Thread by @gauravsabnis

This is basically Dr. Ambedkar defining Intersectionality.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1514522923322781696

The best way to put the Indian caste system in perspective for Americans is to say, imagine if actual slavery lasted 2.5 millennia, not 2.5 centuries, and Jim Crow laws existed several centuries, not several decades, & there is no civil war or civil rights act or first amendment.

This essay by Isabel Wilkerson explores the parallels in detail. Including a story of how Dr. King was introduced as a "fellow untouchable" in India and was first "shocked & peeved" but upon reflection, realized it came from a place of solidarity.

theguardian.com/world/2020/jul…

This is why I find it so easy to think of parallels between ongoing sanghi actions and the Nazis as well as American White Supremacists.

Dr. Ambedkar lived and studied in America for a while and often referenced slavery parallels while describing the plight of Dalits.

He also famously contrasted how a lot of white Americans at least have a social conscience about race issues, but not the Hindu society re caste.

When I first read that contrast by Babasaheb many years ago, my reflex was to contest it. I was like, come on Babasaheb, many upper caste Hindus also vigorously oppose caste. That's a bit unfair. But I got his point later. And he was right. It's not enough to just not be casteist

White America, whatever its flaws, does have a significant contingent that does more than just not be racist in their personal lives. From William Lloyd Garrison to present day white youth marching in hundreds and thousands in BLM protests, they do concrete things.

As the Modi years have shown, there is no significant political or institutional entity in the Hindu ecosystem really truly committed to annihilating caste. The Hindu society is very much lacking that collective social conscience re caste.

Our matrimonial websites and big city newspaper classifieds have more sub categories than the Amazon laptop purchase menu. And yet collectively, we still like to pretend that caste is largely irrelevant in the cities and is only a rural problem.

Some more excerpts from the Wilkerson essay tracing connections between Dalits and American blacks, dating as far back as Jyotiba Phule. And seeing parallels even today. #AmbedkarJayanti