What’s Your Ism? Nikita Sonavane on caste origins of modern policing

What are the caste origins of words such as “rowdy” and “goonda” in the police vocabulary? Did India’s caste system help colonial anthropology? What was the role of eugenics in the creation of the country’s modern police force? How do Dalit women negotiate in the savarna-dominated judiciary? And what does it mean to be a ‘creamy layer’ Dalit?

In our latest episode of What’s Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal speaks to Nikita Sonavane, a Dalit feminist lawyer, scholar, and founder of Bhopal-based Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project, about the savarna stranglehold on the judiciary and Brahminical policing. 

Watch. 

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