MEERUT: One has to go no further than this incident in Saharanpur to see how polarisation is playing out in villages of Uttar Pradesh.

In the just-concluded pradhan elections in Dayalpur village, electorates were clearly divided along religious lines: while Muslims supported Saeed Ahmad, the dalits showed allegiance to Deepak Kumar. But Ram Daiya, a 55-year-old dalit, and his family went against the tide to support Ahmad, triggering off an unfortunate sequence of events that began with their social boycott by the dalit community. On Thursday night, when Ram Daiya died, due to natural causes, no one from his community came forward to attend his last rites. Eventually, it was Muslims who helped the bereaved family with the cremation on Friday.

Ram Daiya’s son Rajinder Kumar told TOI, “The Hindus, particularly Dalits and members of the Saini community, completely boycotted us socially. In fact, we were told that nobody will assist us in performing the last rites when anybody in our family dies.”

However, on hearing news of Daiya’s death, a large number of Muslims began to gather at his house on Friday morning. They then arranged for wood and other material for his cremation.

Saeed Ahmad, the gram pradhan candidate Daiya’s family voted for, said, “We knew that no one would attend his cremation, so we extended all possible help to the family. But the way things are turning out is very sad. At least, no bitterness should be carried forward following one’s death.”

Kumar said that his father was a very old associate of Saeed Ahmad and valued the ties with him. "He gave priority to his relationship with Ahmad and did not vote on caste lines,” he added.

Deepak Kumar, Ahmad’s rival who was supported by the dalit community, said, “The social boycott story is all concocted. I was out of the village, so I could not attend his funeral.”