What counts as a transgression varies from person to person, but Dalits tend to agree that constantly navigating caste is a tremendous burden. A pat on the shoulder might be a friendly greeting-or a search for a sacred thread that some dominant-caste Hindu men wear beneath their shirts. And because it’s invisible, there are many codes and secret languages that exist around us.” Questions about a person’s last name or home village can be seen as invasive attempts to identify caste. “One of the most dangerous things about caste,” says Yashica Dutt, author of the memoir Coming Out as Dalit, “is that it’s invisible. Photograph: Arsenii Vaselenkoįor outsiders, caste grievances can be difficult-bordering on impossible-to recognize. On the dial of Siddhant's watch is a sketch of Bhimrao Ambedkar, the man most responsible for weakening the caste system's grip on Indian society. As he sat listening, Siddhant couldn’t help but notice as one friend and then another and a third appeared at the office with the watch strapped to their wrists.
Inside, he’d find the men sitting in plastic chairs, swapping tales of their exploits with Ambedkar, surrounded by posters of the man and newspapers spilling off bookshelves.
It was his father’s hero, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the man most responsible for weakening the caste system’s grip on Indian society.Īfter school, Siddhant liked to ride his bike down the crowded streets of Nagpur, India, past groups of kids playing cricket, to a squat concrete building where his father rented a modest office with his friends, all anti-caste activists. Made of steel, the watch had in its dial a sketch of a portly man, his face framed by round glasses and his broad shoulders clad in a wide-lapelled jacket. His father, a low-wage worker on the Indian railway, was trying to save up for it, tucking away a few rupees when he could.
Siddhant was 14 when he learned of the watch.
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