Diaspora as Spokesperson and Watchdog: Laxmi Berwa, VISION, and Anti-Caste Activism by Dalits in the United States

Purvi Mehta
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Abstract

Abstract:In 1978, Dalit immigrants in New York and New Jersey came together to form the first anti-caste organization in the United States: Volunteers in the Service of India's Oppressed and Neglected (VISION). A transnational activist organization with a specifically diasporic focus, VISION was created to advocate for India's Dalits. This article analyzes the activism—protest, advocacy, and consciousness-raising—of VISION and one of its chief architects, Dr. Laxmi Berwa. Throughout the 1980s and afterwards, Berwa and members of VISION staged protests at venues large and small, appealed to international human rights organizations, and built cross-racial and ethnic alliances with other minoritized groups, especially African Americans. Their activism was instrumental in increasing the global visibility and awareness of the problem of caste and to building a transnational network of support for India's Dalits. Anti-caste activism also shaped the formation of identity and community abroad; it exposed significant caste-based fissures in the Indian diaspora and revealed alternative ways of being, imagining, and utilizing a diasporic identity from what is often assumed in studies of Indian Americans. This article argues that transnational activism by Berwa and VISION helped constitute a new community in the United States, a community of overseas anti-caste activists, in short, a Dalit diaspora.
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作为发言人和看门狗的散居:Laxmi Berwa、VISION和美国达利特人的反种姓行动
摘要:1978年,纽约和新泽西的达利特移民共同成立了美国第一个反种姓组织:印度被压迫和被忽视的志愿者服务组织(Volunteers In the Service of India’s oppression and Neglected,简称VISION)。VISION是一个特别关注流散人群的跨国活动组织,旨在为印度的达利特人争取权益。本文分析了VISION及其首席设计师之一Laxmi Berwa博士的行动主义——抗议、倡导和意识提升。在整个20世纪80年代及之后,Berwa和VISION成员在大大小小的场所举行抗议活动,向国际人权组织呼吁,并与其他少数群体,特别是非洲裔美国人建立跨种族和族裔联盟。他们的行动有助于提高全球对种姓问题的关注和认识,并建立了一个支持印度达利特人的跨国网络。反种姓运动也影响了国外身份和社区的形成;它揭示了印度侨民中基于种姓的重大裂缝,揭示了存在、想象和利用印度裔美国人研究中经常假设的移民身份的另一种方式。本文认为,Berwa和VISION的跨国行动帮助在美国建立了一个新的社区,一个海外反种姓活动家的社区,简而言之,一个流亡的达利特。
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