CHALLENGING POPULAR NARRATIVES - DALIT HISTORY MONTH
As we enter the 10th year of celebrating Dalit History Month, which was modeled on Black History Month celebrated globally, I would like to take this moment to thank each and everyone who worked towards building an authentic narrative of the Dalit history (the Untold-Unseen-Unheard).
From the archives: Poster of the first event of Dalit History Month at MIT in 2015
The Dalit History Month was conceptualized and launched in April 2015 by a team of Dalit women activists Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Christina Dhanaraj, Maari Zwick-Maitreyi, Sanghapali Aruna, Asha Kowtal, and Manisha Devi to celebrate Dalit lives, communities, leaders, histories, movements, and the achievements.
Today, Dalit History Month is celebrated globally, and many states and cities worldwide have officially announced April as Dalit History Month. The recent one to join is the city of Burlington in Canada. In March this year, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward of Burlington proclaimed April 2024 as “Dalit History Month” and April 14th as “Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Day of Equity.”
Dalit History Month Poster , 2018 depicting Phoolan Devi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Savitribai Phule
Dalit History Month allows us to look back at our history and to remember, reclaim, and rejoice in the contributions and accomplishments of our forebears who consistently fought against caste oppression and gave us the freedom to live our lives with dignity and equal rights. You will hardly find this history in any school textbooks or college syllabus. You need to look past the popular narrative to peek through the authentic history of the Dalit community - something that only the community can speak about and narrate.
However, when a popular narrative has been building for centuries about the oppressed, entirely created by the oppressors, it becomes a never-ending challenge to break free from that narrative or break that narrative itself and create a new and authentic one.
Although scant, if you examine the representation of Dalits in Indian literature, Indian cinema, social media or mainstream media, and in public domains, you encounter the stereotyping of Dalit lives - showing them as dependent, submissive, vulnerable, bleak, hopeless, lazy, wretched, victims, lacking agency and waiting for a messiah usually from the oppressor caste to uplift them from their pain and suffering.
In the 2002 Oscar-nominated movie Lagaan, the only Dalit character was named Kachra, which literally translates to waste/garbage, and is a person with disability and an odd gait who rarely gets screen time and hardly speaks.
Only Dalit character, Kachra, from the movie Lagaan
Zomato Ad showing Kachra as recycled item, 2023
On World Environment Day last year, Zomato released an advertisement showing Kachra, enacted by the same artist, as objects made from recycled waste. The ad was later removed after backlash from community leaders for dehumanizing a Dalit character.
While there has been a particular shift in these narratives, the mainstream continues to blatantly erase Dalit history and the emerging voices time and again.
The latest is the invisibilization of BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association) amidst the student elections in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Priyanshi Arya of BAPSA was elected as General Secretary, one of the four members of the Central Panel of JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union) after a proper and long election campaigning, candidate debates and voting.
Almost every mainstream news channel and print media reported saying, “Left sweeps JNU students' union election, wins all four seats,” rarely mentioning BAPSA’s victory.
BAPSA poster on the walls of JNU School
BAPSA candidates after winning Jawaharlal Nehru University Elections, 2024
BAPSA is an independent and autonomous organization led by SC (Scheduled Castes), ST (Scheduled Tribes), OBC (Other Backward Classes), and minorities who uphold the principles of social justice, gender justice, and anti-caste struggle. BAPSA does not subscribe to the right-left binary and is critical of both the left-wing and right-wing politics, which has failed the oppressed communities in many ways: 1) failure to recognize and fight for the issues of the oppressed; 2) failure to identify leadership among the oppressed; 3) deliberately putting away issues concerned with the oppressed; 4) considering oppressed communities only as mere vote bank, victims and volunteers.
Once again, by placing BAPSA under the banner of the left unity, the mainstream media tried to invisibilize the oppressed voices, histories, and ideologies.
Though Dalit History Month is when we celebrate these invisible voices, communities, and movements, it is a long battle and a constant struggle to include Dalit History in the mainstream and change how the world looks at Dalits and their history.