Out of the Struggle Will Come the Wave

“From the Black Panthers, Black Power emerged…We claim a close relationship with this struggle…When we gather a revolutionary mass, rouse the people, out of the struggle of this giant mass will come the tidal wave of revolutions.”

- The Dalit Panthers Manifesto, 1973

The Dalit Panthers

Around 1970, poet and anti-caste activist and then-student Raja Dhale went to a tobacco shop to browse books and came upon Time magazine, which had photographs of the Black Panthers on the cover, an initial encounter that would stay with him. Two years later, Dhale, Namdeo Dhasal, Arun Kamble, and their fellow students founded the Dalit Panther movement. Dalit, literally “broken,” was a term adopted by communities deemed “untouchable” by the Hindu caste system. The new term signaled emancipation, and the Dalit Panthers drew inspiration from the Black Panthers to agitate for that goal. They organized protests, created art and poetry, and struggled for a truly free future. Now, seventy five years after Indian independence and fifty years after the founding of the Dalit Panthers, Black and Dalit activists continue to express solidarity and fight for liberation.

Honoring this history of Dalit and Black American activism, I want to create a digital resource that makes anti-caste art and activism accessible, legible, and from a reliable source. I am inspired by my fellow students’ and professors’ commitment to anti-caste activism, so I have proposed a project incorporating interviews with artists, essays by students, and interviews with faculty to show the public what anti-caste activism looks like today, as well as how anti-casteism can shape one’s educational philosophy and research methodologies.