Caste — one of the oldest systems of exclusion in the world — is thriving. Despite the ban on Untouchability 70 years ago, caste impacts 1.9 billion people in the world. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S. as well, erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed.
Dalit-American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit American artist, organizer, technologist, and theorist and the author of The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition. Currently, Thenmozhi is the Executive Director of Equality Labs.