“I call this country ‘Jaati Bharat’. I have seen serial killings based on caste. I have heard stories of abuse and oppression based on caste. I have lived that oppression.”
Huchangi Prasad comes from a family of Devadasis. As a kid, he worked as a daily wage labourer until child labour was banned and he got the opportunity to educate himself. He learnt to read and write. Later he began participating in left and dalit politics. He started speaking about the plight of his people. He became a writer and an activist.
Huchangi teaches at the Government First Grade College, Davanagere, Karnataka. He hasn’t received his salary for over six months due to the pandemic and has to work as an agricultural labourer to make ends meet.
But his battle against those who do not respect the constitution; who sow seeds of communal hatred; who are apathetic to the reality of dalit lives, will go on.
Look, this is not blood we shed
but ink, fresh and indelible,
writing the history of truth.
Every drop of blood now reborn
into a thousand truths.
