Indian writer and activist M.C. Raj pleaded for Americans to support the liberation of India's "untouchables," who are assigned the lowest rung of the country's social and economic hierarchy under the Hindu caste system.
"I seek your support and solidarity in whatever ways possible to you," Raj said to the crowd of over 50 Dartmouth students in attendance at his speech yesterday entitled, "Plight of the Untouchables: Breaking Down Caste Systems."
Raj -- himself a Dalit -- outlined many of the daily atrocities that this group lives with. These included limited access to water, forced and uncompensated labor, murder and rape.
"Though we are called the untouchables, often our women are the most touchable in India," Raj said of the Dalit women who are sold into prostitution by their families in some parts of India.
India's caste system -- intimately connected with the Hindu conception of reincarnation -- is imporant in shaping the opportunities available to and the limitations placed on Hindus. Caste plays a significant role in determing everything from an indivduals job to the respect they are accorded.
The Dalit people -- as the so-called untouchables are called in Hindi -- are the lowest caste, and are not considered to be descendents of the god Brahma and therefore are not Hindus.
Several times Raj warned the audience not to believe the Hindu Party in the Indian government. Dalitism, as Raj called the practice of treating the Dalits as sub-human, is a reality for many in India, he argued.
According to Raj, the three major problems facing the Dalit people today are globalization, privatization and the "Brahmanization" -- the movement towards national rule by Hinduism's highest caste -- of the Indian economy and political structure.
Raj saw globalization as bringing ideas of individualism to Dalit youth, but when those youths would go out into the world and try to succeed, they would be turned away because of their caste. Many of these people, Raj said, turn to lives of crime.
"Globalization should also mean globalization of human concerns," Raj replied to questions about how the international community could help the Dalits.
Raj saw the Indian government's recent attempts to privatize industries as a way to circumvent the affirmative action plans to better the Dalit people's representation in industry, as opposed to a plan to stimulate economic growth.
Raj saw the Hindu party in the government and other social organizations as trying to not only reinforce the caste system, but also to impede international aid for the Dalit people. He said that this "cultural nationalism" was very dangerous to the Dalit people.
Raj added that even Ghandi was not fair in his treatment of the Dalit people. "He made a ploy, a trick, to Hinduize the Dalit people," Raj said of Ghandi's attempts to use non-traditional terminology to consider the Dalit Hindus. The words Ghandi used however, were words that anti-Dalit people of the past had used and Raj added, "Ghandi had no original intelligence."
Much of the question and answer session revolved around what Hindus can do to help the Dalit people. One audience member asked Raj if it was possible for him to continue to "love Hinduism, but at the same time support the Dalit people." Raj responded that he believed the two were not mutually exclusive, depending upon one's interpretation of Hinduism.
