Dalits
The National Dalit Memorial and Green Garden, which opened recently, stands out. It is dedicated to the historically oppressed Dalit community and was commissioned by one of the few Dalit women to rise to power in India: the former chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati. Dalit is a modern term for a wide cluster of social groups who were historically the lowest of India’s castes – shunned, marginalized and even considered a source of contamination. Historically, being a Dalit – it has replaced the ugly word “untouchable” – triggered social practices intended to segregate and exclude. Though caste-based discrimination is illegal under the Indian Constitution, the social and legal reality is far more complex.