let the oppressed go free

I must say, it’s strange to look out my sitting room window and see my manager’s underwear hanging out to dry. I’m working from home today, hence the view from my sitting room. I am reading through Dalit Freedom by Joseph D’souza. Understanding the background, atrocities, and threats of Dalit exploitation helps me focus on the assessment RTDC hopes to complete on the Dalit population within Himachal Pradesh. I just finished an appended article by Udit Raj, “The U.S. Should Stop Caste Virus.” The article outlines how this deep-rooted disease has infiltrated America and I wanted to share a bit with ya’ll.

A few years ago, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a 501(c)3 Hindu extremist organization, held a rally to encourage orthodox practices among American secular Hindus. No one objected. This same organization raises funds in the West to support their activities within India such as the 1998 mass murder of minorities, specifically Christians, in Gujarat. One day-to-day example from Raj’s article also serves to bring this into focus and closer to home. Two Vancouver, Canada taxi drivers of Indian origin got into an argument. The upper caste driver assaulted and defamed the Dalit driver, requesting that the Dalit driver be suspended from his job by management. While there are no simple or quick solutions to this virus, your awareness provides a starting point. I encourage you to read Dalit Freedom to learn more. The book contains articles by leaders of the Dalit Movement.

On a lighter note, my landlord just arrived and I shared my ongoing toilet leakage problem. He’s going to fix it, hopefully. He also chastised me for not watering a plant he left for me. Hmm, watering plants was never an area of giftedness for me.