126CHANGING
OF THE
GUARD
There’s a new wave
of Dalit Pride taking
over the country, on
the streets and in the
cultural zeitgeist. Simrit
Malhi spoke to the
millennials who are
determined to change
the way we think about
caste one album,
Tumblr account and
book at a timeA
rivarasu Kalainesan, or Arivu (“wisdom”
in Tamil), as he’s now known, is a slight,
unassuming 26-year-old. Quiet and
contemplative, he weighs every word before
he speaks. Except for his brand new Adidas
kicks, it would be hard to imagine him as one
of the country’s most promising rappers.
Well-read, razor sharp and a prominent
face of The Casteless Collective, a 19-member music crew,
Arivu raps “because hip-hop came from pain. There is so much
oppression in this country that’s ignored. People ask, where is the
caste? But every street in India is divided according to it.”
Arivu grew up in Arakkonam, 70km outside Chennai, without
a television or any other form of mainstream media. His teacher-
parents supplied him with books instead (he can recite Tamil poets
like Bharathiyar and Thiruvalluvar from memory). By the time he
left for engineering college in Coimbatore, he was already writing
his own work – his friends told him his poetry, and the way he
recited it, was called rap.
While his playlist now includes everyone from Lil Wayne to J
Cole, there’s no talk of bitches and fancy rides in his music. He
has none of the affected swag of his peers; and no sign of bling. He
may be a rapper, but he’s a poet and writer rst. His recent album