‘We can have a Dalit PM one day’

Mumbai: Thousands of miles away from the US, Mumbai cardiologist Rohidas Waghmare celebrated Barack Obama’s victory. For the Dalit doctor as for millions of others who have had to suffer oppression, the fact that a Black man has made it to the highest office in America is “a sign of hope”.

Waghmare grew up in an illiterate cobbler’s family in Udgir village in Latur district, amid taunts and discrimination. “I was once slapped by an upper caste grocer when I brought him water. I, an untouchable, had dared to touch his pitcher. Another time, a woman yelled at me for filling water from the community well,’’ he says. “After I became a doctor, both of them visited with folded hands and begged for my services. I treated them for free.’’

Academic and writer Arjun Dangle who co-founded the Dalit Panthers in 1972, says a Black man in the White House is a victory for democracy. “The Dalit Panther movement was inspired by the Black Panther movement (which was started in the US in 1966),’’ says Arun Kamble, former head of Mumbai University’s Marathi department and president of Dalit Panthers. He has written a book on his experiences as a Dalit called Aandolan Ke Din. “In my village in Sangli, whenever a Dalit child participated in an elocution contest and did a good job, upper-caste villagers would say that if a Dalit gave such a good speech now, later on in life he will end up harming us.’’

Obama’s victory brings home the lack of strong Dalit leaders since Babasaheb Ambedkar. “At a time when Dalits are increasingly migrating from villages to cities in search of a better life, there needs to be a unified Dalit leadership,’’ says Dangle. “One day, we can have a Dalit Prime Minister,’’ says Kamble.

Source - The Times of India - 6 Nov 2008