Dalit
दलित dalit'Broken' or 'oppressed'; the self-chosen name of communities historically stigmatised as 'untouchable' and placed outside the four varnas. The term, associated with B.R. Ambedkar and the anti-caste movement, asserts dignity and resistance. Untouchability was abolished by Article 17 of the Constitution of India (1950).
Where this term appears
- The caste system: what Hinduism says Essentials
Today many of these communities identify as Dalit , a word meaning "broken" or "oppressed," chosen as a name of dignity and resistance.
- The Gayatri Mantra Worship
…orbidden even from hearing Vedic mantras, such as women, Shudras, and Dalits." That is the plain state of practice.
- The Law of Manu Treatise
Ambedkar, a Dalit jurist trained at Columbia and the London School of Economics, and the resolution to burn the book had been moved, as the record notes, by a Brahmin associate.