CHANDRA SHEKHAR
AAZAD
34 • Organizing against oppression
Chandra Shekhar Aazad, 34, is a Dalit—a member of India’s most op-
pressed caste group. The movement he leads, the Bhim Army, runs
schools to help Dalits escape poverty through education. It also practices
a distinct brand of assertiveness, sweeping into villages on loud motor-
bikes to protect victims of caste-based violence and organizing provoca-
tive demonstrations against discrimination. In September 2020, when
police in the state of Uttar Pradesh delayed investigation of the fatal
gang-rape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman, allegedly perpetrated by four
dominant-caste men, Aazad and the Bhim Army spearheaded a cam-
paign for justice. The protests and public outcry that followed eventually
led to the accused rapists’ arrests. (They deny the charges.) Aazad has
also lent his support to several other progressive movements, including
recently to farmers protesting against corporate agricultural reforms. He
hopes to turn the reach of the Bhim Army—and his own growing popu-
larity—into wins at the ballot box, and in March 2020 launched a po-
litical party. Its first real test comes during elections next year in Uttar
Pradesh, where Hindu nationalists are politically dominant. Despite the
Bhim Army’s muscular stance, Aazad has also cultivated an aura of char-
ismatic approachability through deft use of social media; even Aazad’s
luxuriant mustache—a style seen by some dominant castes as a status
symbol—is a form of resistance. By challenging the notion that Dalits
should be deferential, says Dhrubo Jyoti, a Dalit journalist at the Hin-
dustan Times, Aazad and the Bhim Army “have visually and psychologi-
cally changed the pitch of caste resistance in India.” —Billy Perrigo
JessicaByrd34 • Building a
movementBY ALICIA GARZAThe best leaders of our time are
the ones about whose visions
people hear and say, “That’s
never going to happen.” They
have a vision so big that when
they proclaim it, you might think
they’re out of their minds. But
then you watch them get to
work—and succeed.
Jessica Byrd, founding partner
of consulting firm Three Point
Strategies, has a vision that vast.
She saw what Stacey Abrams
could accomplish. She dreams
in electoral justice, and works to
place Black women in positions
of power in order to accomplish
it. With the Movement for Black
Lives, she has been a champion
for the BREATHE Act—a bill
drafted by our movement that
would divest federal funds from
the criminal system and reinvest
them in communities.
If Jessica’s in your corner, she
believes in you, heart and soul,
and moves heaven and earth to
get you to victory. She may not
always win, but she has the last
laugh in the end, because she
intoxicated you with her vision
that all things are possible when
we have our minds, and our
hearts, stayed on freedom.Garza is principal at Black
Futures LabSTASZEWSKI: OMAR MARQUES—GETTY IMAGES; STITH: ADVANCEMENT PROJECT; OLUO: ILLUSTRATION
BY ALEXIS FRANKLIN FOR TIME; AAZAD: SAUMYA KHANDELWAL; BYRD: ELIZAH TURNER