FOR VOICES & VISIBILITY

CASTE is a conversation many would rather avoid, even today. It is just absent in dinner tables, dodged in classrooms, and rarely a subject to be addressed in corporate corridors.

- DIYA MARIA GEORGE

"I think that's because of privilege," says Joy, organiser with the Ambedkar Reading Circle (ARC) in Chennai. "People who have all the privileges may not speak about caste because it feels like questioning their own position in the society."

Our collective memory has been carefully constructed to leave caste out. "We still see Ambedkar statues locked in cages," Joy points out. "That cage is a symbol of the society's cage. You can't break it with just a law. Mentally, the slavery is still there."

This is why Joy believes in the need for sensitisation not as a one-off event, but as a sustained act of political education. "We need things like rallies, stories, events. Otherwise, the idea of fraternity will never reach the people," he says.

This month, ARC Chennai collaborated with Vyasai Thozhargal and Thirunangai Press LLP for the 'March for Fraternity'. With over a thousand people joining the rally, the message was loud and clear: caste is not history, it's the present.