the reservation hatao movement is quoting rashmirathi.

are they actually drunk or sum?

for anyone who hasn't read it, rashmirathi is dinkar's retelling of karna's life. and karna's entire tragedy is caste. he isn't rejected because he's untalented. he isn't denied education because he lacks merit. he isn't humiliated because he isn't capable. he's excluded because society believes his birth determines his place. every major wound in his life flows from that one fact.

that's why karna lashes out at people obsessed with caste. that's where lines like "जाति-जाति रटते जिनकी पूँजी केवल पाखंड"come from. dinkar isn't saying, "stop talking about caste because caste doesn't matter." he's saying that a society obsessed with birth is hypocritical enough to ignore ability, character and achievement in favour of lineage.

that's... literally the moral conflict of the poem.

so watching people wave rashmirathi around while arguing against policies meant to address the consequences of caste discrimination is definitely a sight to behold.

and then they quote ambedkar's "educate, agitate, organise" for good measure. ambedkar spent his life explaining that caste isn't just prejudice, it's a structure that reproduces privilege and exclusion across generations. dinkar wrote one of modern hindi literature's most famous indictments of birth-based hierarchy.

if both of them are ending up on your posters, maybe it's worth asking whether you even have reading comprehension. like how do you miss such glaring messaging in the very literature you flaunt.

जाति-जाति का शोर मचाते, केवल कायर, क्रूर; पाते हैं सम्मान तपोबल से, भूतल पर शूर।

a lot of noise is made about caste, but that's the refuge of the cowardly and the cruel. in the end, respect is earned through character, courage, and what you make of yourself, not by birth.

जाति-जाति रटते जिनकी पूँजी केवल पाखंड, मैं क्या जानूँ जाति? जाति हैं ये मेरे भुजदंड।

the people obsessed with caste have nothing but hypocrisy to offer. don't ask me about my caste, my strength is my only identity.

पूछो मेरी जाति, शक्ति हो तो मेरे भुजबल से; रवि समान दीप्त ललाट से और कवच-कुण्डल से। पढ़ो उसे जो झलक रहा है मुझमें तेज-प्रकाश; मेरे रोम-रोम में अंकित है मेरा इतिहास।

if you want to know who i am, look at my strength. look at the fire in my face, my armour, my scars. everything i've lived through is written into who i am.

ऊँच-नीच का भेद न माने, वही श्रेष्ठ ज्ञानी है। दया-धर्म जिसमें हो, सबसे वही पूज्य प्राणी है॥

RESERVATIONS - Lia Pappas-Kemps (2025)

Native American historian Ned Blackhawk joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the cultures and histories of the indigenous peoples of North America. Why were reservations established and who lives on them? Do reservations have their own laws and police? How did What was the infamous "Trail of Tears?" What were conflicts between tribes like prior to the arrival of Europeans? Did the United States ever lose a war with a Native American tribe? What was agriculture and raising children like in native cultures? Answers to these questions and many more await on WIRED's Native American Support.

0:00 Native American Support with Ned Blackhawk

0:12 Reservations

1:19 Casinos

2:53 Map of tribal boundaries in the US

4:01 Navajo Code Talkers

4:40 The Trail of Tears

5:32 Andrew Jackson and forced native nation migration

6:48 Origins of the stereotypical native aesthetic

8:16 Powwows

10:00 The 1960s Red Power movement

11:46 Indian, Native American, or Indigenous?

12:17 Native agriculture

13:34 Native conflicts before European contact

14:12 Raising children in Native American cultures

15:26 Sacagawea’s journey

17:16 Did the Iroquois really use the "Seventh Generation Principle"

18:32 Boarding schools

19:47 Remembering Red Cloud

20:57 The trappings of sovereignty

21:53 Did the United States ever lose a war with a Native American tribe?

22:28 The (controversial) Native American Church

23:48 Population growth