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BATTLE OF BHIMA KOREGAON

•  The Battle of Koregaon (also called the Battle of Koregaon Bhima, after the river Bhima that flows close to it) was fought on 1 January 1818 between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, at Koregaon Bhima.
• Note: It was part of 3rd Anglo Maratha War.

BATTLE OF BHIMA KOREGAON

• The Peshwas belonged to the ‘Chitpavan Brahmin’ community.
•  In the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, a regiment of Mahar Dalits, serving in the British Army had defeated the Peshwa’s army.
•  This victory is held as very important by the Mahar Dalits, who see it as a victory over the Brahmin Peshwas.

 ELGAR PARISHAD

• Organising the Parishad at the Shaniwarwada Fort was thus seen as a symbol of Dalit assertion.
• Before the event, two marches were organised through several districts of Maharashtra and culminating in Pune.
• These marches held public meetings to rally support for Dalit victims of atrocities and collect donations for the Elgar Parishad.

ELGAAR PARISHAD 31/12/2017

• The Elgaar Parishad was an event held on 31 December 2017 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima.
•  It was organised by a coalition of 260 non-profit organisations at Pune’s Shaniwarwada Fort, and had approximately 35,000 people in attendance.
•  The program consisted of a number of cultural performances, speeches and slogans.
•  “Elgaar” means loud invitation or loud declaration.

1/1/2018

•   Two FIRs were filed — one against Shivjagar Pratisthan president  Sambhaji Bhide ‘Guruji’ and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti president Milind Ekbote.
•  The second FIR was filed against “Leftist groups with Maoist links” who spoke at the Elgar Parishad.

 1/1/2018

• An FIR filed in Pune alleging that banned Naxalite groups had organized the Elgaar Parishad. Police claims that speeches made at Elgaar Parishad were at least partly responsible for instigating violence the next day.
• Witnessed violence on next day.
•  In June 2018, the Pune police had arrested five activists and lawyers from Pune, Nagpur and Delhi, claiming that these had links to banned Naxalite organization, and had played a role in organizing the Elgaar Parishad.

FEW MONTHS LATER

•  It managed to arrest four of them, including Chhattisgarh-based Sudha Bhardwaj, and Hyderabad-based Varavara Rao. They have been in jail ever since.
• The others, Anand Teltumbde, a Goa-based academic and professor, and Delhi-based Gautam Navalakha have managed to obtain judicial reprieve against their arrests. Case regd.
• Under UAPA.

3 YEARS LATER: JAN 30, 2021

• The Pune Police has granted permission for the event, which commemorates the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
• Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy and former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan will be the key speakers this time.

3 YEARS LATER: JAN 30, 2021

• The convenors of the 2021 Elgar Parishad are the retired Bombay High Court judges Justices B.G. Kolse-Patil and P.B. Sawant.
•  Justice Kolse-Patil had said that the Elgar Parishad was an attempt to “fight communal forces”.

• An FIR has been filed against Sharjeel Usmani under Section 153 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, at the Swargate Police Station in Pune, for his speech at 2021’s edition of Elgar Parishad.
• Section 153 (A) deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.
• The student leader was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police last year for his alleged role in the clashes that broke out in Aligarh Muslim University on December 15, following protests against the new citizenship laws.
•  He was currently out on bail.

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