The government of the Indian state of Rajasthan and the leaders of the Gujjar community have held preliminary talks to end more than two weeks of protests.
Gujjar leaders have called off a nationwide strike planned for Tuesday.
The Gujjars are demanding to be officially listed as a tribe qualifying for government jobs and reserved places in educational institutions.
More than 40 Gujjars have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and the security forces in Rajasthan.
The Gujjars are a politically influential tribe in north India.
They say they want to be placed on an official list of disadvantaged tribal groups that benefit from preferential recruitment to government jobs and educational institutions.
Refused
Monday's talks with the government were held under tight security in the eastern town of Bayana.
The government team comprised Minister for Mines Lakshmi Narayan Dave and Minister for Irrigation Sanwarlal Jat.
The Gujjars were represented by 37 of their leaders.
The talks were being held in Bayana because the Gujjar leadership refused to travel to the state capital, Jaipur.
The Gujjar leaders called off Tuesday's planned nationwide strike and decided to take part in further talks.
No date has been set for the discussions.
In the past two weeks, more than 40 Gujjars have died in clashes with the police.
Alleging that the protesters were shot dead by police, they refused to hand over the bodies for post-mortem.
Last week, they relented and allowed doctors to visit the site of the protest and carry out the post-mortems on the bodies.
Gujjar demonstrators also disrupted rail services between Rajasthan's capital Jaipur and Delhi.
Last month, the Rajasthan government announced an aid package worth $60m (£30m) for the community but this was rejected.
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~21~RS~)