Coming out as Dalit
Updated On: 25 August, 2024 08:43 AM IST | Mumbai | Meenakshi Shedde
Also, Yashica Dutt, a New York-based journalist, author and activist, is a prime example of the “new Dalit”, who has come out as Dalit, is an accomplished achiever, dresses smartly and is articulate in English
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Illustration/Uday Mohite
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its August 1, 2024 judgment which allows the States to sub-classify Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to provide preferential treatment to the disadvantaged groups among them in government jobs and education. Like the Mandal Commission report, this Supreme Court ruling has stoked a controversy that will continue for some time. Meanwhile, it is a good time to revisit Yashica Dutt’s book Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir (Aleph, 2019, R599), that gives personal insight into what it actually means to be Dalit or lower caste in India. It is useful reading, especially for those who consider themselves modern and liberal, yet discriminate against lower castes in many ways—by being outraged at reservations, by serving ‘low’ caste people in different plates, endlessly humiliating them as being a “quota-wallah.” School and college staff routinely ask for a student’s caste, which affects admission, the marks they get, whether their meagre Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe allowances for tuition/accommodation will be delayed or disbursed at all (remember Rohith Vemula’s suicide?). Quick test to check your liberal credentials: how many of your close friends are Dalit or Bahujan or Muslim? How many of them are your colleagues at work or your bosses? Does that reflect a society of equal opportunity, merit and social privilege?
Also, Yashica Dutt, a New York-based journalist, author and activist, is a prime example of the “new Dalit”, who has come out as Dalit, is an accomplished achiever, dresses smartly and is articulate in English. At her whirlwind book launch tour in the US (see Instagram @yashicadutt), she is seen wearing a Rani-pink knee-length dress, black leather gloves and knee-high jack boots, with flashy rings and a gold bracelet worn over the black gloves, and heavy make-up. And why not? She had arrived, and in style. When you read her book, you understand the long and painful road from poverty and humiliating discrimination, and can better appreciate her remarkable achievements. Dutt, who grew up in Ajmer, Rajasthan, managed to study at St. Stephen’s in Delhi, then did a Master’s in Journalism at Columbia University. A former journalist at Hindustan Times, she is also the founder of Documents of Dalit Discrimination (“all I saw in the media were stories about victimised Dalits or those undeserving of reservation. There were no stories about people like me.”)
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