going to the extent of carrying fake Aadhaar cards bearing an Agnihotri surname.
“I don’t have any problem if they were Yadavs. The issue was that they hid their identity, couldn’t perform pooja properly, so they got caught. It was about the lying, not about the caste,” said Jay Prakash Tiwari, adding that their hair shouldn’t have been removed regardless.
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Call for boycott
The villages of Mukut Mani and Sant Singh Yadav are witnessing the same silence. There is anger among the people. And there is a call for boycott of Brahmins.
There is also a section of people who are accepting that the Kathavachaks shouldn’t have hidden their identity. But most Yadav leaders are asking for more arrests in this case, saying that the police didn’t perform their duty well.
“The police were doing a good job initially, but later they didn’t do much. They have arrested only four people. There should be more arrests. What happened should be condemned by every section of society. As for people saying they won’t conduct pooja with Brahmins—that’s their personal choice,” said Gopal Yadav, District Head of the Samajwadi Party.
The incident has raised larger caste and Hinduism questions. Neighbouring Yadav villagers are now questioning the religious system. Should only Brahmins recite Hindu kathas and perform poojas? They say that this wasn’t the first time Yadavs were conducting Kathas in Brahmin villages.
“This is a hard slap on the face of Yadavs, we will protest against it in the whole of India. Bhagwat is not for any caste; everyone can read it. If it is only for Brahmins, then make a rule that no one else can do it,” said Hukum Singh, a relative of Mukut Mani, one of the assaulted Kathavachaks.
Social media is filled with boycott posts
“I saw a Facebook post yesterday which was asking all the Yadavs to be united and boycott the Brahmins. It said ‘we shouldn’t invite them in any pooja or buy anything from them,’ and a lot of people are endorsing it in the villages,” said Mohan Yadav, while scrolling through his Facebook. He is a resident of Etawah’s Saifai, which is Akhilesh Yadav’s native village.
The night of the incident
It all began very peacefully. There was not even a whisper of tension.
It was a usual Bhagwat katha that takes place in the village regularly, the last one was in 2023. The preparation began two months ago, and the deal with the Yadav Kathavachaks—Sant Singh Yadav and Mukut Mani—was sealed one and a half months ago. They were hired by the Brahmin temple priest Ramswarup.
The Kathavachaks were paid Rs 25,000 for a seven-day-long Katha. The funds for the event were raised by the villagers, Jay Prakash and Renu Tiwari also contributed.
According to the villagers, the priest had hired Kathavachaks for multiple Bhagwat Kathas in the past and was under the impression that they were Brahmins. Since the videos of the assault went viral on 22 June, Ramswarup has been on the run.
The first point of contention took place when the Yadav Kathavachaks had lunch at Renu Tiwari’s home.
During the meal, the Kathavachaks allegedly demanded that Renu feed them by hand, saying—‘Serve me well for seven days, you will earn merits’, recalled Jay Prakash. While it did strike the Tiwari family as odd, they obliged.
Jay Prakash Tiwari said that the second wrinkle happened when the Kathavachaks stepped outside. “Their Aadhaar cards fell out of their bag. We saw that one set of cards had the surname Agnihotri and another set had a different surname,” he said. That’s when the villagers first suspected that they were hiding their identity. But the two Kathavachaks were still allowed to go on stage and start their performance. It lasted for just about half an hour.
They were one verse in when the audience started causing a ruckus. One Brahmin accused them of reciting the verse wrong and another chimed in—“How would he know all this as he is Chamar (SC)”. Soon, rumours spread that they are Dalits. The event was brought to a halt, and the Kathavachaks were questioned about their caste. They swore they weren’t Dalits, and even asked the villagers to call their relatives to confirm. When one of the Brahmin villagers started dialling a number that the Kathavachaks gave, a Truecaller notification identified the number as belonging to a Yadav. While the situation was charged with anger, the villagers claimed there was no violence at that point. The Kathavachaks were told to leave the village.
Jay Prakash Tiwari said that as the two Yadav men were leaving, they were apprehended by a group of young Brahmin men. It’s the videos of this clash that have gone viral.
“They caught them and started accusing them of still lying about their caste. They alleged the Kathavachaks were Dalits. They questioned how they had the courage to enter a Brahmin village. They were also upset by the fact that the Kathavachaks made my wife, a Brahmin woman, touch their feet and feed them,” said Jay Prakash Tiwari, who claimed he and his wife Renu were asleep at this time.
In the video, a group of men can be seen tonsuring one of the Kathavachaks, while the other Kathavachak is being forced to touch his nose to the feet of a woman identified as Renu.
“A few boys from the village cut their hair. We don’t have to do anything with that,” Jay Prakash Tiwari insisted.
The Kathavachaks quietly left the village, and the video recorded by the Brahmin youth was posted on Facebook. Nobody expected the videos to go viral.
The next day, a Brahmin Kathavachak, Sukhdev Mishra, was called from Azamgarh to perform the Bhagwat Katha in Dadarpur. There was relative peace when the preparations for the Katha began in the morning, but the tension was evident as the number of villagers who gathered for the performance had drastically dropped. Mishra began his performance, but it stopped midway. The videos from the previous night had gone viral, and the villagers were panicking.
On 23 June, Sant Singh Yadav, one of the Kathavachaks, filed a case against the villagers who attacked him. The police raids began in Dadarpur based on the videos and arrested four Brahmin men. Renu Tiwari was not named in Yadav’s FIR.
A week later, after the Kathavachaks were invited to Lucknow by Akhilesh Yadav, Jay Prakash Tiwari filed an FIR against them. They have been accused of fraud for using fake Aadhaar cards and hiding their caste.
“An FIR was later lodged against host Renu Tiwari, and cases filed under the NSA against online agitators by the police. At least 19 people have been arrested, including four identified for the initial assault, and sixteen others for inflammatory social media posts,” said a senior police official.
Forty kilometres away from Dadarpur, in Mukut Mani’s village, people are angry. Neither Mukut Mani nor his family are there anymore. Police went there to investigate the FIR filed against them, but didn’t find them at their residence.
“We weren’t able to trace them. We went to talk to them about more details of this incident. Sant Singh is not at his place, and Mukut Mani is also not there,” said a source from Jhansi Police on the condition of anonymity.
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Political outrage
The village-level dispute later spiralled into a big political storm. As videos of the assault went viral, leaders from both the ruling BJP and opposition Samajwadi Party jumped into the fray. Dadarpur’s caste conflict was turned into a battleground of accusations, symbolism, and vote-bank messaging. Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav invited the Yadav Kathavachaks to Lucknow on 26 June and gave them Rs 51,000 rupees as compensation for the assault.
“Today in Lucknow, the victims of the ‘Etawah Kathavachak PDA Insult Case’ were honoured and given financial aid for their loss and the blind artist whose dholak was snatched was also given a new dhol. The ‘Etawah Kathavachak PDA Insult Case’ has happened because of those few dominant and dominant people who have made Kathavachan a business instead of an emotion. If these people have so much aversion towards the PDA community, then they should declare that the dominant people who traditionally tell stories will never accept the offerings, donations, and charity given by the PDA community,” wrote Akhilesh Yadav on X.
“The dominant people harass and insult the PDA community from time to time by getting their houses washed with Gangajal and sometimes by getting the temple washed, now they are even getting their heads shaved,” he wrote in Hindi.
PDA, a political term coined by the Samajwadi Party, refers to Pichhda (Backward), Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (Minority).
The political back‑and‑forth has been fierce—BJP ministers accused Akhilesh of opportunistic caste‑baiting, while Akhilesh hit back, alleging orchestrated unrest by “outsiders” under the BJP’s watch, branding the Yogi government “heartless and undemocratic.”
“Akhilesh Yadav is giving a casteist spin to the incident to divide society and gain political mileage,” said UP Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh, speaking to the press in Lucknow. “The state government acted swiftly—four people were arrested, and 15 detained. But Akhilesh is trying to stoke unrest by misleading people.”
The conflict between Yadavs and Brahmins isn’t new in the region. Back in 2013, when the Samajwadi Party was in power and Akhilesh Yadav was Chief Minister, a Brahmin family was assaulted.
A Brahmin boy fell in love with a Yadav girl and eloped with her from Santoshpura village in Etawah. When it came to light, the Yadav family assaulted the Brahmin family. They made the Brahmins wear a garland of shoes and paraded them around a village.
Now, people are connecting both incidents.
“When they were in power, they also assaulted the Brahmins, and now they are not in power, so they are getting assaulted. Both incidents shouldn’t have happened, but this isn’t an ideal world,” said Chauhan.
In a place where Lord Krishna’s name once brought people together, suspicion greets every knock on the door.
“This isn’t the first time caste has broken something sacred in our region—and sadly, it won’t be the last,” said Rana Pratap Singh Chauhan, 60, watching over his tea stall.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)