[Four years ago, Khade spent thousands of dollars to repair the old village well and temple, and opened a new school. “I have bought 100 acres of farmland. I built a palace in the Dalit quarters of the village for my mother,” Khade said. “But I still cannot build a house in the heart of the village, where the upper castes live. They won’t sell that land to a Dalit. That will take another revolution.”]
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Avinash Jagtap poses with large cement pipes that he manufactures at three factories, on |
MUMBAI — Ashok Khade heads a flourishing $32 million construction business in India
A first-generation entrepreneur, 56-year-old Khade’s success is remarkable because he is a member of India
But more than six decades of education programs and affirmative-action policies, coupled with India
“In the world of business, success matters more than caste,” Khade said.
Khaded starte working as a technician in a Mumbai shipping yard in 1979 and studied engineering in the evenings. He quit his job in 1992 and used the salary from his last two months to start Das Offshore Engineering, designing and building unmanned offshore platforms for oil companies.
With their newfound economic clout, Dalit millionaires such as Khade are working to lower barriers and prejudice in their villages, funding grants for Dalit students, building schools and roads, and employing people of all castes in their businesses. They are also trying to showcase their success, hoping they will become role models for young Dalits and help them move beyond the dominant images of discrimination and despair.
“This is a proud moment, and we want to celebrate the success stories,” said Milind Kamble, 44, chairman of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “For too long, we have shouted angry slogans on the streets.”
Getting in on the boom
Kamble started out as a teenage activist with the Dalit Panther group, which was inspired by the Black Panther movement in the United States
His business group has 1,000 members, but that number is likely to double when registration begins in 10 more states across India
Many see a growing class of Dalit business owners as an important next step in the community’s transformation.
“If Dalits don’t see themselves in the list of the rich Indians, then the signal is that India is booming but Dalits are not invited to the party,” said Devesh Kapur, director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania, which is conducting a survey of successful Dalit entrepreneurs.
So far, the research has found that Dalits are well represented in the manufacturing sector, producing cement pipes, copper tubes, automobile components, solar heaters and frozen food, as well as ethanol, and even high-rise buildings.
“We did not know so many Dalit capitalists existed,” Kamble said. “We are stumbling upon new millionaires everyday.”
What money can’t buy
Not everyone is hailing the attention focused on Dalit millionaires. Some Dalits view the successful business owners as members of an elite club who have jettisoned the long fight on the ground against violence and discrimination.
“Maybe 10 percent of Dalits are doing well, but what about the rest who are rotting in poverty in villages and city slums? Can they relate to this campaign about wealthy Dalits?” said Anand Teltumbde, a Dalit activist and author. “It is an illusion that they can be role models.”
“We faced hardship, discrimination, insults,” said Devanand Londhe, 37, owner of Payod Industries, which makes and exports industrial cotton gloves to Japan
But he studied in government-run schools and colleges, where tuition was subsidized for Dalits. His parents toiled in farms and saved money for his textbooks. He donned his first pair of shoes at 19. Later, when Londhe became a civil engineer, the village sugar factory refused him a job.
“That day I pledged that I will return to the village as a job giver, not as a job seeker,” Londhe recalled. He went to the city to work in water management firms, and later to Afghanistan U.S.
The emerging class of Dalit millionaires is embracing other symbols of success as well: a dress code of black suits and red ties, E-class Mercedes-Benzes and huge homes with terraced gardens in posh upper-caste neighborhoods. Some are taking lessons in English diction and table manners, too.
But even successful Dalits have learned that there are limits to what money can buy.
Four years ago, Khade spent thousands of dollars to repair the old village well and temple, and opened a new school.
“I have bought 100 acres of farmland. I built a palace in the Dalit quarters of the village for my mother,” Khade said. “But I still cannot build a house in the heart of the village, where the upper castes live. They won’t sell that land to a Dalit. That will take another revolution.”
@ The Washington Post
[The burnings are believed to be the result of a caste war in Kadampur village, under Hathgawan police station. But the immediate trigger for the incident was a nine-year-old Dalit boy, who threw coloured water on some Yadavs, who belong to the OBC category.]
By Piyush Srivastava
At least nine houses belonging to Dalits were set on fire in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district on Sunday, leaving more than two dozen injured.
More than a dozen Dalits have been admitted to SRN Hospital Allahabad
The burnings are believed to be the result of a caste war in Kadampur village, under Hathgawan police station. But the immediate trigger for the incident was a nine-year-old Dalit boy, who threw coloured water on some Yadavs, who belong to the OBC category.
The angry Yadavs threw the boy into a canal, but his father Arun Kumar rescued him. A mob of more than 100 Yadavs then surrounded the Dalit locality, poured kerosene and set the houses afire.
Circle officer B.S. Rana said six Yadavs had been taken into custody and an investigation into the incident was on. "It happened around 8 pm on Sunday when a Dalit boy tried to celebrate Holi with the OBCs. A mob led by Harish Chandra Yadav, Lal Chand Yadav and Rajendra Yadav then torched his home," Rana said. "Later, more Yadavs arrived and set eight more Dalit houses ablaze." Sant Lal, one of the injured villagers, claimed that all the attackers were supporters of controversial independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh, who is presently in jail under the Gangster Act.
"They harass us frequently. They are powerful supporters of the MLA, whose palace in Benti village is only 15 km away from Kadampur," Sant Lal said. "The boy didn't know the Yadavs would react violently if he poured colour on them on Holi. They threw the boy into the canal and then attacked our hamlets on the village outskirts," he added.
PLIGHT OF DALITS IN NEPAL: A HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY
(Human rights defenders share their views ahead of Nepal's first Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Documentary commissioned by the British Embassy in Kathmandu, featuring HM Ambassador. The Embassy has supported the local NGO coalition in submitting their official report to the HRC as part of its ongoing work on human rights in Nepal.)
