Author – Shivani Waldekar

In the USA, on 25th May 2020, when Gorge Floyd, an unarmed Black man, murdered in police custody by Minneapolis and video viral were showed a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while he is pinned to the floor after few hours of this a large anti-racism protest took place where many white people standing against Racism and police brutality. The largest appeared to be in Washington DC, where protesters- many of them carrying placards saying “Black Lives Matter” and protesters demand on Social media and on the streets, those in support of the movement have called on elected officials to address longstanding systemic racism and inequalities, from police brutality to mass incarceration to healthcare. They were not asking ‘How can White’s ally to the Black Movement?’ and they just followed the Black movement, they were encouraging them, appreciating them and the same time questioning their own existence and exposing the white supremacy. I think that is one of the toughest things where you stand against your own community and your own people and demand for justice. I think they all know Cornel West those words, “JUSTICE is what love looks like in public” 

In India, since Rohit Vemula, Delta Meghwal, Akhlakh, Pahalu Khan, Dr. Payal Tadvi to Hathras, Balrampur, Azamgarh, Bulandeshahr, Dalit are struggling to fight the social boycott imposed by dominant-caste villagers, Dalit women are still seeking justice for mass rape, the death of manual scavenges keeps hitting national newspapers headlines, and the list of caste-based atrocities are everyday increasing but the Savarna’s (so-called Upper Caste) or its fair to say them as Dominant or Privileged caste’s haven’t dared to expose their own existence. They always silence on Brahmin Supremacy, Brahminical Patriarchy and their silence is the violence and violation of many civil rights movements. On the other hand, these people are always asking how to be an ally with the Dalit Rights Movement?

As outrage continues over the Hathras gangrape, another Dalit woman was reportedly drugged, gang-raped and killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampuron. Two minor were raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr and Azamgarh, mere hours after the death of the Hatras case victim. As per the NCRB data, nearly 3,500 Dalit women were raped in 2019, with one-third of the cases reported from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This is only the reported data of Dalit rape cases there are many unreported, unspeakable, unheard and unobserved data too.

On 4th October 2020, a group of NRI Ambedkarites peacefully protests at many places in the US, demanding justice for the 19-year-old Dalit women who was allegedly gang-raped by four Thakur men in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. it also demanded stringent action against the officials who are protecting the accused and the government entities complicit in this cover-up. One of the remarkable aspects of this event was when the local Americans approached with curiosity about the protest. When protesters explained the grim situation in India to them, it was heartening to see them spontaneously join the protest and lend their support to it. This barbaric incident of Hathras, further compounded with unabashed complicity from police and the government, has enraged and shaken the NRI Dalit community but Indian privileged and dominant caste accepting silence even they reject it’s a caste-atrocity. 

The anti-Blackness in the United States is related to anti-Dalitness in the Indian subcontinent but the white’s in the US have the dare to challenged their own people and stand against them. Indian Dominant caste peoples have not the same spirit to challenge their own people or even stand against them if there is something unfair.

Indian dominant castes are not just silence because the girl is a Dalit they are silent because the rapist and killers are upper castes- Thakur’s. The Hathras Rapist and Murderers caught free on the basis of Upper caste privileged and impunity. How can I expect from their communities that they come on streets, carrying placards and saying “Dalit Lives Matter” 

May they even don’t know what Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar said that “We must uproot Brahmanism”

Meanwhile the most phenomenal question some dominant caste woke liberals throw on our faces while asking how members of privileged caste can or dominant caste is allied to the Dalit Rights Movement? This question only come to the privileged and dominant minds that’re interested in Dalit projects but Is it come into the place of sincerity? It is definitely not. It doesn’t come into the place of sincerity. Still I have a better answer with generous honesty.

• Pass the mic and shut your mouth and listen carefully.

First, they (who asking for ally) really need to Pass the Mic and shut their privileged and dominant voices and need to listen carefully, Dalit voices which are new, unheard, unseen and unobserved for their lances but they are not listening enough so they are unable to empathise with our issues and so they sympathise it through victimization. I think you just need to learn to say ‘No’, you don’t need to have comments on each and everything, have an opinion on everything. There are definitely many things which you might have don’t know because of your privileged environment and privileged lived experience. So it’s better to pass the mick and understand the perspective from below. Those who having the lived experience of the caste they have many things to say, share but their voices hijacking by dominant communities many times and so they don’t get the mick and platform to speak on their ignored, unseen experiences. So the privileged caste really needs to accept the fact that since centuries we speak behalf of Dalit communities but it’s high time to pass the mick and just listen carefully and try to understand the perspective from below. 

• Don’t dare to appropriate our spaces and don’t dare to take our leadership.

I have seen many men and women from dominant and privileged castes are appropriating our spaces and speaking on caste even they don’t have the lived experience. Many Privileged caste women talking on caste and on the other hand, they don’t want to lose their privileges. Nowadays, many women appropriating our spaces because they have married or they have dated a Dalit person or Non-Brahmin person. So as an outsider they felt that they know enough about Anti-caste movement and as they engaged with their partner who is marginalised so they feel that they break the caste and now they have the right to appropriate the space of Dalit and they assume that they have the equal share on Dalit leadership. If you really want to support and ally with Anti-caste movement does one doesn’t dare to take our leadership.

I think the lived experience of caste is necessary to channel Dalit leadership. It is giving us strength, inspiration and motivation and its matters because the discourse and dissent is fundamental in the Dalit Movement. It’s not easy to get involved into the Caste struggle, many times you need to fight with your own mind and thoughts because even you are a dedicated towards Anti-caste movement but still, you are the part of caste society and graded inequality. 

• Don’t liberate Dalits, liberate yourselves, your own caste people and expose your own epistemologies.

Since my Bachelor, I am hearing this question how to be an ally? I think now it has become a very popular question which dominant caste very easily asked but I never heard it from true honesty. Still, I am feeling strongly that it’s my duty as a dedicated Ambedkarite to sincerely educate the unconscious mass who because of privileged unable to find the path. So, I think you don’t need to liberate Dalits, Dalits are enough capable to liberate themselves and their communities but You really need to think for yourself. Liberate yourself, your own caste people and expose your own epistemologies. Go back to your families. Have a conversation with them and wherever you found something is rally unfair, change them. Educate them.   Write on your Uncivilized Culture and expose your own existence, what Suraj Yengde calls ‘Cultural Suicide Bombing’. Do it, you really need to become a ‘Cultural Suicide Bombers’ I think it’s fundamental to expose your own epistemologies to find the truth of your existence and to understand and revisit the brutality which your ancestors did and who are surviving into it. When all the dominate caste’s of this country will be become “Cultural suicide bombers” and ‘Sacrifice their privileges’ in order to dismantle the caste system then only they can easily swipe their casteist minds.

I know its sound really hard which I am asking but if you take inspiration from Ambedkarites it will become an easy task. May you are conscious about the fact that ‘Annihilation of Caste’ was written primarily for Oppressor Caste. Hence, fight your own battle. If you will be succeed to annihilate caste inside your own households and communities then that will become the major contribution to Anti-caste Movement. Dalit have been fighting their battle for centuries. Our battles are different. You start yours. Open your heart to get real Humanity. We will meet on the other side, as Humans. 

• Don’t project yourself as Dalit.

I knew many women who have been hiding their real caste identities but have been projecting themselves as Dalit women. Many times Brahmin women show themselves as Bahujan. I am not denying that all women are subaltern voices but it doesn’t mean you project yourself as Dalit and taking the all the glory of inclusiveness and gaining sympathy. Its nothing but you enjoying the privileged which you have and doing unfair with all the Dalit women, men. 

Let me tell you, Being Dalit is really a painful experience which we are experiencing. We are experiencing caste-based violence. All women do not experience sexual violence in the same way when there exist Caste oppression. Dalit women’s bodies are used as the battleground for the Caste war. Hence, Caste Matters when a Dalit Woman is Raped. Caste matters when a Rapist is Thakurs or so-called Savarna. But I’m quite sure that so-called Savarna feminist never talks on it, actually, they don’t want to naked Brahminical Patriarchy and that’s why they majorly focused on Dalit Patriarchy nothing else. 

Our caste, Class, Sexual identities, Religion, Region and there are many intersections which exploited us. These triple, multiple burdens of society we are carrying into our shoulders. Still, we are surviving. We are heeling. Every time there is caste violence, we need to proof as I am Dalit women, I experienced caste-based violence, those women who projecting themselves as Dalit women or most Backward caste women they need not have to proof. Because they are from Dominant caste woke liberals. 

• Ally with your own community and fight Castism on your own fronts. 

I have seen that nowadays many peoples utilising social media to show their activism which is good but Non-Dalit women name taking front place because they have been assuming themselves as Dalit because they are speaking so much on Dalit issues, that is another question why it’s never come into their action. These privileged Non-Dalit women have many to speak on us. They take all the visibility. I think they really need to think for themselves.  It’s high time to self-realisation. All the dominant and privileged castes can you please ally with your own community. You must go, look into your Brahmin family, backward caste and other dominant families and study them and ally with them.

To talk against caste you don’t have to be Dalit, as I already told being Dalit is painful to experience but when upper-caste person talks against caste it is something celebrating and pride. Why you don’t ask or observe to your own households that how they treat your own servants, mades, BMC workers, sanitation workers. Why you don’t open their eyes, have a conversation with your own families.

Were Brahmins united in their understanding of Dalit struggle? Or did they have varying or contradicting opinions on the question of caste? The existence of casteism has to be attributed to the Brahmin groups who reap the benefits of it. Brahmins from all the quarters- moderate, liberal, conservative and extremists- uphold the glory of having Brahminical order. Educate your caste brethren. The Brahmin groups who are working in liberal projects or radical movements do not go back to their caste constituency to educate your own caste brethren. Being an ally is akin to volunteerism, where one can dodge responsibility and take a day off.

• Stop victimization, join the Dalit movement by following Dalit voices, appreciate and empathise

Now stop the victimization of Dalits through your writings, Poetry, research papers, movies. We are enabled to show the world our aesthetics through our writing, poetry, academics, research papers, movies, arts, etc. Now we know English, we know Research Methodology; we have Scholars, who could research on our own community. So, this first-hand data and Anti-Caste Perspective is more interesting, expensive and beautiful. Do support our intellectuals or at least appreciate them. We get very fewer resources but I promise you will produce our own capital. You just follow Dalit voices. We are really looking for most genuine empathy rather than the sympathy. 

• Please sit, and watch while we Educate, Agitate and Organised!

Do embrace the traditionally subaltern, outcast and yet rising narrative of marginalised individuals and communities. Please sit, watch while we Educate, Agitate and Organised.

• Read Dr. Ambedkar and Dalit literature as well

Read Dr.B.R.Ambedkar and all the pioneers of the Anti-Caste and Feminist movements who challenged Indian Social structure and dismantle all the social odds. Have a look into it. Read Dalit literature out loud inside your households and communities and make your people insecure or ashamed for the actions which done by your forefathers and still today many peoples from your community walking on the same path. May it hurt you but it will involve you into the real touch of Humanity. It will enlighten you and Baburao Bagul said ‘Dalit Literature Is But a Human Literature.

Since centuries we can’t breathe

But still we’re alive on our own feet

You can’t even imagine 

The intolerance which we have seen

The Injustice

Inequality

Inhumanity 

You can’t deny your privileged and impunity

Through which we are still suffering,

Victimizing,

Surviving,

Fighting,

Asserting.

You want to be an ally?

Go back to your families 

Expose your own epistemologies 

Find the truth of your existence

Question on your ancestors cruelty 

Wherever is unfair 

Ask for Change

Ask for Justice

We are fighting with our own battles since centuries 

Our battles are different

You start your own 

Will meet with our one commonality

As Human,

For Humanity

Brahminism is a culture based on graded inequality where they want to preserve their caste superiority. They preserved all resources and they owned 90% National Income. They present stolen stories in front of us. They are the Criminal Castes who have Economic, Social and Cultural privileged. Brahmins are used to the act of Victim Blaming. Actually, They don’t want to liberate Dalits. Why? Because if Dalit will be liberated then all the hierarchy will fall down. So they feel insecure with Dalit consciousness. 

They really need to know others. Their grief, their sorrow, their pain. Right now they’re in the position of hating Dalits without knowing them. They really need to take inspiration from Dalits. As we know they brutally killing my community people’s still Dalits don’t take weapons on our hand because Dalit only knows the constitutional values, Love and Humanity. Hence Dalits are against violence. Still, Dalit even doesn’t get the real human treatment.

A Dalit challenging it’s not acceptable for society

A Dalit replying back it’s not acceptable for society.

A Dalit Claiming, it’s not acceptable for society.

A Dalit Wearing designer suits, it’s not acceptable for society.

A Dalit Looking beautiful it’s not acceptable for society.

A Dalit Speaking good English it’s not acceptable for society.

A Dalit Riding horse it’s not acceptable for society

A Dalit dreaming high it’s not acceptable for society

A Dalit educating, agitating and organising their mass it’s not acceptable for society.

In the world of Casteist, Brahmin Cultural where I’m surviving, here my existence isn’t acceptable.

Brahminism is patriarchal and patriarchy, as we have, is Brahmin. They really need to work hard to remove this stigma. They need to get involved with their own caste men-women. Reject your parent’s thoughts if they injecting you towards Casteism, Communalism. Change them. Ask them accountable for Brahmin supremacy. Caste is not a Dalit problem, it’s a problem of dominant castes. If you have problem with Dalit politics or if you assuming Dalit playing caste cards then kindly Annihilate Caste. 

As long as the caste exist Dalits are telling the truth how caste brutally imposed on them and how its matters. Due to this if you feel uncomfortable or unsecured then Annihilate caste that is the only and ultimate aim of Dalit. Refused caste and create more spaces for Dalits. Hire Dalits in all spaces and spaces as equal Human. This is how you can be engaged with the Anti caste Movement.

…….

About Author – Anti-Caste and Feminist Activist, M.A. in Social Work in Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Image credit – Grammarly blog