While this was happening, a Gujjar farmer happened to walk by. Seeing three journalists talking to the Dalit men, he couldn’t resist joining the discussion. He insisted that Thati was a happy place and that Dalits and Gujjars lived “like brothers.’’

”Brothers?’’ one Dalit man shot back. “Brothers don’t scalp each other!”

Police officers have arrested several Gujjar men accused in the attack on Mr. Sardar, who is around 55 years old — he’s not exactly sure of his age. But the authorities say that caste played “no role” and that the crime was precipitated by a personal dispute between Mr. Sardar and a landlord.

That claim made Mr. Sardar laugh — a dry, bitter laugh. He shook his bandaged head, still recovering from a painful skin graft from his thigh. It’s a common complaint: that the police (who are usually from higher castes) always side against the Dalits.

One police commander tried to claim that the assailants hadn’t intended to scalp Mr. Sardar but that part of his scalp had simply fallen off when they hit him in the head with a stick. Two doctors who treated Mr. Sardar at a government hospital disagreed. They said just about all the skin on the top of his head had been forcibly removed with a sharp instrument, leaving his skull undamaged but much of the bone exposed.

Mr. Sardar said that while he was being scalped, the Gujjars taunted him for wearing a turban, something that Dalits are not supposed to do. He remembers the men saying: “We’re going to take away your crown.’’

Now, he said, he is going to bear a horrible scar that will remind him, for the rest of his life, what the higher caste men did to him.

“I wish I were a different caste,’’ he sighed.