Art by Annika Nawar Ullah. Taken from Media Kit released by Dalit Dreamlands Exhibit.
By Madhavi Rao ’24
Features Editor
Dalit Dreamlands is an art exhibition centering caste abolition, highlighting Dalit artists and centering queer Dalit and Bahujan joy across South Asia and the South Asian diaspora.
The exhibition is a collaborative effort between the Asian American Women Artists Association — or AAWAA — ARTogether, Discostan and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, also known as OACC. It opened its doors on April 6, at the beginning of what has been designated Dalit History Month.
The term ‘Dalit’ refers to the lowest social strata of the Indian subcontinent caste system, while ‘Bahujan,’ a Pali word meaning “the masses,” is an umbrella term used to describe “the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC), as well as religious minorities that together consist of 85 percent of India's population but still divided into 6000 different castes,” according to the Library of Congress.
The Dalit Dreamlands exhibition was conceived by Manu Kaur, a Punjabi Dalit activist, and funded through a grant Kaur received from the Emerging Curators Program of the AAWAA and crowdfunding. The exhibition features 40 artists, performers and activists from multiple marginalizations within the South Asian population, including “Dalit, Adivasi, Bahujan, Afro-Indian, Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Fijian and Muslim communities,” according to a press release by AAWAA.
Photo of Exhibit creator Manu Kaur. Taken from Media Kit released by Dalit Dreamlands Exhibit.
According to the press release, the event “will center queer and trans caste abolitionist futurisms through art across various mediums, including fashion design, music, performance, film, painting and visuals.”
Dalit activists created Dalit History Month — celebrated in April — as “an annual observance celebrating caste-oppressed people’s neglected histories, lives, and contributions,” according to the California Faculty Association. The Dalit Dreamlands collection will be displayed in the OACC and at ARTogether until June 10 and May 16, respectively.
Dalit communities are excluded from the varna system — the hierarchy of castes in South Asia. The varna system is traditionally divided into four ranks: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Dalits face heightened levels of oppression due to their secluded caste positionality. From their marriage prospects to their living situations, to their ability to visit temples, almost every aspect of a Dalit person’s life is affected.
According to Human Rights Watch, “In what has been called India's ‘hidden apartheid,’ entire villages in many Indian states remain completely segregated by caste.”
This culture of segregation and violence is not limited only to South Asian countries. According to Equality Labs, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of caste discrimination within the United States, “1 in 4 Dalit Americans have experienced verbal or physical assault because of their caste; 1 in 3 Dalit students reported experiencing discrimination during the course of their education; 2 out [of] 3 Dalits reported experiencing caste discrimination in their workplace.”
Due to a lack of education in the United States on the caste system, there is a homogenized view of South Asian culture. “South Asians are often perceived as a monolithic group; however, behind this ‘shared brownness’ there is an ancient and deeply violent separation of social classes,” AAWAA said in their press release. “A Dalit dadi’s (grandmother’s) hands tell wildly different stories than those of the matriarch in a caste-privileged family. Dalit Dreamlands is here to tell these stories.”
“Art has always been important throughout South Asia but primarily focuses on higher castes, specifically Delhi centric,” Mooka Dharmapalan ’26 said. “As an Eelam Tamil and Goan born and raised in Oakland it is a joy to see the Dalit community have a space to display their art, artifacts, and narratives.”
In a society that focuses on the suffering of caste-oppressed people, the exhibition deliberately centers joy. Julie ’73 and Helene ’49 Herzig Professor of Art History Ajay Sinha spoke to Mount Holyoke News about the power of conveying joy in art.
Sinha explained that when a group’s experience is equated with their struggles, “suffering becomes a paradigm.”
Photo of DJ Seema Hari. Taken from Media Kit released by Dalit Dreamlands Exhibit.
He further explained that more recently, there has been a shift towards emphasizing the joy of marginalized groups “That joy of being in the skin. The joy of inhabiting this kind of life, and that is a challenge,” Sinha said. “It's not a sentimental idea, but that idea that this body has a capacity for pleasure needs to be emphasized, that itself becomes a political act.”
The exhibition was inaugurated with two opening receptions at each exhibition location on April 6. The opening night was celebrated at the Zindagi Dance Party in Oakland, California. It featured Dalit queer DJs such as Mya Mehmi, a trans Dalit artist based in London, and Seema Hari, a non-binary engineer, artist, producer and activist.
The Dalit Dreamlands Instagram account, @dalitdreamlands, is also spotlighting the artists whose work is currently on display. One of them — Jay Sagathia, or @jaysagathia on Instagram — is a digital artist currently residing in London, originally from Gujarat, India. “Jay creates digital art that reflects his unique style influenced by pop culture and indigenous crafts,” Dalit Dreamlands wrote in a post showcasing his art on March 28.
The post features a series of illustrations made by Sagathia detailing his journey back to India for his grandmother’s funeral. The illustrations, paired with captions, narrate the moment Sagathia realized his grandmother was not awarded traditional funeral rites due to her caste.
“It was a moment of realisation, her caste had followed her to the grave,” the caption reads, accompanying an illustration of his grandmother’s body being lowered into the ground. “Even in her death, she was unsuitable for a crematorium.”
Another artist who set up an installation at the art show, Anika Nawar Ullah, @ko.ko.muni on Instagram, is a Bangladeshi-American and Adivasi/Indigenous Marma transdisciplinary artist. Their work focuses on the “relationships between transnational/intergenerational bodies, identities, memories, trauma, displacement, joy, technology, and living ecologies.” It represents their intersecting identities as a refugee, immigrant and indigenous, through film, photography and material culture.
Ullah’s exhibit at Dalit Dreamlands showcases a suitcase filled with and surrounded by objects, including spice jars, tarot cards, tea, a mortar and pestle and a peacock feather. The suitcase is placed within a shrine of various textiles and images. Their artist description reads that as a “Descendant of 1971 Bangladesh Liberation Movement artist-activist leaders and Adivasi healers, Ullah aspires to embody ancestral visions for liberatory earth healing.”
Sinha elaborated on art and social reform, highlighting the importance of “investing in the idea that there's something important in the art and keep thinking about it. Keep questioning ourselves. Not only seeing what, how they express beauty or joy, but also how they challenge our hidden biases, how they bring to the fore, make visible ... histories of humanity.”
“Even if we ourselves may not be Dalits,” Sinha continued, “We can be co-thinkers or allies or … people who begin to resonate with these marginalized groups and what they're doing and art is pretty good at that. — cCreating that resonance.”
In an Instagram reel, Kaur, the creator of Dalit Dreamlands, stated, “I hope that this allows multiple marginalized folks to feel loved, to celebrate themselves, to feel pride. Because we are often taught to have so much internalized shame. I hope that this just reminds Dalit people that we’re fucking beautiful and we’re powerful, and we’re here, and we’re queer, and I’m just really excited.”