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Death may be the greatest leveller, but not in Vaso village of Kheda in Gujarat. When Gandabhai Manabhai (70), a Dalit, died on 17 August 2006, his family had to call in the police so that they could perform his last rites at the panchayat-run crematorium. Had it not been for the police, panchayat members, mostly from the higher caste, would not have allowed the cremation. This was the first cremation of a Dalit on the panchayat cremation grounds in two years. It was also an act of defiance against suppression by the social elite, who have even put up a notice outside the crematorium asking lower caste members to cremate their dead elsewhere. "We would have cremated our grandfather in the wasteland outside the village, but it was under five feet of water because of heavy rain," says Manabhai's grandson Prakash. "We had no other place to perform the last rites and requested the sarpanch to open the gates for us. But he refused, forcing us to call the police." Manabhai had died at 7 pm, but his body was cremated only at 2 pm the next day. Interestingly, the crematorium was used by all communities till restrictions were imposed in 2004. NGO Navsarjan has taken up the cause of the Dalits and asked the collector and local police to intervene. "We will ensure that the crematorium is open to all communities," says Ashok Rathod of Navsarjan Trust at Nadiad. But the activists will face resistance from the panchayat. The crematorium is still locked. Although the notice has been smudged with paint, one can still read parts of it. "Members of lower castes like Harijan, Rohit, Vankar, Vaghri, Tadpada, Raval, Bajaniya, Saneva and Chamar should take their dead to other locations," it says. Sarpanch Anand Patel says, "We know the rules that these communities are trying to teach us. Their homes are encroachments on panchayat land. We will follow the rule book here as well." Another panchayat member adds, "We provide them material for last rites worth Rs 2000 free, which the panchayat will now reconsider." 
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