what are the different strategies adopted by the marginalized group to overcome this situation?
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An International Multidisciplinary e-Journal (Peer Reviewed & Opened Access Indexed) Web: www.jmsjournals.in Email: [email protected] (Impact Factor: 2.142) [455] Vol. 1, Issue-IV April 2016 the dalit debate and movement. Gandhi viewed “the Dalits problem” as a social one, whereas Ambedkar saw it as a political and economic problem created by upper castes. When Ambedkar became the first law minister, he created progressive legal reforms and incorporated these reforms into the Constitution (Prashad 2001). Popular representation and public voice were now possible. “Dalit” is the modern and popular identity term that is self-chosen by the community that has suffered historic discrimination on the basis of caste. Gandhi’s attempt to identify these communities as “Harijan” (children of God) has not gone well with the Dalits; many of them maintain a dislike of Gandhi due to his successful campaign to communalise and subvert the issue of effective political representation of the Dalits in pre and post-independence national governance (Macwan, n.d.). From the individual to the community – the movement has grown. By and large the dalit movement has been not for hegemony but for life with equality and dignity (Raj and Raj, 2001). Essentially it is a social movement that can be forceful yet peaceful and ethical. Any idea or ideology, in order to become a forceful social movement should be accepted first by society in general as being morally just. Political emancipation and empowerment then becomes easier. Public opinion creates a new public policy that may itself bring about far reaching political change (Thimmaiah, 1993). Education/literature has been in the forefront among the tools and strategies of dalit movement – be it the voice of the poet Basavanna through “vachanas” of the 12th Century or Basavalingappa’s speeches in 1970s. From a slow rise of non-Brahminical movement around 1917 to more reforms, including political representation for the under-privileged, the movement grew from strength to strength. The period of 70s was one of movement: language movement, women’s movement, peasant’s movement etc. that were also mutually reinforcing. From the 70s, there has been a tremendous growth in the consciousness among the dalits about the life and works of Ambedkar – a process which for the sake of brevity can be termed as Ambedkarisation. Organisation of dalits, literacy (including media literacy) also took place (Singh, 1998). Organisational skills and strategies are being used by dalits to overturn the caste system, organise for power, and fight for their rights (Bhatt, 2005). All through