Dalit Identity Essay

“The impulse oppose cultural norms appears as inarticulate revolt, as social criticism, as vision, as ideology, as completed revolution; It may spring from logic, disillusionment, or the experience of oppression. In short, it is part of the continuing dialectic of history, as much our cultural heritage as what it opposes. What I mean, then, by 'counter-tradition' is not 'that which opposes the tradition', 'the tradition which opposes'”
1.12.1. MAHATMA JOTIBHA PHULE AND THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE DALIT MOVEMENT: Among the many issues that are dominating the contemporary social and political discourse the most significant is the emergence of the Dalit identity. Constituting one fifth of the country’s population they occupy an important

The first was the attitude and influence of British officials. The second was the effect of missionary activities on local Untouchable communities. The third was a growing realization among all Indians, including Untouchables that in education lay the key to future political power, as the British government prepared to extend limited representative institutions to Indians themselves .These were the factors for the start of the Dalit movement, but they were also the reasons or causes for the great Dalit leaders to emerge like Jotiba

He established various schools one after another to encourage education within the Dalits, a right that was prohibited by the Brahmans for thousands of years. He was also in favor of women whose position was much more problematic than the Dalit man. The first school he established was a school for girls in 1848. This school was followed by two others, which were established in 1851 and 1852. He established another school for the untouchables in 1852. During these educational efforts he saw an important help from those Brahman reformers. But in time this support faded away with the rise of Hindu orthodoxy