Dear Friends,
T.S Eliot wrote somewhere, April is the cruelest month, but for Dalits all over the world, this could not be more wrong. For us, no month is sweeter than April. No matter what we are going through, April brings the joy of remembering and relishing the legacy of our most celebrated heroes—Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
This month and April 14th in particular, is the biggest day in our lives. We probably do not celebrate our own birthdays as much as the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar. This celebration of “Ambedkar Jayanti” began during Ambedkar’s life. All over India, Ambedkar’s followers, mostly Dalits, would commemorate the day of their hero.
After all, for a community that surreptitiously tries to evade all the attacks and visual denigration, they need a time to fully reclaim themselves. Thus, Ambedkar Jayanti becomes an occasion for the community to write its new story from hereon. What a revolution it is indeed that a community that was meant to not remember its glorious past and resign to the fate of the karmic caste system, reclaimed themselves, gathering in one piece and launching a fiesta. It is incredibly soothing to us all.
This is not limited to the Dalits living in India but has now started to spread in the western world.
As was reported in the last newsletter, the British Columbia government of Canada marked 14th April as the Dr. Ambedkar Equality Day. Later this was paralleled at home when M. K. Stalin, the Chief minister of Tamil Nadu also declared the birthday of the revolutionary Dr. Ambedkar as Equality Day.
April is a busy month for Bahujan activists, artists, scholars, and leaders. I recall a few years ago when I was trying to set up an event with Anand Teltumbde in the month of April. He had to remind me that it is April and it would be difficult for him to commit to anything else. This experience is shared across the board by many public figures. I continue to receive heart warming invites from around the world to address the gathering on April 14th.
Compiled by Mahesh Wasnik
Personally, I was busy delivering lectures in Portugal, UAE, and USA with the aim of bringing caste to global attention and as it happened I celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti at great heights, 37000 ft to be precise.
courtesy: passenger no. 83C
Dalitality
As I write this, I am delighted to share the news that India’s firebrand leader Jignesh Mevani has received bail on both of the farcical charges that were brought upon him last month. Moreover, the session court judge Aparesh Chakravarty in Barpeta, Assam reprimanded the state machinery for abusing the process of court and law.
BJP was once again put on the backfoot by the court. BJP is like a
“bullock” I argue in this edition of Dalitality. From resorting to elaborate schemes of wild conspiracies and planted evidence, Prof. Anand Teltumbde, Varavara Rao, Hany Babu, Umar Khalid, and other political prisoners are lodged in gaol. This is sure a sign of restlessness in the RSS led BJP government.
Mevani, who is brought up in Dalit tradition and takes inspiration from Dr. Ambedkar and Dadasaheb Gaikwad’s struggles is among the rare breed of India’s social activists-turned-politicians who understands the intimate relation of land relation with caste violence. And as I argue, a hasty attempt to put Mevani behind the bars on absurd charges not only shows fear of the ruling government about Mevani’s popularity as a strong anti-BJP leader and his rise as the face of opposition in Gujarat for the upcoming election but also unwittingly acknowledges Mevani’s potential as national leader of future. I conclude the article with this: “Mevani has to survive two assaults—the BJP and Congress. If he succeeds on both fronts, India will have a leader to work with for several decades.”
What led to the defeat of BSP in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh election of 2022? There are many speculations and even more absurd statements by specialists who are trying to pin the blame on the obvious. However, a scholarly take merits for a critical analysis.
A popular misconception in the Indian polity is to shift the blame on Dalits for bringing BJP to power. Backed with the data, professor of sociology at JNU, Vivek Kumar refutes this claim and argues that BSP votes transferred to the SP and RLD alliance to defeat the BJP.
Kumar puts his hands on the topic of unacceptability of the Dalit leadership.
“Nonetheless, after five elections (UP polls — 2012, 2017, 2022 — and two general elections — 2014, 2019) it has been established that the mainstream society is not ready to accept the BSP as a centrist party, even though it is hailed for its good governance, social justice (land distribution), pro-poor schemes (Ambedkar Village, Kanshiram Housing Schemes), and development (with GDP of the state on a par with the national numbers during 2007-12).”
Other Features
A net of anti-caste activists who believe in Ambedkar’s ideology of annihilation of caste now exists worldwide. In this talk, I looked at the history of Dalit organizing worldwide. Drawing from field notes in the Middle East, North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, I argue that the state of cosmopolitan Dalit universalism is here and that Dalit as a localized group has transcended the spatio-caste boundaries to become a global figure.
Source: The Quint
Dr. Ambedkar and America
I was invited by The Quint to discuss the relationship between Ambedkar and America. I made a video clip for this special. It can be viewed here. You can read the article here.
Loksatta: Ambedkarwaad
This and the past month’s installation was dedicated to “Defining Ambedkarism”. It was printed in two parts. You can read them here and here.
In 2 separate Marathi articles for Loksatta, I try to define and theorize Ambedkarism, and weigh the potential for an Ambedkarite theory. These are a series of articles that I will write exploring a possibility of establishing a foundation of Ambedkarism and Ambedkarite theory.
The launch of the much-awaited book, The Dalit Truth: The Battles for Realizing Ambedkar’s Vision’, edited by K. Raju took place on 9th April 2022. Among other eminent scholars, activists, and filmmakers, I contributed an essay to the collection where I focused on Dr. Ambedkar’s mission to make the struggle against caste an international movement. He believed this would be the only way to bring adequate attention to the issue and work towards eliminating it everywhere. Dr. Ambedkar made connections between the situation in India to that of other marginalized groups across the world. You can read the excerpt from the essay here. A review of the book by poet S Chandramohan is here.
Prof Gaurav Pathania reviews Prof Chinniah Jangam’s masterpiece, Dalits and the Making of Modern India (2019). You can read the review here. Speaking of which Professors Meena Dhanda and Karthick Ram Manoharan edited a special number titled, Freedom from Caste: Anti-caste Thought, Politics and Culture. It can be accessed here.
Events
Talks
I was invited to attend the March Meeting at Sharjah, UAE. I presented some of the key concepts in my thinking. Dalitical: a positionality of contesting yet rising sensibility. It is a method of reaching consciousness of shared wisdom with the logic of “metta” espoused by the enlightened one, loosely translated as “loving kindness” - harmless and without arms.
The full talk was delivered at a panel “New Social Movements, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and its Global Reverberations. The full discussion can be seen here.
You can view my presentation, “Politicization of Racism & Casteism: Towards a Theory of Global Caste Slavery” at the Center for Asian Research & Religious Studies, Arizona University here.
Fresh off the field notes, I had the opportunity to present the findings at NYU, Abu Dhabi, “Caste and Migrant Workers in the UAE”.
courtesy: Tashan, Association of South Asian Cultural Understanding, NYU Abu Dhabi
#CasteMatters
The review of Caste Matters in Marathi is out now.
“Global Caste - Early Histories, Present Politics” (postponed to the Fall of 2022)
Had the pleasure to continue my yearly engagement with Nicole Ranganathan’s class on South Asia and Cinema. I lectured on Caste, Cinema and Representation at UC, Davis.
In History
Wishes of Samrat Ashok Jayanti. The only ancient king who ruled over entire South Asia. Ashok was a notable Buddhist ruler who incorporated Dhamma into his empire. We’re soon launching “Ashoka’s India Initiative” to examine history & philosophy from a unique ruler-to-outcaste point of view. Ashoka has so much to offer on state governance, political economy, religion, laws, diplomacy. The Kings & Queens under Ashoka’s vast protectorate were later relegated to untouchability as outcastes.
20 May 1845 - 5 May 1914 — Iyothee Thass, one of the pioneers of anti-caste, Buddhist tradition in Tamil Nadu.
6 May – Death anniversary of father of social justice in Indi, Shahu Maharaj
6 May – Swami Achuthanand Jayanti
15 May – First publication of Annihilation of Caste by Dr. Ambedkar
27th May – Death anniversary of Ramabai Bhimrao Ambedkar
Celebrations | Things to Look Out For
Mimi Mondal (she/they) wins the AC Bose Grant given by Speculative Literature Foundation. You can read more about it here.
Supriya Jatav became the first Indian player to win a Karate championship in the USA. The news report reads:
“Competing in the elite women’s division, Jatav won bronze against Japan’s karateka, who are rated as World No. 1 in the sport. In the mixed team event, Jatav along with her Indian teammates (two men and a woman) defeated hosts USA for the second consecutive year to clinch gold in the Kumite (one-on-one fight) category.”
Former Asian Athletics Championship silver medallist, Naib Subedhar Avinash Sable of Indian Army’s Mahar Regiment created a new National Record in 5000m at San Juan Capistrano, USA by clocking 13:25:65. Sable broke the 30 years old National record of Bahadur Prasad, created in the UK in 1992. This news is particularly personal for me because Sable comes from the drought-prone village of Madhavi in Beed district of Marathwada, about a 4 hours bus ride to the place.
A film by vqueeram and Vishal Jugdeo is next in the installation that you should watch. Details of the film, Does Your House Have Lions (2021) can be found here. I watched this film with queer friend filmmakers who nodded the craft and the sensiblity of the topic. Details here.
Announcements
To put Bahujan students in the top policy schools is bearing fruits. Our extraordinary mentors and even more promising fellows have teamed up to produce impressive results. Our fellows who applied for the class of 2022 got multiple admission offers from the top policy schools out there. Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Oxford, Hertie you name it. Do spread the world and if you’re one of the prospective candidates apply here.
Call To Action
courtesy: Dalit Panthers Golden Jubilee Committee, Nanded
Dalit Panthers are celebrating their Golden Juiblee this year. A first Dalit-Black Panthers conference is going to take place in Nanded, Maharashtra from 28-29 May, 2022. Leaders from the Dalit Panthers and the Black Panthers will share the stage together. Encourage you to keep an eye out and attend the conference. More on this sooner.
#JaiBhim #DalitLove
Hello from Trinidad for now,
- suraj