#dalit panthers

[bfpnola]

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 29 May 1972 the Dalit Panthers were formed in Mumbai, India. Modelled on the US Black Panthers the Dalit Panthers was formed to combat caste discrimination. Dalit refers to members of lower castes in India (sometimes referred to as "untouchables"). The Dalit Panthers advocated for both the abolition of the caste system as well as of class society. The organisation also advocated for women's rights, health women's study circles, and intervened to support Dalit women experiencing abuse and assault. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10125/dalit-panthers-founded Pictured: cover of a Dalit Panther publication https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=634412302065322&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[everything-is-crab]

:))

This is what I meant when I said both rightoids and liberals in India are equally dumb as fuck. Both are pro imperialists. She's not even lower caste and yet she's speaking on behalf of us. I have seen this trend in a lot of "anticasteist" upper caste women (who unfortunately have more voices than people like me, actually women from oppressed castes).

How are these people different from the white supremacists who say brown people are intellectually and socially inferior?

"At least the goras let us have meat" oh okay we're gonna ignore the 3 million lives lost in Bengal famine caused by Churchill's policies (after which he blamed it on us instead of his own greediness). Did he let those people eat meat then? Unhinged shit. They wouldn't let people fill their bellies cause sometimes instead of food crops they wanted our ancestors to grow cotton, indigo, spices, tea. Which also left areas prone to land disasters. Commercial stuff that they could sell at much cheaper prices in their own countries and others in the Western world as well. Also levied extremely unreasonably high taxes. Leaving us with no money. Delusional world these middle/upper class liberals live in where the British let us have meat. They didn't even let us have rice.

The British protected the caste system. Read Sharmila Rege's work about how the British introduced the process of "Brahmanisation" in colonial India.

This is the exact thing Hindu nationalists are doing rn! And have been doing forever! Protecting Western imperialists! Why do you think Modi is bootlicking the US so much? Do you think the farmers' protests and the after effects of globalization after 1991 are disconnected from Western imperialism?

Just because nationalists claim to be against white dominance doesn't mean they practice what they preach.

And this folks is why you need to incorporate class and gender in your analysis and not read about the work of only the middle class men of a community :)

Women and poor people matter too.

But unfortunately many earlier anti caste activists who were middle or upper class were anti Marxists and only later few like the Dalit Panthers and R.B More realized the importance of Marxist analysis for understanding modern caste based oppression more. Yes many Indian Marxists ignored casteism. But that does not mean we must dispose it as a useless theory.

But who tf cares about the Dalit Panthers or anyone else? Have you even heard of any other names that aren't Phule or Ambedka? Everyone followed and still follow people like Periyar, Ambedkar, Phule who were all from relatively well off family. And why will people who uncritically follow these people not think colonization was as bad? All of them attended British school and went for higher studies as well. The British was staunchly anti communist. They constantly resisted communist activists in colonial India. This is a privilege even today many people from oppressed castes cannot enjoy.

I have seen all these upper caste women, ignore people like me pointing this out. They think we're against education of oppressed castes (why would I advocate that for my own community?). But rather we take issue to these men ignoring their economic and male privilege and speaking on behalf of all of us.

A reminder that Periyar criminalized devadasis and read Ambedkar's arguments against Hindutva solutions to the Partition (hint: he cared more about the money that could be wasted in missionaries rather than the violence and human rights and unironically called Muslim people "tyrannical" and referred to "Muslim oppression" on Hindus). He was anti casteist, but he was Islamophobic.

To avoid with this kind of thinking, follow Dalit feminist theory. Dalit femininism from its inception has been pro Marxist (cause women make most of poor here). And they explain the effects of colonization on lower caste women (how the British introduced evidence act, a law that justified rape against lower caste women and let me remind you gang rape of lower caste women by upper caste men is a national issue. Ex the Manipur case, the rape of Phoolan Devi, the Hathras case etc). And how dowry (that earlier used to be a practice mainly amongst upper castes was now becoming dominant in lower castes as well due to capitalization of economy during colonial era). Maybe then you will understand why the British abolished sati but not any temple prostitution or other issues faced exclusively by women from oppressed castes. In fact they called upper caste women those who deserve to be protected but lower caste women were inherently deviant in their justification. But please go ahead and argue how imperialism brings "good things" sometimes.

Just read about caste reformation during colonial era. The choice isn't between hindutva and colonial era. The choice is between hindutva and hindutva along with colonial rule. Why do most liberals pretend the British never favored the Brahmins over everybody else?

White supremacy is so much better than Hindu supremacy for women of lower castes am I right guys?

This is so much better?

Also reminded of the "breast cloth" controversy. Do not mistake that anti caste activism is always anti caste for both Dalit men and women. Sometimes it favors Dalit men. And oppresses Dalit women further. Cause usually the colonizers never cared about oppressed castes but when they did, it was only for the men.

Ik many upper caste Marxists are not good at anti caste politics but I cannot separate Marxism from my anti caste or feminist politics. And as a Marxist from a formerly colonized country, I cannot ignore the imperial divide between the West (that is white dominated) and the global south (that includes India). You cannot separate the conditions of brown and black people today in the global south from the past dynamics of the colonizer and the colonized.

Lower caste women are obviously very poor. The poorest of all with least social protection. These upper caste women can sit on their asses and write papers and blogs on how much white supremacy was much cooler. But the ones from oppressed castes and working class? They don't have this privilege. They have the same burden of upper caste women related to marriage and domestic work and everything. But on top of that they have to do labor as well. And after globalization, when condition of "blue collar jobs" degraded (wages lowered, subsidies cut, worker protection rights gone etc) , the percentage of women in these fields increased. That's not a coincidence. Men always force women into lower earning occupations that have little job security. I am not gonna ignore this.

Fuck Hindutva. But fuck white supremacy too. For me neither is better. Both go hand in hand in fact. Look at the Hindu nationalists in France allying with white supremacists over shared conservative interests.

[topcat77]

Rahee Punyashloka

 “The Dalit Panther is an Elusive Beast #1” (2021)

[truesaint]

Dalit Panthers for Indians

[studying-with-k]

Monthly Reads (August to December)

Uni wiped the floor with me so I didn't get to work on this list for a long ass time but here we go

Books

Lukacs Concept of Dialectics by Istvan Meszaros

Songs of Kabir (edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra)

Shyam Benegal's Manthan screenplay

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Gramsci's Thought by EMS Namboodiripad and P. Govinda Pillai

The Theban Plays by Sophocles

Absolutely on Music: conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Murakami

What I talk about when I talk about Running

Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami

Papers/essays

The Wall Street Consensus Daniela Gabor

Worker's Profit Participation, Unemployment and the Keynesian Equilibrium by Jaroslav Vanek

Failure of the new Left by Herbert Marcuse

The General Theory of Second Best by Lipsey and Lancaster

Attack on Dalit Panthers (written for EPW)

Nature as a Mode of Accumulation: Capitalism and the Financialization of the Earth (link)

Time To Enclose The Enclosers With Marx and Illich (link)

Atrocities on the Dalit Panthers by Navroz Mody

Dalit Panthers: Another View for EPW

Children of God Become Panthers by S.V

THE NEED FOR A COMMON ROOF (THE SOCIAL CONTROL OF TECHNOLOGY) by Ivan Illich

Portrait of the Marxist as a Young Hegelian: Lukács' Theory of the Novel by David H. Miles

---

Since it's the new year soon I look forward to showing more cool stuff I come across and share cool things I learn!

[desianarchist]

The 1960s in India saw a new wave of educated youth from Dalit community, who thrived on poetry, prose, and art as a passive means of getting their message across. Raja Dhale, one of the founding members of the Dalit Panthers wrote in his poem Eka Panther Che Manogat: “Each man is the last one.  If he sees that clearly, why should he not fight each battle as if it is the last one I don’t understand it—because the end is decided. Either the battle will come to an end Or we will die.  If death is certain, why shouldn’t  the battle for equality be certain?”

And the Dalit Panther Roared Again: A Dreamer’s Portrait of the Anti-Caste Movement in India, Siddhesh Gautam

[azadiazadiazadi]

From a 1973 pamphlet on the Dalit Panther, written by J.V. Pawar, then Treasurer of the organisation.

[thechowk]

In the ’70s, the Dalit Panthers Made Pocket-Sized Magazines That Challenged Social Hierarchies in India – Eye on Design

Read about an underrepresented side of the history of print literature in India. #graphicdesign #history #heritage #magazine #archive #india

“It was one of the most seminal publications that celebrated Dalit literature — a writing movement produced by people belonging to the lowest stratum castes in India — and it marked the intersection of the Dalit Panthers Movement and the country’s avant-garde and modernist Little Magazine Movement. “ View this post on Instagram A post shared by dalitpanthersarchive…

[thenetionalnews]

Suraj Yengde writes:

The Dalit Panthers turns 50. Celebrations have been organized in my hometown in Maharashtra. An international Dalit Panthers-Black Panthers Conference is being hosted in India’s hinterland for the first time. The Nanded Ambedkarites have decided to throw a party that would consist of intellectual discussions, speeches, film screenings, exhibitions, performances on Ambedkari music and Dalit…

[khlur]

hey i was going through your old blog for impt stuff and i wanted to say smth i forgot to comment before ; i understand the point of dalitlivesmatter and the post shared impt info but i think since you shared it you could have acknowledged that it has antiblack implications of taking away from the phrase ''Black Lives Matter'' by making it into (x group) lives matter Aka All lives matter. it mightve been better to share info without a appropriated phrase.

'dalit lives matter' is a whole literal movement in india

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 15 August 1973, the radical Dalit Panthers group organised a protest of 200 people through the streets of Mumbai. The group, formed the previous year, fought for the rights of Dalits (also known as "untouchables" in the Hindu caste system), and was inspired by the US Black Panther party. The demonstration coincided with the 26th anniversary of Indian independence, and was entitled "Kala Swatantrya Din" – Black Independence Day, and the group declared that they "claim a close relationship with this [US Black] struggle". https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2058178984367241/?type=3

[ofsweetgrass-andsurvival]

photographed by bimal c. sharma, 1999: a young girl breaks past the police line during a dalit protest in kathmandu, nepal. her slogan reads: "all dalits of the country, unite."

[cfor36garh]

Panthi nacha/ Panthi Nritya . . . Exploring with: @kun_koyali . . #cfor36garh #gurughansidas #satnami #people #life #dalit #liberation #celebration #belief #panther #nacha #dance #unique #artist #Chhattisgarh #nritya https://www.instagram.com/p/CHSAHeyg1fj/?igshid=1nme53i8ka344

[janchowk]

दलित पैंथर ने दलित साहित्य का भूमंडलीकरण किया: दलित पैंथर के संस्थापक जेवी पवार

दलित पैंथर ने दलित साहित्य का भूमंडलीकरण किया: दलित पैंथर के संस्थापक जेवी पवार

जेवी पवार दलित-पैंथर के संस्थापकों में एक रहे हैं। इस संगठन ने 1970 के दशक के शुरूआती वर्षों में अपनी गतिविधियों से भारत ही नहीं, दुनिया भर का ध्यान खींचा था। इसी संगठन को दलित-साहित्य का जनक भी माना जाता रहा है। लेकिन तथ्य यह है कि “दलित-साहित्य” ही “दलित-पैंथर” का जनक रहा है। पवार एक कौंध की तरह यह ध्यान दिलाते हैं कि संगठन और आंदोलन से पहले साहित्य है, इसलिए दलित-साहित्य को अधिक अहमियत दी जानी…

[themollyjay]

The Myths of Forced Diversity and Virtue Signaling.

In my novel Mail Order Bride, the three main characters are a lesbian and two agendered aliens.  In my novel Scatter, the main character is a lesbian, the love interest is a pansexual alien, and the major side characters include a half Cuban, half black Dominican lesbian, a Chinese Dragon, a New York born Jewish Dragon, and a Transgender Welsh Dragon.  In my novel The Master of Puppets, the Main Characters are a lesbian shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborg and a half black, half Japanese lesbian.  The major side characters include three gender fluid shapeshifting reptilian alien cyborgs, and a pansexual human.  In my novel Transistor, the main character is a Trans Lesbian, the love interest is a Half human/Half Angel non-observant Ethiopian Jew, and the major side characters include a Transgender Welsh Dragon (the same one from Scatter), a Transgender woman, a Latino Lesbian, an autistic man, three Middle Eastern Arch Angels, and a hive mind AI with literally hundreds of genders.  In my novel The Inevitable singularity, one of the main characters is a lesbian, another has a less clearly defined sexuality but she is definitely in love with the lesbian, and the third is functionally asexual due to a vow of chastity she takes very seriously.  The major side characters include a straight guy from a social class similar to the Dalit (commonly known as untouchables) in India, a bisexual woman, a man who is from a race of genetically modified human/frog hybrids, and a woman from a race of genetically modified humans who are bred and sold as indentured sex workers.

Why am I bringing all of this up?  Well, first, because it’s kind of cool to look at the list of different characters I’ve created, but mostly because it connects to what I want to talk about today, which should be obvious from the title of the essay.  The concepts of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’.

For those who aren’t familiar with these terms, they’re very closely related concepts.  ‘Forced Diversity’ is the idea that characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are only ever included in a story because of outside pressure from some group (usually called Social Justice Warriors, or The Woke Brigade or something similar) to meet some nebulous political agenda.  The caveat to this is, of course, that you can have a women/women present as long as they are hot, don’t make any major contributions to the resolution of the plot, and the hero/heroes get to fuck them before the end of the story. ‘Virtue Signaling’, according to Wikipedia, is a pejorative neologism for the expression of a disingenuous moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating good character.

The basic argument is that Forced Diversity is a form of virtue signaling.  That no one would ever write characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males because they want to.  They only do it to please the evil SJW’s who are somehow both so powerful that they force everybody to conform to their desires, yet so irrelevant that catering to them dooms any creative project to financial failure via the infamous ‘go woke, go broke’ rule.

What the people who push this idea of Forced Diversity tend to forget is that we exist at a point in time when creators actually have more creative freedom than are any other people in history.  Comic writers can throw up a website and publish their work as a webcomic without having to go through Marvel, DC or one of the other big names, or get a place in the dying realm of the news paper comics page.  Novelists can self-publish with fairly little upfront costs, musicians can use places like YouTube and Soundcloud to get their work out without having to worry about music publishers.  Artists can hock their work on twitter and tumblr and a dozen other places. Podcasts are relatively cheap to make, which has opened up a resurgence in audio dramas.  Even the barrier to entry for live action drama is ridiculously low.

So, in a world where creators have more freedom than ever before, why would they choose to people their stories with characters they don’t want there?  The answer, of course, is that they wouldn’t.  Authors, comic creators, indie film creators and so on aren’t putting diverse characters into their stories because they are being forced to. They’re putting diverse characters into their stories because they want to.  Creators want to tell stories about someone other than the generically handsome hypermasculine cisgendered heterosexual white males that have been the protagonists of so many stories over the years that we’ve choking on it. A lot of times, creators want to tell stories about people like themselves.  Black creators want to tell stories about the black experience. Queer creators want to tell stories about the queer experience.

I’m an autistic, mentally ill trans feminine abuse survivor.  Every day, I get up and I struggle with PTSD, with an eating disorder, with severe body dysmorphia, with anxiety and depression and just the reality of being autistic and transgender.  I deal with the fact that the religious community I grew up in views me as an abomination, and genuinely believes I’m going to spend eternity burning in hell.  I deal with the fact that people I’ve known for decades, even members of my own family, regularly vote for politician who publicly state that they want to strip me of my civil rights because I’m queer.  I’m part of a community that experiences a disproportionately high murder and suicide rate.  I’ve spent multiple years of my life deep in suicidal depression, and to this day, I still don’t trust myself around guns.

As a creator, I want to talk about those issues.  I want to deal with my life experiences.  I want to create characters that embody and express aspects of my lived experience and my day-to-day reality.  No one is forcing me to put diversity into my books.  I try to include Jewish characters as often as I can because there have been a number of important Jewish people in my life.  I include queer people because I’m queer and the vast majority of friends I interact with on a regular basis are queer.  I include people with mental illnesses and trauma because I am mentally ill and have trauma, and I know a lot of people with mental illnesses and trauma.  My work may be full of fantastical elements, aliens and dragons and angels and superheroes and magic and ultra-high technology and AI’s and talking cats and robot dogs and shape shifters and telepaths and all sorts of other things, but at the core of the stories is my own lived experience, and neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males are vanishingly rare in that experience.

Now, I can hear the comments already.  The ‘okay, maybe that’s true for individual creators, but what about corporate artwork?’.   Maybe not in those exact words, but you get the idea.

The thought here is that corporations are bowing to social pressure to include characters who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males, and that is somehow bad. But here’s the thing. Corporations are going to chase the dollars.  They aren’t bowing to social pressure.  There’s no one holding a gun to some executive’s head saying, “You must have this many diversity tokens in every script.”  What is happening is that corporations are starting to clue into the fact that people who aren’t neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white males have money.  They are putting black characters in their shows and movies because black people watch shows and spend money on movies.  They are putting queer people in shows and movies because queer people watch shows and spend money on movies.  They are putting women in shows and movies because women watch shows and spend money on movies.

No one is forcing these companies to do this.  They are choosing to do it, the same way individual creators are choosing to do it.  In the companies’ cases the choices are made for different reasons.  It’s not because they are necessarily passionate about telling stories about a particular experience, but because they want to create art to be consumed by the largest audience possible, which means that they have to expand their audience beyond the neurotypical cisgendered heterosexual white male by including characters from outside of that demographic.

And the reality is, the cries of ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ almost always come from within that demographic.  Note the almost.  There are a scattering of individuals from outside that demographic which do subscribe to the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ myths, but that is a whole other essay.  However, within that demographic, lot of the people who cry about ‘forced diversity’ see media and content as a Zero-Sum game.  The more that’s created for other people, the less that is created for them.

In a way, they’re right. There are only so many slots for TV shows each week, there are only so many theaters, only so much space on comic bookshelves and so on.  But at the end of the day, its literally impossible for them to consume all the content that’s being produced anyway.  So, while there is, theoretically less content for them to consume, as a practical matter it’s a bit like someone who is a meat eater going to a buffet with two hundred items, and then throwing a tantrum because five of the items happen to be vegan.

The worst part is, if they could let go of how wound up they are about the ‘forced diversity’ and ‘virtue signaling’ they could probably enjoy the content that’s produced for people other than them.  I mean, I’m a pasty ass white girl, and I loved Black Panther.

So, to wrap out, creators, make what you want to make, and ignore anyone who cries about forced diversity or virtue signaling.  And to people who are complaining about forced diversity and virtue signaling, I want to go back to the buffet metaphor.  You need to relax.  Even if there are a few vegan options on the buffet, you can still get your medium rare steak, or your chicken teriyaki or whatever it is you want.  Or, maybe, just maybe, you could give the falafel a try. That shit is delicious.