Why not Dalit?

Why not Dalit?

  1. News

Ministry  of Information and Broadcasting has told the media to “refrain from using the word Dalit” and, instead, use only the Constitutional term, ‘Scheduled Caste’.

Dalit (broken down) is a social term for depressed class. Whereas schedule caste is a constitutional term mentioned in article 341 for depressed class

 

2. Court judgment

Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, directed government, to take decision on not using the word Dalit by media.

3 Government response

  • Government official in center and state will not use the term Dalit in official discourse
  • All type of media should refrain from using the word Dalit
  •  Dalit should be called as schedule caste, according to the constitutional mandate under article 341.

4. Argument in favor for using the term Dalit

Historical causes

  • Troubled past of the community has preferred them to take this term
  • Dalit literally means downtrodden or broken, it reflects the struggle of the community to have rights which they have been denied for centuries.
  • he word Dalit denotes the pain of all those who suffered because of the caste system; it defines their identity

Social causes

  • Dalit is primarily an anti-caste, anti-Brahminical, anti-capitalist, anti-oppression, anti-superstition rebellion.
  • Dalit is a notion of change and revolution for the community.

Constitutional causes

  • The core of humanism, freedom, liberty is strongly reinforced in the word Dalit.
  • It is an expression of self-empowerment.

Judicial pronouncement

  • Supreme Court in S.P. Gupta v. President of India case in 1981 too has used the term Dalit justice
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