Issue 380 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

July 2005

Combatting caste

In India, Leelaben has spent a lifetime carrying shit in a basket on her head. In the West, caste is still a criterion in some communities when looking for a bride or bridegroom. In Japan, the Internet is being used to incite hatred against the Buraku people.
These are among the countless examples of discrimination faced by the 250 million people who were born into what are considered to be ‘low’ or ‘untouchable’ castes.
Today, many such people in Asia call themselves Dalits – which means ‘the broken people’ but symbolizes their active resistance to the system that oppresses them. They are inspired by Dr Ambedkar, the Dalit who wrote the Indian Constitution, who said: ‘Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for the reclamation of the human personality.’ The scandal is that in the 21st century this battle still continues.

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In this issue

  • Somalia is the ultimate in ‘imagined communities’, the failed state whose fissiparous character is unique even in today’s splintered world. Situated in the dusty Horn of Africa, this is a country whose Transitional Federal Government (TFG) exists only cour
  • The NI predicted his ascent in this section back in September 2000 and now ‘God’s Rottweiler’ has become Pope Benedict XVI.
  • The girl had done nothing wrong – but her caste and sex meant that she was going to be punished all the same. By Dalit writer Bama.
  • The oldest social hierarchy in the world.
  • Nikki van der Gaag reveals how some practices persist even in the West.