New ‘Dalit’ Book Edition Exposes Struggle and Total Lack of Respect for India’s Black Untouchables | WATCH
*The plight of the Dalit people is the focus of the third edition of V.T. Rajshekar’s 1997 book “Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India.” Traditionally known as the “Untouchables,” Dalits are a grouping of people in India who many use the name Dalit to describe their community;
As the Indian Sanskrit translation of the word (“oppressed.”) shows, the Dalit have spent many years struggling. Despite the circumstances, the Amsterdam News notes that “Rajshekar’s book was one of the first popular works” that Dalits can lay claim to African ancestry.
“The Dalit were the original inhabitants of India and resemble Africans in physical features,” Rajshekar writes. “It is said that India and Africa were one land mass until separated by the ocean. So both the Africans and the Indian Untouchables and tribals had common ancestors.”
The author goes on to chronicle the Dalit situation, pointing out that, “Some portion of these came to found the Indus Valley civilization. These original inhabitants of India put up a strong fight against the Aryan invaders. However, the latter, working through deceitful means, defeated the innocent but hard-working original inhabitants, who had built the world’s most ancient civilization in the Indus Valley.”
A 1971 census Rajshekar mentioned, stated that Dalits consisted of 15 percent of India’s population (while census figures from 2001 show them as constituting 16.2 percent). The author goes on to claim that the total would be higher if the number of Dalits who have converted to other religions or who no longer identify themselves as part of the Dalit community were taken into account.
Still, the fact remains that discrimination and violence have become the norm for anyone identifying themselves as Dalits.
To provide weight unto his claim, Rajshekar compared the Dalits circumstance to the struggle surrounding Blacks in South Africa during Apartheid, or that of African-Americans during the Jim Crow period of segregation.
“The problem is that the Dalit situation is not as widely documented,” Rajshekar stated, while calling out those who know it most intimately—India’s politicians, scholars, professionals, etc. For being among the ones remaining unresponsive to the racism that’s in their neck of the woods. “What Rajshekar calls the ruling class of India cannot see the difficulties Dalits face, because discriminating against them is a cultural norm,” according to the Amsterdam News.”
“It is infused within their social, economic and cultural practices, he says. The influence of Brahmidic Hinduism is so pervasive that Hindu scriptures, which deem the original inhabitants of India as “untouchables” (because they were not originally part of the Hindu religious structure), are accepted, Rajshekar states. So questioning this cultural practice is like questioning the structure of Indian national life.”
Although eyebrows could be raised with the notion of the problem of Indian Black Untouchables being “more serious than that of American Negroes or South African Blacks,” a simple explanation lies in a look at the difference between the two groups
For Black men and women, they may be employed as a household servant, a wet nurse, a babysitter, a cook, yet are able to cook and serve for white people. In India. The situation is flipped with the Indian Black Untouchables not only unable to enter the house of a Hindu, but also victimized, with the very sight of them or their shadow their very sight “prohibited by the dictates of the Hindu religion.”
That is why he is not only Untouchable, but also unseeable, unapproachable, unshadowable and even unthinkable. When the very sight of an Untouchable brings pollution, we need not speak of anything further.”
“Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India” is a short book, but it gives an expansive introduction to an Afro-Indian community that remains in dire straits,” the News concluded, adding that “It leaves a lot to consider regarding how far India—the land of Mahatma Ghandi and of the wisdom of Brahmidic Hinduism—has advanced in terms of social equality.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: That Mexican OT Faces Backlash for Defending N-Word Use in Podcast Interview | WATCH
We Publish Breaking News 24/7. Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE.
The post New ‘Dalit’ Book Edition Exposes Struggle and Total Lack of Respect for India’s Black Untouchables | WATCH appeared first on EURweb.
