WORLD : 7 Die in India Nuptials Caste War
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NEW DELHI — Seven people died and 50 were reported missing because a low-caste 15-year-old bridegroom from India’s Taj Mahal town of Agra wanted to ride to his wedding on horseback, a local member of Parliament said today.
Police in Agra, 125 miles south of Delhi, said they had arrested 200 people and were keeping four ghettos for Harijans--the untouchables at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy--under curfew after the wedding sparked a caste war.
Bridegroom Ram Deen, a Harijan, eventually rode to nearby Panwari village in a police jeep to marry 13-year-old Mundra while the army fought back thousands of enraged Jats, the caste of small landowners, in the village and police confronted thousands of Agra Harijans just outside.
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