Caste Matters, with Dr. Suraj Yengde

Le Centre sur les droits de la personne et le pluralisme juridique accueille le Dr Suraj Yengde pour discuter des effets du système de castes en Inde, notamment l'impact sur le peuple Dalit, considéré comme intouchable selon la doctrine brahmanique. La professeure Vrinda Narain animera la présentation.

À propos de l'ouvrage Caste Matters

[En anglais seulement] A first-generation Dalit scholar educated across continents, Suraj Yengde is the author of Caste Matters, a book that challenges deep-seated beliefs about caste and unpacks its many layers. He describes his gut-wrenching experiences of growing up in a Dalit basti, the multiple humiliations suffered by Dalits on a daily basis, and their incredible resilience enabled by love and humour.

As he brings to light the immovable glass ceiling that exists for Dalits even in politics, bureaucracy and judiciary, Yengde provides an unflinchingly honest account of divisions within the Dalit community itself-from their internal caste divisions to the conduct of elite Dalits and their tokenized forms of modern-day untouchability-all operating under the inescapable influences of Brahminical doctrines. He will discuss how caste crushes human creativity and is disturbingly similar to other forms of oppression, such as race, class and gender. He will argue that until Dalits lay claim to power and Brahmins join hands against Brahminism to effect real transformation, caste will continue to matter.

Le conférencier

[En anglais seulement] Dr Yengde is currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He holds a research associate position with the department of African and African American Studies, a non-resident fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and is part of the founding team of Initiative for Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability (IARA) at Harvard University. He has studied in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, and is India’s first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). He is an International Human Rights attorney by qualification from India and the UK.