Resources

What is caste?

Existing for over 3000 years, caste apartheid is a system of religiously codified oppression that is passed on by birth and is unalterable through life. One’s caste position determines access to opportunities for advancement as well as to ownership of resources. Outside the four main caste groups are Dalits and Adivasis who represent the most caste oppressed communities in South Asia.1, 4

“A central feature of caste discrimination is the so-called ‘untouchability practices’. It stems from the notion that different caste groups have varying degrees of purity and pollution, with Dalits and other caste-affected groups being so impure that they can pollute other groups.”2

To this day, Dalits continue to “endure segregation in housing, schools, and access to public services. They are denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and upper-caste community members who enjoy the state’s protection.”3

1. Caste in the United States, Equality Labs

2. Caste Discrimination, International Dalit Solidarity Network

3. Hidden Apartheid of Discrimination Against Dalits, Human Rights Watch

4. What is the caste system, BBC

Bhumika Saraswati’s Publications

The Hidden Battle for Survival

Bhumika Saraswati’s Films

Trafficked into Sex Work, stories of single mothers and their children (Film, Short)
“Who can survive on Rs 33 per day?” (on gender, caste, and health)

On Black & Dalit Solidarities

Building Bridges: Articulating Dalit and African American Women's Solidarity by Shailaja Paik
Dalit in Black America: Race, Caste, and the Making of Dalit-Black Archives by Suraj Yengde

Recommended Texts (found at NYU Libraries)

Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar
Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men by B.R. Ambedkar
The Buddha and His Dhamma by B.R. Ambedkar
Coming out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt
Caste Matters by Suraj Yengde
Concealing Caste: Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature by K. Satyanarayana & Joel Lee
Mapping Dalit Feminism: Towards an Intersectional Standpoint by Anandita Pan
Dalits: Past, Present, and Future by Anand Teltumbde
Ants Amongst Elephants by Sujatha Gidla
Caste Matters by Suraj Yengde
Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste by Gail Omvedt
Understanding Caste by Gail Omvedt
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music by Craiig I. Wilkins
A Black Gaze by Tina M. Campt
As long as grass grows by Dina Gilio-whitaker
Recovering the sacred by Winona LaDuke
Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience by Enrique Salmón

Acknowledgements