As Day #5 ends… More about Indian middle class attitudes towards untouchability
Please see Day #5 journey in videos and photos – hundreds of smiling villagers greeting the caravan, street dancing, packed town hall meetings, cries of Jai Bhim as the Bhim Rudan Yatra proceeds towards Delhi.
What is likely to happen in Delhi? Will the leaders of the Parliament receive the marchers and the coin?
Please stay tuned..
And please share this petition with family and friends so we can go from the 700 international supporters to a 1000 by the time the marchers reach the Parliament.
In the meantime…
In yesterday’s update, we shared actor and activist Swara Bhaskar’s question to Martin Macwan about the tendency of the urban Indian middle class (“upper castes”) to either minimize the prevalence of untouchability and caste violence or to dismiss them altogether as simply a fight for resources and jobs between “lower castes” and Dalit communities.
Hindu nationalists and supporters of the current government especially resent the fact that the international community regularly reports on incidents of untouchability and caste violence. Unfortunately, instead of being part of the solution, such groups are more focused on setting themselves up as ‘defenders’ of Hinduism.
They spend a lot of energy to censor any discussion of caste in public spaces and in schools. And they censure anyone who talks about these issues as ‘anti-Hindu’ and ‘anti-India.’ In California, such groups have been demanding that the word 'Dalit' itself be deleted from school textbooks and that the caste system be not part of the curriculum on Hinduism and Indian history. This would be akin to White nationalists asserting that any discussion of slavery and racism in schools is ‘un-American.’
The dismissive attitude of the middle class is the biggest challenge facing Dalit Rights groups like Navsarjan Trust in India and by support groups like HfHR in the diaspora.
Hopefully, peaceful public events organized by Dalit groups to shine light on untouchability -- like the Bhim Rudan Yatra -- will catalyze more public debate on how to end untouchability.
Thanks for listening.
Raju, Hindus for Human Rights USA