Klik hier om meer te lezen over de Dalits of Kastelozen, in het Nederlands

India, being a country where ethnical diversity has been woven deeply into the tissues of society ever since antgiquity, remains unique in its persistent practice of the caste system, with groups of people ordered hierarchically into a pyramidal structure built on degrees of untouchability. At the very bottom, the casteless have been silently accepting their fate throughout history, with some sudden upheavals and struggles for liberation from the bonds of caste restrictions.

It is the Marathi lawyer Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956), most of all, who has become the iconic leader of the casteless' struggle for equal rights. Soft spoken but determant, Ambedkar, in the first half of the 20th century, refused for the casteless to further depend on the charity of Hindu high castes. He publicly denounced Hinduism and converted to Buddhism, inviting millions of casteless to do the same. Also, in a well-publicised clash with Mahatma Gandhi, he renounced the name Gandhi had chosen for his people (Harijan, meaning People of God) as supercilious and neo-colonialist, preferring to proudly carry the old Marathi word Dalit (meaning Deprived) as an honorary title.

Good, you might think. The Dalits have woken. Justice is at hand.

But don't get your hopes up too high. Even with an unending series of affirmative actions and interventions by subsequent governments, the Dalits, in many parts of modern India, remain to be locked at the very bottom of society, quite unable to escape from their virtual community prisons. Above all, this is the case in Bihar, which is today the fastest growing economy in the Indian Union, but remains a country of ethnic strive and community clashes nevertheless.

Read more on Dalit issues following the links below:

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