130
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textbook version. Created as a “parallel model
of scholarship to academic institutions”, the
Facebook page and website have detailed
notes on atrocities against Dalits, as well as
important leaders and movements, starting
with the rst mention of caste in the Rigveda.
A more recent attempt to reclaim crucial
historical gures is No Laughing Matter: The
Ambedkar Cartoons, 1932-1956, a collection
of political cartoons that demonstrate the
derogatory manner in which Dr BR Ambedkar
was often depicted in the cartoons of the
time. Put together by political cartoonist
and scholar Unnamati Syama Sundar, the
collection unpacks the prejudices of the mostly
savarna cartoonists who drew them.
Interestingly, in an urban milieu, English
is emerging as an important language of
resistance; a global tongue that was also the
chosen language of Dr Ambedkar (his seminal
work Annihilation Of Caste was written in
English). In a moving personal essay in The
Caravan titled “What Hindi Keeps Hidden”,
writer Sagar argues that Hindi could never be
the language of Dalit emancipation.
Growing up in a “Hindi home”, in the
“Hindi belt”, the chances of him nding a
Hindi translation of Dr Ambedkar’s work were
slim. He writes, “This was not an accident. It
had everything to do with who created the
language, who developed and propagated it and
whose stamp remains deepest upon it today.”Late in June, critics hailed the progressive
politics of Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15,
starring Ayushmann Khurrana as a Brahmin
cop investigating the deaths of two Dalit girls
and the disappearance of a third in a small
village in rural India. While most applauded
the lm’s mainstreaming of conversations
around caste, others pointed out its
blindspots.
Delhi-based Divya Kandukuri, 23, who
runs @anticastecat, meme-driven Twitter and
Instagram accounts that question stereotypes
of caste, called out the lm for using Dalit
“bodies for your voyeuristic pleasure... Also
why is it so dif cult for you to have a so-called
lower caste HERO? Your saviour complex
won’t allow it eh?” she asked. (Later, Sinha
acknowledged the criticism but stated he
was always clear that he wanted to “place
the camera on the shoulders of the person
with utmost privilege... And start an inward
journey from there.”)
Kandukuri, a Phule-Ambedkarite –
someone who acknowledges the role of women
in Dalit emancipation – set up The Blue
Dawn in 2018, a community initiative that
facilitates accessible mental health services to
Bahujans following the aggravation of her own
mental health while studying at Delhi’s Lady
Shri Ram College. She says, “It’s important
to acknowledge the psychosocial reasons
behind mental illness and the caste and class
dynamics that are responsible for it.”
Or, as Arivu puts it succinctly, “I had
an inferiority complex that had been
institutionalised.”
Azad may have had to wait for everyone
else in his school to quench their thirst before
he could get a sip of water, but Arivu tells me
that casteism in metropolitan educational
institutions today is more subterranean.
“Modern untouchability is not something
you can always physically see or le a
case against.”––––F
or many millennial Dalits,
Rohith Vemula’s suicide letter,
widely published in the news
and on social media in 2016,
was a massive trigger – and a
call to action. His wish to be a
science writer like Carl Sagan
endeared him to many, even as
he spoke openly of how casteism had affected
him. “My birth is my fatal accident.”
It was a pivotal moment for Arivu. “I
memorised his suicide note. It affected me
so much. I was a student then, and I wasGLOSSARY
Dalit: The
International Dalit
Solidarity Network
uses the term
Dalit to refer to
caste-affected
members,
also known as
“untouchables”
and/or Scheduled
Castes, and
members of other
communities
affected by
similar forms of
discrimination
based on work and
descent.
Savarna: Those
who belong to
one of the four
varnas or classes.
In the present-
day context, they
include all the
forward castes.
Chamar: The word
is now considered
unconstitutional,
but is the name
of a prominent
occupational caste
in India and Nepal.