Dalit

"Every hour -- two Darts are assaulted. Every day -- three Dalit women are raped, two Dalits are murdered, two Dalit houses are burnt". -- Human Rights Education Movement in India

V.T Rajshekar writes: "The Dalit is not only forbidden to enter the home of a Brahmin, but he must also not draw water from the same well, nor eat from the same pot or plate. He must not glance at or allow his shadow to fall on the Brahmin. All these acts will pollute the 'pure' Brahmin. The Dalit 'is not only Untouchable, but also Unseeable, Unapproachable, Unshadowable and even Unthinkable". Dalit: The Black Untouchables of India is the first book to provide a Dalit view of the roots and continuing factors of the gross oppression of the world's largest minority. (over 150 million people) through a 3,000 year history of conquest, slavery, apartheid and worse. Rajshekar offers a penetrating, often startling overview of the role of Brahminism and the Indian caste system in embedding the notion of "untouchability" in Hindu culture, tracing the origins of the caste system to an elaborate system of political control in the guise of religion imposed by Aryan invaders on a conquered aboriginal/Dravidian civilization. He exposes the almost unimaginable social indignities which continue to be imposed upon so-called untouchables to this very day -- despite the outlawing of untouchability -- with the complicity of the political, criminal justice, media and educational systems. Under Rajshekar's incisive critique, the much-vaunted image of Indian nonviolence shatters. This new updated and illustrated Third Edition includes: Y.N. Kly on the Dalit plight as a warning to African-Americans; Runoko Rashidi on "Blacks as aGlobal Community"; and the recent U.S. Congressional Bill 4215 on human rights in India, which marks the first U.S. Congressional recognition of the Dalit plight.