#DalitLivesMatter Webinar, hosted by Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch International, Dalit Solidarity Forum, and the Reclaiming India Collective

This webinar on #DalitLivesMatter was organized collectively by Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch International, Dalit Solidarity Forum, and the Reclaiming India Collective on 4 October 2020. The webinar is a discussion between renowned Dalit rights activists Prof. Roja Singh and Martin Macwan, moderated by Prof. Balmurli Natrajan. Their discussion takes up many important questions including that of the precarity of Dalits under the current Hindutva regime in India and the possibilities for liberation.

You can also watch the Facebook live recording of the webinar here

About the contributors:

Roja Singh teaches interdisciplinary studies including Anthropology, Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York. Her ongoing research involves the oral narratives and leadership strategies of women from indigenous communities. She is president of the Dalit Solidarity Forum and the author of Spotted Goddesses: Dalit women’s agency-narratives on caste and gender violence.

Martin Macwan is a Dalits rights activist and founder of the Navsarjan Trust-a Dalit human rights group. Established in 1988, Navsarjan is now active in 3,000 villages in Gujarat, and has won major victories both in and out of court. As national convener of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) between 1999 and 2001, he led the Indian Dalit contingent to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in Durban. Macwan is the winner of the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and recipient of the Gleitsman Foundation’s Activist of the Year Award.

Balmurli Natrajan is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Community Development and Social Justice at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA. His research and teaching focuses on group formation, identity and inequality, culture and multiculturalism, and globalization/international development. Dr. Natrajan’s book Culturalization of Caste in India: Identity and Inequality in a Multicultural Age (2011) is on the new modes of persistence of caste in India.

Suggested citation:
Hindus for Human Rights. 4 October 2020. “#DalitLivesMatter Webinar.” AGITATE! Blog: https://agitatejournal.org/?p=2603