Dalits

Narendra Modi recently described himself as an Ambedkar bhakt and also assured Dalits that he would never dilute reservations even if B R Ambedkar himself were to come back to life and demand their revocation. The faux pas reveals the desperation of the Hindutva forces to woo Dalits by misrepresenting Ambedkar and the critical role reservation plays in the political schema of the ruling classes. Reservations, which are assumed to be a boon for Dalits, have actually been the tool of their enslavement.

Responses around the beef ban have focused on the anxiety of the liberal middle class which construed the ban as curbing its consumption choice. But absent from this was the voice of the Dalits, who have come to be defined by what they consume, and whose relationship with beef is marked by caste, poverty and hunger. An exploration of the practice of beef consumption through the prism of destitution, and its relation with the poor to whom it provides the bare minimum.