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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

9/ We remember the lives lost and the violence endured. Their memory calls us to continue the struggle for justice, dignity, equality and systems transformation.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

8/ struggle for justice. We remember Surekha, Priyanka, Sudhir and Roshan. We remember Bhaiyyalal. We remember Khairlanji.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

7/ Maharashtra, bringing the Khairlanji incident into a much larger conversation about caste violence and the failures of institutions meant to protect those facing it. Khairlanji remains a painful reminder of caste-based violence, institutional failure and the

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

6/ how Khairlanji itself would be understood. Dalit activists and organisations challenged the early framing of the incident as an ordinary criminal dispute and drew attention to the caste dimension surrounding the violence. The killings also sparked widespread protests in

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

5/ Sudhir and Roshan were dragged from the house and subjected to brutal physical violence before they were killed. Accounts of the case have also documented the stripping and sexual violence inflicted on the women. What followed was not only a legal battle but a struggle over

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

4/ family, had been assaulted following a dispute. Surekha and Priyanka helped him and gave information to the police about those involved. On 29 September 2006, after some of those accused had been released on bail, a mob gathered at the Bhotmange home. Surekha, Priyanka,

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

3/ castes. These were not simply private disagreements. They unfolded within a village where caste shaped access to land, social standing and the ability to assert one's rights. The immediate events before the massacre were also significant. Siddharth Gajbhiye, a friend of the

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

2/ dominant oppressor caste groups in the village. The family cultivated its own land and had built a permanent house, something that became a source of dispute. Surekha had approached the police over incidents involving trespass and harassment on their land by the dominant

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

1/ Khairlanji was shaped by more than a single moment of violence. The Bhotmange family had been living within a deeply unequal caste order in which their attempts to secure land, housing, education and a degree of social autonomy repeatedly brought them into conflict with

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

8/ representation, electoral autonomy, caste, and democratic participation. The history of the Poona Pact ultimately remains part of the larger struggle for Dalit equality, dignity, political agency, and an independent place within democratic politics.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

7/ socially dominant caste groups. The Poona Pact can therefore be understood as a political compromise: it expanded reserved representation but replaced the separate electoral mechanism. Its significance continues beyond 1932 as it raises enduring questions about political

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

6/ themselves, but whether they would have the political autonomy to choose representatives who could independently articulate their interests and challenge caste domination. Under a joint electorate, Dalit candidates had to seek support from a wider electorate that included

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

5/ provincial legislatures. While this expanded the numerical representation of Dalits, it also changed the mechanism through which their representatives would be elected. For Ambedkar, this distinction was significant. The question was not whether Dalits could speak for

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

4/ Gandhi, Ambedkar, and other representatives which resulted in the Poona Pact, 24 September 1932. The Pact replaced separate electorates with reserved seats within joint electorates. It also increased the number of seats reserved for the Depressed Classes in

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

3/ their interests without being dependent on socially dominant groups. Gandhi opposed a separate electorate for the Depressed Classes and began a fast while imprisoned in Yerwada Jail. The fast created intense political and social pressure, leading to negotiations between

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

2/ the Communal Award of 1932, which granted the Depressed Classes a separate electorate. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar supported separate electorates because he believed that Dalits should have the political and electoral autonomy to choose their own representatives who could speak for

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

1/ The Poona Pact was a crucial moment in the history of Dalit political representation in India. At its centre was a fundamental question: how could an oppressed community secure meaningful and independent representation within the political system? The immediate context was

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

4/ Periyar stated, “Whomsoever I love & hate, my principle is the same. That is, the educated, the rich & the administrators should not suck the blood of the poor.” We are grateful for his anti-caste legacy & his passionate battle against gender inequity, poverty, & discrimination.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

3/ Periyar was also a radical feminist who worked tirelessly to eliminate child marriage and encouraged women to actively take part in social justice movements and Indian politics. In many ways, Periyar was a revolutionary far ahead of his time.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

2/ Periyar founded the Self Respect Movement to promote women's rights and eradication of caste. He pressured the Indian government to abolish untouchability and dedicated his movement to the goal of giving caste-oppressed communities a sense of pride in their Dravidian past.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

1/ Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Periyar, a social reformer and activist who fought bravely against gender and caste inequality in Tamil Nadu. Now, Periyar's name and image are now recognized across India as symbols of Tamil Dalit political mobilization.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

8/ Please share this carousel. Someone in your community may need to know that their struggle matters, and that we have a collective responsibility to build something better. We’ve also shared resources in our bio for your organization to join this powerful work. The best way forward is together.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

7/ Demand accountability from institutions. Challenge casteism in our communities. Listen to caste-oppressed people when they tell us what they are experiencing. Care is collective. Dignity is essential. And confronting caste oppression is part of suicide prevention.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

6/ challenging casteism when we encounter it, sharing resources and building spaces where people can belong without having to fight for their dignity. And it means action. Fund Dalit-led mental health initiatives. Create safe spaces for caste oppressed communities.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

5/ Suicide prevention must be more than asking individuals to be resilient in environments that continue to harm them with impunity. It means intentional collective care: checking in, listening without judgment, believing people when they name caste discrimination,

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

4/ This September, we remember them and honor their lives. We demand what should have kept them alive: dignity, safety, and an end to caste apartheid in every institution meant to protect them.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

3/ Not "personal struggles." Not "isolated incidents." The lives of our people in schools, campuses and workplaces are being lost to Caste-based exclusion, humiliation, and violence. Rohith, Payal, Darshan, Anitha, and countless more whose names never made headlines.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

2/ Humiliation, exclusion, harassment, financial barriers, and discrimination in schools, workplaces, healthcare, religious spaces, and our own communities, can take a profound toll. We remember every Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan, and caste-oppressed person we have lost to suicide.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

1/ This September Suicide Prevention Month, we’re naming something too often left out of conversations about mental health: caste. For Dalits, Adivasis, and other caste-oppressed people, distress does not happen in a vacuum.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

6/ In solidarity with Dr. Arday’s family and loved ones, we’ll drop a link in our bio for Great and Unfortunate Things. Jai Bhim Dr. Jason Arday

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

5/ We extend our empathy to his family and deeply appreciate his legacy of normalizing Black neurodivergent excellence. And will continue to work with our colleagues in Academic to hold accountable those who continue to target our people so heinously.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

4/ We call it institutional murder: the relentless pressure imposed on caste-oppressed people in hostile institutions and networks of privilege determined to remove them, no matter how cruel the tactics.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

3/ Politicized investigations into his credentials and scholarship, amplified by a complicit media, subjected him to relentless and needless scrutiny, compounding the pressures that preceded his untimely death. Caste-oppressed communities know this violence well.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

2/ His scholarship confronted race and racism in British education and drew on his lived experience as a neurodivergent Black academic. As the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s history, Arday’s appointment was met with widespread support and with a familiar wave of anti-Black attacks.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

1/ We honor Dr. Arday’s purposeful life and work, within and beyond academia. After earning a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in 2015, Arday became Professor of the Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge, serving from 2023 to 2026.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

7/ yet Ayyankali remained vocal about the need to include women within the anti-caste movement and he encouraged Dalit women to act as equals to their male counterparts. Today, we celebrate Ayyankali and remain grateful for his mission to end caste. Jai Bhim! 💛💙

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

6/ Ayyankali also battled caste discrimination by using traditional Dalit folk music and dance to celebrate the end of the day laboring in the fields. He radically advocated for the rights of women and girls in a time when Dalit women were not even permitted to wear clothing in public spaces,

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

5/ ✊🏾 These workers refused to return to the feudal landlords’ paddy fields until the restrictions were removed and Dalit children were granted access to attend school. ✊🏾 💛💙 Throughout his life,

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

4/ violence broke out and the village school was burned to the ground by a mob. Ayyankali responded to this act of violence by organizing a strike among Kerala’s agricultural laborers–the first strike to be led by the region’s Dalit workers.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

3/ In a time when Dalit children were forbidden from attending school, Ayyankali believed that education should be accessible and available to students of all castes. 📚 Following an attempt by Ayyankali to enroll a Dalit girl in a government school,

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

2/ He resisted caste discrimination by re-claiming public spaces in bold ways, including using roads that were traditionally limited to dominant-caste travelers. By doing so, Ayyankali inspired other Dalit communities to push back against the violence of caste and carry out protests of their own. 💪🏾

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

1/ ✨Today we celebrate Ayyankali, a revolutionary anti-caste social reformer, educator, politician, and economist. ✨ Raised in a Dalit family who were forced to labor on the land of feudal landlords, Ayyankali fought tirelessly to improve the lives of Kerala’s caste-oppressed communities.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

2/ She dedicated her life to studying and supporting social justice movements in India. Her work on caste, gender, democracy, and social transformation continues to inform and inspire. Today we remember a life committed to equality, dignity, and justice.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

1/ Remembering Dr. Gail Omvedt (1941–2021) on her death anniversary. A scholar, writer, activist, and powerful voice against caste oppression, Gail Omvedt, an anti-caste crusader, championed the cause of India’s marginalized communities.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

✨🌼On Phoolan Devi’s birth anniversary, we remember the revolutionary who challenged oppression, patriarchy & violence with defiance & courage. Her life remains a powerful reminder of the resistance of women against oppression & the structures that seek to silence them. 💛

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

2/ We recognize Gail’s tireless work as an Ambedkarite scholar who made enormous contributions to the anti-caste movement.

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

1/ Today we celebrate the birth anniversary of Gail Omvedt, a groundbreaking sociologist & human rights activist who reported on the anti-caste movement, Dalit politics, & the experiences of Indian women.

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Reposted by Equality Labs

CAIR @cairnational.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Pre-register to receive the updated Best Practices for Mosque and Community Safety Guide (soon to be released): bit.ly/community-safety-guide

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

2/ This month, we aren't just celebrating identity—we are honoring the advocates, organizers, and community leaders fighting at the intersections of anti-caste and disability justice. Because liberation means nothing if it doesn't include everyone.✊🏽♿

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Equality Labs @equalitylabs.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

1/ July is Disability Pride Month! ♿✨Disability intersects with caste, class, gender, religion, & the structural systems that shape our daily lives.

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