Intellectual Deprivation of Dalits

Over the centuries, the Nepali state has treated Dalits as a sort of an 'enemy within' and excessively abused and deprived them into submission.

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The politics of the deprivation of Dalits, as it may be called, has occurred in at least two forms: Physically limiting their access to their basic needs, including food, water and clothing, and then denying them education, thus crushing their intellect.

Gone are the days when Dalits were severely tortured for reading and writing and even for listening to the chants of sacred Vedic verses by the Brahmins.

However, intellectual deprivation has persisted, rendering even highly educated Dalits quite incapable of independent thinking.

Dalit politics relies on the thoughts and ideologies of upper-caste politicians and intellectuals. Dalits themselves haven't been able to develop their own ideologies and philosophies. This intellectual deficit in the Dalit movement results from what Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak famously called "epistemic violence".