My Dalitality
Issue #26: December 2023
Dear Friends:
This month was spent in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and now Thailand. The issue will carry photographs of my visit there.
In Vang Vieng, Laos, we stumbled upon a cave site. We hadn't read anything significant about it. Just some Google Map reviews talked about the minerals inside; some advised against hiring a guide because you cannot get lost, and one said that the exit to the caves is through a beautiful waterfall. The photos posted on the reviews were picturesque. We started on our own with a torch given by the authorities who sell the tickets outside. It was a pleasant walk. We had originally not planned to visit the caves. So we went as explorers. As we were getting inside the mountains, the darkness and the lack of oxygen were felt. The heartbeat increases, expressing anxiety and worry. But you don't want to turn back as the end is near, and you want to experience more.
As the distance inside the cave increased, a moment of uncertainty clouded. We kept walking it started getting confusing with many pathways, and then there were puddles and wet soil. The walk started getting trickier with all the climbing and trying to avoid getting hurt by the sharp stones of many million years. Towards the end of an hour or so, we started hearing the noise of the water, and it started to get louder as we descended from a distance. It was a loud water moving in three directions. The information we had read proved to be true so far. But then there was no exit sign in sight. The beautiful picture posted by one reviewer had a bright waterfall exit. It also said that you may have to walk in water of about 30 cm.
We were already there, but this specific thing was invisible. So in this mighty cave, we were desperately searching for an exit. It was four directions. They were treacherous and highly dangerous. The torch also was not given a full view, but it became limited. I decided to go and find out by myself. The issue was it was slippery; the edges were sharp like knives, and the water was continuously flowing and making a noise. So if I got stuck or got hurt, there was no way the acoustic of the inner cave would allow it. Another issue was that if any of us got hurt, then finding help would be extremely difficult. One had to return and get the people inside, which was again not an easy terrain.
I was still searching for the exit route. I went into a two-foot tunnel, thinking it might exit from here. I went so deep that, for a moment, I lost the count of turns I took. It was worrying. Then another route was bigger, so I thought this must be it. Because there is no other way out of it. We all went through the route, but it was getting even watery, and the flow was increasing. I kept thinking the next turn would show the brightness of the exit, and we would be out of our way. I ended up going much deeper into these turning caves, and it kept increasing almost no end to this labyrinth.
In that huge cave, I started to feel claustrophobic. We made a decision to return. The signs were directed towards the route that we took to enter. We thought it was for people who are coming from the other side. We went towards the exit. We were tired, and our clothes were torn and dirty due to the hike in an unknown place. Finally, we managed to exit without energy drowned by the caves' energy and struggle for life.
After we came back to the point, we found the staff. We communicated with them using an online translator, and they said that there was no exit. The route is to go to the water point and return. The one review that talked about exit with a waterfall we had read on Google for Hoy Cave–which is where we were was wrongly attributed. It was talking about some other cave.
Someone unknowingly reviewed the wrong cave with the wrong information. I could not express the sense of comfort, and a huge sigh of relief ran through my body. In a celebratory rush of energy, I started to discuss such episodes we came through. This was once in a lifetime experience. While we were in the deepest point of the cave and worried about our exit, we were motivating each other so that once we were outside, we could reminisce about this and our survival. I was living that surreal moment after that. To wash off, we decided to cool off in a lagoon nearby. But that feeling of having just survived made us numb, and that thought remained in the background even though we were planning different things.
inside view of the Hoy cave
Dalitality
December
From wrestlers to farmers to movements, the northern Indian Jat, Jaat, Jatt community is at the forefront. Their presence is often suspected by the political class. The farmer agitation concerning the three laws that took the Modi government by storm was predominantly led by land-owning Jats. Now, the wrestlers who have accused BJP, MP Brij Bhushan, a former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief, of sexual harassment have put pressure on the government. Recently, a close acolyte of Brij Bhusan got elected to head WFI. In protest, Sakshi Mallik, Bajgran Punia, and Vinesh Phogat have returned their awards to the government. All three belong to the Jat community. Who are these Jats? What is the background of the community, what makes them an outspoken, unafraid community? I try to explore that in this month's installment of Dalitality.
I write in the piece,
Referring to Jats as a singular group is a grave fallacy since they are a group of several sub-caste tribes divided by gotras. Both rich land-owning farmers and petty peasants derive their ancestry from Jats who migrated.
Many Jats carried their traditional practices into modern life, including their heavily endogamous methods to select partners or settling disputes through the infamous khap panchayats, a contested form of delivering justice.
Jats strategically placed their faith in their practice of agrarian work. With relatives spread among the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, they embraced their newfound faith positively and remained in that structure.
You can read the complete version here.
Dr Ambedkar's opus, The Problem of the Rupee, is celebrating 100 years. A public function was organized in Mumbai discussing the importance of this text. However, not many do not know the historical and as well as disciplinary happenings around the time of Ambedkar's research and publication of the book. Economic historian and political theorist Stefan Eich told us the story of the text, the context, and the debates of the era and its meaning now.
You can read the insightful piece here.
Travels
I made my first-ever travel vlog. It is published on Instagram and will be available on YouTube and other platforms shortly. I am learning the technique. I hope to devote more attention to developing this skill. You can watch the video here.
In Vietnam, the most exciting part of the journey was to get on a motorbike and travel for three days exploring the northern tip of the country bordering China. What an experience it was. The scenery, the path, the diversity, the people, the food, and the adventure, all added to making it a truly remarkable experience.
Near the village of mountain Nung ethnic group
With Elephants in Laos
Vientiane
In Cambodia, I visited the Genocide Museum. The museum is located on the field site where the killings took place. I was ashamed to not know that a genocidal regime in the 1970s worked actively to eliminate fellow Khmer people. As the audio guide tells you, it was the genocide committed by Khmer on Khmer. The communist rule of Pol Pot participated in killing nearly two million, a quarter of its population.
Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh
Angkor War National Museum, Siem Reap
Other Features/Publications
If I tell you, Dr Ambedkar’s first-ever biography was written in 1940 and in Gujarati. Would you believe me? In this unbelievable and satisfying new discovery, it was U M Solanki who wrote the book entitled, Dr B R Ambedkar Esquire, M.A., Ph.D. Here.
A noted Dalit thinker whose life started off in extreme poverty. In his autobiography, he recalled how he fought with dogs for meals and ate the leftover food of rich landlords. He rose to the rank of professor of economics and an honourable voice in Kerala. Here
Economist and Dalit thinker M Kunhaman
The US government decided to take on the Big Pharma. This Twitter response was eventful.
This interview by Suryakant Waghmore was educating on so many grounds. Like a sharp observer of political Hinduism, Waghmore helps us to have a bearing on our experience of the Modi era. What are the merits of BJP-RSS, and how effectively have they worked on their project over the years? How they remain open & compromise to accommodate diverse castes in their politics. You can read the interview by Abhish K. Bose here.
Saket Gokhale, a Rajya Sabha MP of TMC party in his speech to the Parliament expressed the grave condition of the prisoners and under trials. Gokhale himself was incarcerated in Gujarat by the police. This speech in the Parliament spoke of the societal untouchables. You can watch it here.
Things to lookout for
We’re going to post new videos and exchange ideas on my YouTube channel. Please subscribe and spread the word.
Subscribe and share with others as well.
I will be in Kerala in Jan 2024 where I am curating two panels. The first on Ashoka and the other on Kerala's Dalit Futures. Do come if you're around.
As part of the Oxford Ambedkar Initiative, we’ve launched Oxford5. We’re welcoming mentors to be part of this initiative. Please spread the word and invite others to contribute. Link here.
A Fellowship opportunity at Bard College, Berlin and SOAS, London, is available for diverse candidates. More information can be found here.
This song by Māori singer and songwriter Stan Walker entitled, "I AM" occupied an entire afternoon one day. It was on a repeat loop giving goosebumps when the Māorian chorus would join the lead singer's voice and his calling. This song is featured in the Origin movie. Do not miss the film coming out in January and see and experience the song.
Speaking on Māori, a Dalit creative writer and scholar Rajiv Thind attempted to compare the struggle of the Māori's and Dalits. I have not read any such comparison before, so this new attempt hopes to create new dialogues. As Thind writes,
The Māori are an inspiration to all those on the margins. The Māori concept of mana (power, prestige, dignity) can have revolutionary import for India’s Dalits — formerly known as “the untouchables” — who are silenced and demeaned through physical and psychological assaults and bourgeois dominant-caste neglect.
Māori marginalisation stems from very different historical and social contexts, but there are a lot of similarities. Many Dalit-Adivasis describe their dispossession as a kind of internal colonisation within the dominant-caste capitalism. Read here.
An interesting podcast on Anjali Arondekar’s latest book, Abundance: Sexuality’s History (2022, where she explains the arguments and her buildup to the book. You will enjoy this as the writer takes you through the process of writing the book, dealing with personal stories, and theorizing experiences. You can hear it here.
A podcast I tend to visit whenever I find time is The Sandip Roy Show. Sandip interviews authors. He has a great communication style, and he reads the books well. The engagement is educative. The two podcasts that I heard recently were one by Ujjal Dosanjh on his novel, The Past is Never Dead, which I greatly enjoyed and have been planning to write a review of. The other was with Manoj Mitta on his superbly engaging book Caste Pride: Battles for Equality in Hindu India. You will enjoy this and other conversations with the author here.
As we close 2023, which won't happen again. We remain grateful to it for giving us the opportunity to share that year with ourselves and memories. We learn, and we are humbled. We become confident.
Breathe and follow sensations. I will do this for the next few days, as it is my year-end ritual to be in the self and observe it. Learn and be peaceful in the protection and guidance of Dhamma taught by the compassionate Siddharth Gautama Buddha.
Until 2024. #JaiBhim #DalitLove
suraj, from Thailand for now.
💐🙏