Panther’s Paw publication is based out of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, and focuses on writings from and for a Dalit perspective. (Dalits are the Indian castes that were formerly grouped together in the category of ‘untouchables’

As someone who enjoys both class and caste privilege, and has been insulated from the reality that is small-town/rural India, I have been wanting to seek out people like them to learn more.

Interesting fact, they are based out of Nagpur, the same town that is the spiritual home of the RSS. Hmm…

They could really use the support. Follow, buy, share: https://www.instagram.com/pantherspawpublication

Coming to this specific book, this is a series of articles, illuminating vignettes of what daily life is for Dalits in Goa.

In my mind, Goa has always been about the Goan Catholics or the Saraswat Bramhins. The vast majority of Goans are NOT them.

Cultural erasure is real.

Anyway, I’m a third of the way through, and what’s palpable is the author’s simmering rage at both the injustice of the system and the way even the victims of discrimination have internalized the system, and in fact, even fight for it.

It feels hopeless, but because people like the author exist, it’s not.

Do Dalit Lives Matter?

“Your presence irritates me,” said the deputy Registrar sitting in an air conditioned room.

India has a population of 1.3 billion. 180 million Dalits are denied human rights because of the disgraceful practice known as caste discrimination. Dalit students constantly under the threat of rustication, expulsion, defamation and discontinuation and Vemula wasn’t an exception.

The past decade saw the planned institutional murder of eight students in the Hyderabad University. In the span of four years, from 2008-2011, eighteen Dalit students ended their lives under the constant pressure upon their identity.

AIIMS, famous for producing the best doctors of the country has vile abuses written on the walls and doors of the hostel rooms where Dalit students reside. The teachers there, are partial while helping students and the ones with oppressed origins are always left out. More than 90% of the students face routine harassment at practicals or viva exams. People coming through quota are shamed, mocked for having deficiencies in education, feeble command over English, because most of them are first generation learners. Most prominent institutions lack basic structures like SC/ST cell and student support programmes and even if they do, the structures are dysfunctional. The segregation however starts as early as the school days with coloured wrist bands in classroom, forcing students coming from the oppressed communities clean toilets and upper caste children routinely boycotting food cooked by Dalits.

Dalit students forced to shift to certain hostels following harassment, abuse, violence by upper caste students, social isolation in dining rooms, sports fields, cultural events are some of the examples of informal segregation in AIIMS. 84% of students recall incidents of examiners asking about their caste, says the Thorat Committee. Teachers make students invisible by not giving enough time, discouraging in some way or the other, not allowing the student to work in labs. Students from marginalized groups are often troubled by the lack of clarity, contradictions in examinations and administrative procedures, rules that do not take account of their miseries and ofcourse the dominant castes’ favourite way with them, like ‘I am busy now’ ‘Go away,’ ‘Come tomorrow,’ etc.

The institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, was a steady process recorded by the isolation of the authorities, turning a deaf ear to his pleas, stopping his monthly stipend of twenty five thousand rupees for raising voice against the unfair segregation and suspension in September along with four others. The young scholar had also appealed to the university to allow him to die in December but the authorities maintained the ‘protocols’ of staying silent to this.

Muthukrishnan, the twenty seven year old student took away his own life. His last Facebook update was, ‘There is no equality in M.Phil./PhD admissions, there is no equality in viva-voce, there is only denial of equality….’

Senthil Kumar, a Dalit PhD student from the school of Physics consumed poison in 2008.

Madari Venkatesh, a doctoral student at Advanced Centre of Research in High Energy Materials, killed himself in 2013 for nobody from the from the School of Chemistry cared enough to supervise his research even after 2.5 years in the University.

September 4th 2014, Ankit Ambhore from IIT Bombay jumped from his hostel building. A month before, he and his parents were reportedly told by his HOD and Head of the institute’s Academic Rehabilitation Programme that Ankit, who was struggling academically would do well to drop out.

May 22 2019, Payal Selim Tadvi committed suicide facing harassment by her three seniors in Topiwala National Medical College.

In June 2015, IIT Roorkee expelled seventy three first year students from its B.Tech, IMT and M.Sc. courses- a huge chunk of them from the SC/ST communities. One student was asked by a teacher, “Why do people like you even come to IITs?”

Admissions for M.Phil. and PhD by UGC in May 2016, reduced completely on oral terms, was the move that Muthukrishnan wrote against in his Facebook post. His parting words quoting Ambedkar were, ‘When equality is denied, everything is denied.’

Here’s the list of Dalit student’s though the actual number is much more high than this.

• M. Shrikant, final year, B.Tech, IIT Bombay, 1st Jan 07

• Ajay S. Chandra, integrated PhD, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bangalore – 26 Aug, 07

• Jaspreet Singh, final year MBBS, Government Medical College, Chandigarh, 27 Jan 08.

• Senthil Kumar, PHD, School of Physics, University of Hyderabad – 23 Feb 08

• Prashant Kureel, first year, B.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 19 April, 08

• G. Suman, final year, M.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 2nd Jan, 09

• Ankita Veghda, first year, BSc Nursing, Singhi Institute of Nursing, Ahmedabad, 20 April, 09

• D Syam Kumar, first year B.Tech, Sarojini Institute of Engineering and Technology, Vijayawada, 13 Aug, 09

• S. Amravathi, national level young woman boxer, Centre of Excellence, Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 4th Nov, 09

• Bandi Anusha, B.Com final year, Villa Mary College, Hyderabad, 5th Nov, 09

• Pushpanjali Poorty, first year, MBA, Visvesvaraiah Technological University, Bangalore, 30th Jan, 10

• Sushil Kumar Chaudhary, final year MBBS, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (formerly KGMC), Lucknow, 31 Jan, 10.

• Balmukund Bharti, final year MBBS, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, 3rd March, 10

• JK Ramesh, second year, BSc, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, 1st July, 10

• Madhuri Sale, final year B.Tech, IIT Kanpur, 17th November, 10

• G. Varalakshmi, B.Tech first year, Vignan Engineering College, Hyderabad, 30 Jan, 2011

• Manish Kumar, IIIrd Year B.Tech, IIT Roorkee, 13 Feb, 11

• Linesh Mohan Gawle, PhD, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, 16 April, 11

Do Dalit lives not matter? Where does the sympathy go when Dalits suicide? Where does the façade of All Lives Matter go? Why aren’t paragraphs demonising reservation not address inhumanity the social segregation?

This is not my typical airport read, but I have been putting this off for a really long time.

As a privileged upper caste person in India, people like me have dominated the narrative. In fact, I don’t even think I have read a Dalit author, in any form, ever. Even writings about the Dalit point of view have been from this lens.

I must re-emphasise I am not doing this out of whatever the brown version of white guilt is - but genuine curiosity and interest. I barely have a clue what it’s like.

I’m just on the introduction, will update more once I’ve been through it.

Dakshayani Velayudhan: The First Dalit Woman To Be A Parliamentarian

"The working of the Constitution will depend on how people conduct themselves in future, not on the actual execution of the law."

- Dakshayani Velayudhan.

Born in 4th July 1912, Malakadpur village of the Kanayannur Taluka of Ernakulam District Dakshayani was the first woman from the Pulaya community to be the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly of India. The Pulayas were agricultural farmers dominated by the upper castes on covering their torso, having an education, cutting their hair even coming in close proximity to the people of the upper sections. Her name was a marker of subversion as she was surprisingly given a name common in the Ezhava community holding a place of privilege over the Pulayas. She was inspired by her mother who defied menstrual taboos and stated, "When I started my menstruation, I was nine, during holidays, she sketched and explained what was happening to the body and asked my father to get some sanitary pads to take to school."

Personal Life:

She was the first woman to attend a government school from the Pulaya community. Being the only woman in the class she often felt discriminated due to her caste identity. Though she was debarred from following the experiments by an upper caste teacher, she went on to earn the second position in the class and became the first Dalit women to be a graduate. Completing her BA in 1935 she completed her teachers training course from Madras University. From 1935 to 1945 she spent as a high school teacher in the Ezhava dominated High Schools where she was often discriminated but she refused to put up with such segregational behaviour. Such an instance is her encounter with a Nair woman who demanded dakshayani should get off the road and make way for her. However Velayudhan sharply stated that if she wished to get past her she herself should get down the path and walk away. The Nair woman had to retreat the demands and walk through the paddy fields.

She got married to R. Velayudhan in the presence of Gandhi and Kasturba in Sevagram(Wardha) with a person suffering from leprosy as a priest. They had five children – Dr Raghu(former doctor of Shrimati Indira Gandhi), Prahladan, Dhruvan, Bhagirath and Meera.

Political Life:

She had grown up being inspired by the form of protest organised by the Pulaya Mahajan Sabha as a form of defience against the rule which states is that no the Dalit groups can have meetings on the king's land and realised that it's only through her representation in the political spectrum, she can fight against the age-old social hierarchy. Dakshayani was nominated to the Cochin Legislative Council in 1945. In 1946, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly of India. A strong supporter of both Gandhi and Ambedkar, she vehemently spoke for the idea of socialist republic and was very vocal for Article 17 in the Indian Constitution. However in the context of Reservation she differed from Ambedkar's views of separate electorates and questioned their effect in the eradication of caste based discrimination and poverty and argued for the implementation of moral safeguards to annihilate the inequality. In 8th November 1948, after Ambedkar introduced the draft of Constitution for the common discussion and consensus, she lended her support while putting forward the point of greater decentralization. She was often criticized for asking too many questions during the Assembly sessions. Inside the Assembly hall she face discrimination on 29 November 1948, during the discussions of the draft of the Article 11, which aimed at the prohibition of the discrimination along the lines of caste, where she was permitted to speak beyond her time limit but not before the the Vice President of Constituent Assembly passed a very sexist remark on the allowance, being, "It is only because you are a lady I am allowing you." Nevertheless she fought for the implementation of the non-discriminatory provisions to the public education and pointed out that it would be a great step is the Constituent Assembly resolutes to condemn the social segregational factors. From 1946 to 1952, she served as a member of the Constituent Assembly and Provisional Parliament of India. She contested for the general elections in 1971 from the Adhoor Lok Sabha Constituency and came fourth.

A first generation learner and the first woman to wear an upper cloth, Dakshayani would often question the archaic believes and habits imposed upon the Dalits by the dominant sections in the most ordinary instances. Her daughter Meera recollects how her mother had corrected her posture and reminded the years of oppression that enforced the slouching of one's back in the presence of dominant caste.

Sabitribai Phule: The First Dalit Woman To Be A Teacher

Savitribai Phule, was the first Dalit woman to be the pioneer of spreading education among the impoverished section of the society by working day and night, firmly sticking to resolution of making academia inclusive. She always raised her voice against unfair segregational terms of the society. During her time, education was reserved for the dominant caste, class and gender but then, she was brave enough to breakthrough the notions of dominant hegemony and was hell bent to provide for the oppressed communities.

• Personal Life:

Born in 3rd January, 1831, in Naigaon, 50 KM from Pune, Savitribai was the eldest daughter of Lakshmi and Khandoji Neveshe Patil. She got married to Jyotirao Phule at the age of 10 in 1840. The couple started living in a Dalit working locality. Jyotirao took interest in educating his wife and trained her to become a teacher. Shakharam Yashwant Paranjpe and Keshav Shivam Bhavalkar (Joshi), his two associates took the further responsibility of helping in the progress of Savitribai's education. She went through the formal teacher’s training at Ms. Farar's Institute in Ahmadnagar and Normal School of Ms Mitchell in Pune.

A Voice Of Dissent Ensuring Social Justice:

Savitribai was the first person in the country to become a teacher and headmistress as a woman. The couple started their first female school and set up a Native Library in 1863. They also built a ‘home' in their own house, which was a safe haven for tortured widows and pregnant women, meant for the prevention of infanticide. Together they established the Satyashodhak Samaj which preached of marriage devoid of dowry and extravaganza, supporting widow remarriage and protesting against child marriage alongside. Savitribai and Jyotirao had no child of their own, so they adopted the child of a brahmin widow, educated him, and arranged an inter-caste marriage for him.

Their constant resistance against the brahminical hegemony was a ray of hope for the Shudra and Atishudra women. She started a school for Mangs and Mahads but then a lightening struck their fortune when Jyotirao's father threw them out while the training was going on. Govande immediately arrived Pune and took the responsibility of Savitribai. When she returned, Bhavalkar looked after her education requirements. Throughout the training process, the couple encouraged vocational and the practical form of learning for both sexes, so that the students can flourish their own independent thought process. The believed in the attachment of an industrial educational sector along with the school so the children can learn useful trades and acquire craftsmanship to lead a comfortable life. Education should provide the agency of free choice, they preached. The school they created had special zones for children’s creative freedom. The planning and their dedication sprouted shoots of success when the parents of girls studying there, complained about the ‘overindulgence' of their daughters in studies.

• A Staunch Personality Overthrowing Obstacles : She was one of the flagbearers of gender justice during that time. Women weren’t allowed to access education then. She went forth against the normalised patriarchal set up enough, to make men wait for her in street, passing lewd comments, pelting stones or cow dung at her. She always kept 2 saris with her and change into the cleaned one after reaching the school, which would again get soiled on her way back. This happened everyday but she refused to back down. The guard who was appointed for a safety had in his memoirs written about what she would say to those men who teased her for making education available for women, “As I do the sacred task of teaching my fellow sisters, the stones or cow dung that he threw seemed like flowers to me. May God bless you!”

In July 1887, when Jyotirao suffered from massive heart attack and got paralysed from his right side, she nursed him from dawn to dusk and was always by his side. Her intense support made him recover quickly. However the financial system of the family was in tatters by that time. Mama Paramanand, a well known political sage and a well wisher tried to help them the most. In the letter to the King of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad, Paramanand mentioned the historical ground breaking work the couple was doing and said the following about Savitribai, “More than Jyotirao, his wife deserves praise. No matter how much we praise her, it would not be enough. How can one describe her stature? She cooperated with her husband completely and along with him, faced all the trials and tribulations that came their way. It is difficult to find such a sacrificing woman even among the highly educated woman from the upper castes.” The couple had literally spent their whole time working for the marginalised sections.

Students living in their hostel had praises for the couple for their contributions. Laxman Karadi Jaaya from Mumbai said, “I have not seen another woman as kind and loving as Savitribai. She gave us more love than a mother could.” Another student named Mahadu Sahadu Waghole wrote, “Savitribai was very generous and her heart was full of kindness. She would be very compassionate to the poor and needy. She would constantly give the gift of food, she would offer everyone meals. If she saw torn clothes on the body of poor women, she would give them saris from her own house. Tatya(Jyotirao) would sometimes say to her, “One should not spend so much.” To this she would smile and ask, “What do we have to take with us when we die?” Tatya would sit quietly for some time after this as he had no response to the question. They loved each other immensely.”

When Jyotirao passed away, she was present there. As municipality had refused the burial of his body with salt as he wished, the last rites were performed in the pyre. Savitribai had courageously approached for the earthen pot to be held, then, and consigned his body to the flames. It was the first time in the Indian history, that a woman performed the funeral rites. Savitribai later erected ‘Tulsi Vrindavan' with his ashes on the spot where he wanted to be buried. After his demise, she took the reins of Satyashodhak movement in her own hands and was the chairperson of the Satyashodhak Conference in 1893 at Saswad, Pune.

• Her writings:

Poems that she had pinned down, along with other forms of creative outlets, are full of anti caste hegemony sentiments and provide boost towards harbouring a thought of attaining a gender equal society. Her works continued to be an inspiration to many, not only in the present time, bearing the reflection of struggles of past, but in the near future too.

The list of her writings is presented here:-

1. Kavyaphule- Collection of Poems, 1854

2. Jyotirao’s speeches, Edited by Savitribai Phule, 25th December 1856

3. Savitribai's letters to Jyotirao

4. Speeches of Matoshree Savitribai, 1892

5. Bavankashi Subodh Ratnakar, 1892

• Death: The year was 1897. The plague had overtaken the city of Pune. People were dying in clouts. The Government assisted by the officer Rand went out for helping the needy. Savitribai with the help of Yashwant set up a hospital and would herself go to pick up people, hospitalise them and ensure treatment. She continued to serve selflessly in spite of being fully aware of the contagious nature of the disease. The son of Pandurang Babaji Gaekwad from the Mahad community was affected by the plague. As soon as the news reached her ears, she wasted no time, to rush him to the hospital, carrying the sick child on her back. This way the disease reached her too. On 10th March, 1897 she passed away at 9 PM.

• Teacher's Day:

Go, get education

Be self-reliant, be industrious

Work-gather wisdom and riches,

All gets lost without knowledge

We become animal without wisdom,

Sit idle no more, go, get education

End misery of the oppressed and forsaken

You've got a golden chance to learn

So learn and break the chains of caste

Throw away Brahman's scriptures fast.

Since 1962, 5th September is regarded to be the Teacher's Day and calls for apparently an unanimous celebration on the birth anniversary of independent India’s 1st Vice President and 2nd President, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. The popular understanding of teachers, educators and gurus has been moulded by upper caste brains and has been always represented through the upper class and patriarchal lenses in the form of Dronacharya, Manu etc. The ‘meritorious' men shaping the history with their social-political and economical dominance over the forsaked is just a version of excluding the contribution of the marginalised and emphasising on the insurance of the right to education for the privileged only.

For a counter, a section of people are already speaking up against such dire injustice and celebrating Teacher’s Day on January 3rd as Education day or National Teacher’s Day, on the birth anniversary of Savitribai Phule.

Bama’s Karukku: A Book Review

One of the most popular Dalit woman writers, Bama Faustina Soosairaj is a teacher by profession. Many of her works got translated into English, German, French, Telugu, and Malayalam. Karukkuis based on her own life, which focuses on caste structures in the Catholic Community. In her autobiography, Bama pens down her struggles with the oppression of the society, and how she comes out stronger and…