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The term Dalit (from the Sanskrit for "ground down", "suppressed") is the current usage for India's oppressed, primarily ex-Untouchables. The "ex" refers to the fact that the Indian Constitution makes the practice of untouchability a legal offence. In spite of much progress over the last sixty years, Dalits are still at the social and economic bottom of society. The figures in one study of the Dalits' lot, Untouchability in Rural India, tell the story:
The official statistics for the decade 1990-2000 indicate that a total of 285,871 cases of various crimes against Dalits were registered ... under the Anti-Untouchability Act [or] the Prevention of Atrocities Act. These include 553 cases of murder, 2,990 cases of grievous hurt, 919 rapes, 184 kidnappings/abductions, 127 robberies, 456 cases of arson, 1,403 cases of caste discrimination and 8,179 cases of atrocities ... These official figures only capture the tip of the iceberg.1
As the study's title suggests, violence against Dalits is most often found in the villages. There are slights and humiliations and at times restrictions in housing and jobs in the cities of India, but Dalits are not identifiable by sight; anonymity, impossible in villages, affords some protection in urban settings. There is also now a large group of middle-class Dalits and a thriving Dalit intellectual and literary sector. However, most of the work traditionally considered polluting in India is done by Dalits: the cleaning of toilets, work with leather, bringing fuel to the burning (cremation) grounds, disposing of animal carcasses; in some areas but not in others, laundry and fishing. The basic occupation of Dalits is landless labour.
Two questions relate the situation of Dalits to the theme of race and racism: are Dalits considered by higher castes to be an inferior race? Do Dalits think of themselves as a race? We should note that the Indian languages have no general word for "race" as it is used in the West. The determining factors in the hierarchy of castes are purity and pollution, and the Untouchable is the most polluting, i.e., not to be touched. The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, told the Dalit-Minority International Conference in Delhi in 2006 that "the only parallel to the practice of 'untouchability' is apartheid in South Africa". It...