http://tyglobalist.org/front-page/features/the-age-of-the-elephant-the-politics-of-caste-in-uttar-pradesh/ Activist Raghuvanshi sees that change taking a radical form in UP: "a new Dalit revolution." In villages and cities across UP, Indians are now rising up against the caste system and joining a new Dalit movement, a revolution not restricted to Untouchables, but open to all opposed to the caste system.
"Without eliminating [caste] in this country, how are you going to eliminate corruption in the society?" Raghuvanshi asked. "It is the most corrupt system in the world."
Increasingly, activists from higher castes, like Raghuvanshi, have been going into villages to wash Dalits' feet, eat with them, and raise awareness of political and social issues in hopes of erasing caste divisions
and decades of marginalization (largely uncovered by the Indian press, he added). Even over his lifetime, Raghuvanshi has already seen a great deal of change.
"When I was a kid… in an upper caste family, I never [saw] Dalits coming to our marriages [or] to eat with us, but now [it's] happening all the time," he said.
At the same time, the lower-caste poor are working to transform and empower themselves through modernization. According to Raghuvanshi, the younger generation is now increasingly relying on the Internet to stay informed and build communication networks. Dalits in rural villages and urban slums have used radio, television, and SMS text messaging to learn about and discuss events beyond the immediate locale; some have used SMS networks to broadcast news of local human rights abuses to activists like Raghuvanshi. "They've changed themselves very dramatically," he said.
For Raghuvanshi, this new, inclusive, and unified Dalit revolution represents the best hope for the future of Indian democracy, calling it "the force [that's] going to change the feudal system of India and [help India] join the real global democracy."
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