Dalit achievers overcome odds even as atrocities against community increase

"History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them” — BR Ambedkar

For the social reformer, there was only one offender that undermined the ethic of the Indian: caste. But then Ambedkar was more than a social reformer; he was also an economist who believed in the virtues of a free economy, globalisation and liberalisation decades before they became realities.

Ambedkar’s battle for the poor, downtrodden and the untouchable convinced him that if there was no equality then the concept of human capital had no meaning. Sixty-nine years after India gained Independence, the concept of human capital is alien to most of the 20 crore Scheduled Caste and 10 crore Scheduled Tribe people.

The good news: A rash of Dalits across the country has successfully convinced themselves that even if equality is still a pipe dream, they can take their economic development into their own hands — and the nation’s economic development as well — via the path of entrepreneurship. Read on to see how enterprise is trumping bad ethics. Or, how (sweat) equity is transcending inequity. But individual endeavours do not mean that society and state can abdicate their responsibility. ET Magazine speaks to activists, writers and filmmakers on what needs to be done for true freedom to come home.

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