Shivam Vij meets a Dalit economist…

But does caste discrimination really exist in urban India? Mungekar gets up and leaves the room, to return with the morning paper and points at the headline: “Honour killing in Delhi? Dalit youth killed for marrying Jat.” He asks, “Do you think there would be murder for inter-caste marriage between a Brahmin and a Jat? When it comes to dalits, there is a hatred deep inside. The rot is in our society. It’s called the caste system.”

…and a political scientist.

And predictable he is not. “The farmers committing suicide in Vidarbha,” which is where he hails from, “as well as the rest of India, are largely OBCs. As corporates move into agriculture it could only get worse. This could well prove to be the UPA’s undoing.” The crisis could provide lower OBCs an opportunity to break away from the Hindu sphere and join hands with the Dalit movement, he says, finally putting the longstanding project of Dalit-Bahujan unity on a high-speed track.

Shivam may not get something like the Yashbharti for introducing us to these remarkable individuals through his series of interviews…but I offer him my sincere thanks.