Stone pelting, traffic blocked: Dalit protesters bring Mumbai to a halt

Striking Indian low-caste workers bring chaos to Mumbai

Many businesses in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai closed on Wednesday as protesters from a low-caste community blocked traffic and shopping malls and staged sit-ins on railway lines after clashes with right-wing Hindus.

The call for a general strike across the western state of Maharashtra led to largely peaceful protests, but life in many parts of Mumbai was disrupted with Dalits pelting buses with stones and deflating tyres in some areas. Railway lines and some major roads leading into the city were blocked.

The Dalits, who rank at the bottom in India's ancient caste hierarchy, called the strike in