Instead of acknowledging discrimination, upper caste Indians, instead of taking responsibility, have deluded themselves into thinking they are already living in a ‘post-caste’ society.” “On the contrary,” she says, “there isn’t even the same kind of open discourse here of the kind you have in the US about racism, white supremacy, which is all mainstream. While some white people joined the civil rights moment in the US or the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the upper castes are nowhere to be seen in the Dalit struggle against discrimination, she says. Her parents, though poor, were educated and lived in a city (Ajmer in Rajasthan) rather than a village and that allowed the family to conceal its caste in a way that is impossible for the majority of India’s approximately 200 million Dalits who live in rural areas.Ĭonversely, Dutt is concerned about the absence of guilt among upper caste Indians.
Then it was guilt at having survived and enjoyed opportunities for education that so many in her community had never had and never would. First it was guilt at her mother educating her when she could not afford it. Guilt entered her soul early and settled into sediment, she says.
She heard some lighter-skinned African Americans talk of how they used to “pass” as white, assuming certain habits, tastes, language and mannerisms, just as her mother had mimicked those of upper caste Hindus.Īs part of her book tour, Dutt was back in India appearing at the Jaipur Literature Festival last month when the Guardian met her in a Delhi cafe, she cut a striking figure with her wavy hair, black leather jacket and hands flashing with chunky rings. In the US Dutt, 34, discovered a parallel with her own experience. She worked as a journalist in Delhi and pursued a master’s at Columbia University in New York, where she now lives and works for an advertising agency. Dutt went to boarding school and then studied at St Stephen’s, perhaps the most prestigious university in India. It tells of her mother’s ambition to overcome poverty and give her children an education, without support and with an alcoholic husband.
Dutt recounts the story in her book, Coming Out as Dalit.
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