Dalits (ex-Untouchables and those who consider themselves part of the Oppressed) have migrated out of India as have other South Asian communities. Many, however, do not—or cannot—join the general South Asia overseas community. The activists among them are very much connected to the problems of Dalits in India. Efforts to publicize atrocities in the mother country; appeals to the United Nations; panels in academic conferences on Dalit scholarship; celebrations of the birthday of their chief leader, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar; efforts to interact with the black community in the U.S., as well as the more common concerns of education for Dalits in India, including the founding of schools, are among their concerns. This panel will explore various facets of the Dalit Diaspora, ending with a discussant who brings a comparative focus from the Harvard study of "pluralism" in the U.S.

Owen Lynch will give the history of the Birth of VISION—the first Dalit organization, based in New York City and founded by educated Dalits. John C. B. Webster, editor of the Dalit International Newsletter, will discuss the Dalit International Network, which now extends to the United Kingdom, the Caribbean, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates, with a base in India. K. P. Singh will discuss the Dalit activists in the United States, analyzing why some Dalits are exceptionally concerned with Dalit human rights, while others hide their caste, and also whether or not Dalits are treated as equals in the Indian overseas community.

Owen M. Lynch, New York University

In the pre-1960’s era, Dalits in the USA—especially on the East coast—were extremely rare. One of them was Dr. Shoba Singh from Delhi who came here for Ph.D. studies at Johns Hopkins University and subsequently became a leading researcher at Bell Labs. In the early 1970s, he founded VISION (Volunteers in Service of India’s Oppressed and Neglected). Most of its active male members were professionals or highly-skilled technicians who have prospered in the USA. VISION served successfully to weave Dalits, both male and female, into a network of contacts with one another. It also annually celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti at Columbia University and occasionally held summer picnics drawing Dalits even from Canada. More recently, its members have marched before the UN and lobbied in the U.S. Congress to protest human rights violations and other Dalit problems in India to the larger world community. In the late 1980s, a bust of Dr. Ambedkar was installed at Columbia University with some support from VISION. In recent years VISION’s members, having aged and taken on other responsibilities, have been dormant but easily awakened to protest atrocities against Dalits in India.

John C. B. Webster, Dalit International Newsletter

Dalits have been active in organizing and in petitioning for changes in the Indian Situation in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia, as well as in the United States. From close observation and study of the many Dalit organizations, Buddhist and Hindu, in England, and from knowledge gleaned from the many reports sent in to the Dalit International Newsletter from other countries, John Webster will analyze the extent and effectiveness of the international network.

K. P. Singh, University of Wisconsin