By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net,
Cambridge, Massachusetts: There is nothing new with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and hacks but what was different about the hackathon last Sunday was that it was led by a group of Dalit activists who were hacking away at Wikipedia to add information about Dalit history.
It was a journey of thousands of years and thousands of miles. For thousands of years Dalit history was either not written at all or history not told by Dalit themselves. JNU student and Dalit activist Sanghapali Aruna, who was here in the US for a tour, told me, “Dalit history is a story of victimization but it should also be a history of resistance. To inspire Dalit youths decided to celebrate April as Dalit History Month.”
Esha Pillay editing a wikipedia entry
Dalit History Month is a brainchild of group of young Dalit activists who felt frustrated at traditional media for not giving them space. They have turned to social media to spread their message. Leading the charge on social media campaign is Thenmozhi Soundararajan who goes by the handle dalitdiva on twitter and facebook.
But don’t imagine it to be just desktop activism, Soundararajan along with Asha Kowtal, Manisha Devi, and others have been part of several pad yatras in the past, covering thousands of miles organizing and mobilizing Dalits for dignity and justice.
Nitin Gujaran, an IT professional in Boston was at the hackathon as well. He said being part of this hackathon was a process of learning for him. “More people need to learn about Dalit history. There is lot of misinformation about Dalits.” He also pointed out that in the talk about development media miss to highlight another reality of India that is very regressive which impact Dalit lives on a daily basis.
Esha Pillay a young professional was staring at her laptop. She was editing “Battle of Koregaon” entry on Wikipedia as part of this hackathon. Dalit soldiers fought on the side of the British and defeated army of Peshwa Baji Rao II. But before Pillay laid her hand on this article, Dalit participation in this battle was not that obvious. She linked it to larger Dalit history by first putting it in the Dalit category then she added more information about Dalit role in this important battle that ultimately led to the end of Peshwa dynasty. Finding references was a challenge, said Pillay, “there is not
enough information available.”
Lack of information is why Dalit History project was launched. A few days ago, Vee Karunakarn who has a PhD in Biology showed me the timeline that is being prepared to showcase Dalit history. It is an interesting collection of information going all the way back to 1500BCE. Still there is lot of information yet to be added e.g. Dalit Muslims or Pasmanda Muslims history and struggle is yet to be documented.
A view of the Hackathon
Manisha Devi from Haryana is a veteran of many struggles and padyatras, she announced yesterday: “I have taken the name Manisha Mashaal to be light of truth and shed light on the violence in our communities.” She is also on a tour of the United States as part of the Dalit History Month, she told me about her meeting with Prof. Cornel West. When asked about why talk about Dalit struggles in the US, she was quick to point out that there are lot of parallel between color and caste based discrimination.
At the end of day-long hackathon, about 30 people learned about adding information to Wikipedia entry expanding information about Dalit history of victimization, resistances, and victories.