#ramnami

More than a century ago, in a more orthodox and casteist India, a group of Dalits (untouchables) did the unthinkable: they rose up against the decree of the privileged and priestly class forbidding them to visit or enter the temples. Their mode of protest was unique. The untouchables tattooed every inch of their skin with the name of the Hindu god Rama, turning their bodies into temples. This act of defiance earned the group of Satnamis the nickname Ramnami (Ram's people), which persists to this day.

A member of the Ramnami sect, a group of "untouchables" in central India whose tattoos represent a unique protest against the oppression of the caste-system, Chhattisgarh, India, Olivia Arthur, 2005

Tiharu Ram, 70, and his wife Phirtin Bai, 61, pose for a picture outside their house in the village of Chandlidi, in the state of Chhattisgarh.

A member of the Ramnami sect, a group of "untouchables" in central India whose tattoos represent a unique protest against the oppression of the caste-system, Chhattisgarh, India, Olivia Arthur, 2005

A member of the Ramnami sect, a group of "untouchables" in central India whose tattoos represent a unique protest against the oppression of the caste-system, Chhattisgarh, India, Olivia Arthur, 2005

Members of the Ramnami sect, a group of "untouchables" in central India whose tattoos represent a unique protest against the oppression of the caste-system, Chhattisgarh, India, Olivia Arthur, 2005

Kartik Ram Sadhu, a 67-year-old visually-impaired follower of Ramnami Samaj who has tattooed the name of the Hindu god Ram on his body, bathes in a pond in the village of Arjuni, in the state of Chhattisgarh.