Chronicling The Dalit Panthers

Solidarities centred on precious Dalit lives were created across India

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THE year is 2023, and we’re elaborating on the concepts of freedom and independence. The one sponsored by the State defines it as a moment of arriving. The period—kaal—yug—of the Amrit—nectar kind. This is defined in all government advertisements and celebrations.

This practice is not unique to the present government. Every twenty-five years, the citizens of the republic are called to stand up for their nation. The logos of the patriotic celebration changes; the rest remains pretty much sacred. Any intervention to that settled narrative is costing people and earning them the label of villainous actor of treachery and harm.

As a nation, we started off bankrupt and empty-handed. Such is the story we needed to tell. And we told it promptly. Then came the blame game. The obvious target was the White British man. Whiteness was the first identity that the colonial regime injected into the diverse castes of many nations. This inadvertently provided a form of cultural unity to the dangerous cleavages of the pre-colonial divided society. The colonial administration governed with relative ease in India. Thanks to the hierarchies of societies divided by caste, religion and language. The only difficulties the White man and his woman and children had were the equatorial heat, endemics, diseases and spicy food (not the one they came here hunting for).