V T Rajshekar’s death, on 20 November, 2024, though at the age of 93, saddens me deeply in one sense, but allows me to celebrate his life and legacy. He was a friend and a guide of courage and confidence for activists and writers like me across India and beyond. Because of him my book Why I am Not a Hindu got the London Institute of South Asia (LISA) award in 2008. He personally attended the award ceremony in the Westminster House of Parliament (British Parliament) followed by my lecture. We spent a very good time in London discussing world politics and eating together.
He wrote a fine review and made that book popular among his Dalit Voice readers even before I knew him and his journal. He was a man who can open up an immediate quarrel on issues of disagreement, but at the same time reconcile to friendship when topics shifted to agreeable areas. His unwavering stand on Dalit liberation, having come from a Kannada Shetty community, which is also known as Bunt, with a solid journalistic background, with a work experience in The Indian Express is truly remarkable. He remained with Dalitist commitment till his death. No upper Shudra intellectual, leave alone of his generation, even now emerged as such an anti-untouchability and pro-Dalit liberation campaigner.
He said that after he left The Indian Express and started “The Dalit Voice” he lost all his middle class upper caste friends. He managed the writing, printing and distribution of that journal single handedly from his own house in Bangalore.
He turned to Dalitism much before the Mandal silent revolution began. At that time there was no Post-Ambedkar Dalit English reading and writing scholarship. The word Dalit was just becoming noticed only in some media circles because of Dalit Panther Marathi literary movement. Maybe because he was also in Bombay city as a reporter, he immediately understood the importance of popularizing that word ‘Dalit’ by starting a journal itself. But for a Kannada upper Shudra Shetty to take that decision and face the social isolation, particularly in his journalist circles, must have been a torturous course.
Imagine in a Pre-Mandal situation to start an English journal with that title leaving a lucrative journalist job was something unique. As recently as 2024 when Rahul Gandhi asked how many journalists are from Dalit/OBC/Adivasis, in that conference nobody raised a hand. In a national press conference, that too by a major opposition political leader, in the presence of foreign media, this was the situation. VTR must have been the lone Shudra in English journalist Brahminic world to break that cordon of casteism in popular media of the nation. He left Indian Express with frustration because of the casteism in the mainstream media, as he told me, to start a radical Dalit journal to fight his opponents.
He never compromised with the upper caste journalism of India. His articles never appeared in any national English newspaper after he started The Dalit Voice. Whenever there was a discussion about the Indian media he immediately became abusive of its casteism. He used to say that all upper caste Indian newspapers are “Toilet Papers’. When he found out I was writing in national newspapers he would tell me “do not sell your ideas to upper caste people, they do not change”. Of course I would smile and leave it there, as I believed in engaging and writing as much as possible in the mainstream media. Till his death our friendship continued with warmth, in spite of such differences.
His idea of Dalit-Muslim unity was more cemented one than the idea of Dalit-OBC unity. He would say OBCs would go with RSS/BJP more than Dalits do. Though he did not become Muslim himself, was a strong supporter of Islam as a religion.
His trips to Pakistan caused his passport impounding for quite some time. He was a strong anti-Zionist. Repeatedly wrote articles against Jews.
His silence became louder after he shifted from Benguluru to Mangalore because of health reasons in the last days of his life. However, he kept traveling till into his late 80s. The last time I met him was when he came to attend the protest meeting against the institutional killing of Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad Central University in 2016. Unfortunately he was not allowed to enter the campus. Yet he stood protesting for a long time at the gate. That was his commitment to Dalit cause.
A man who always wore khadi kurta and pyjama, would look like a typical Kannada Congress politician. But he was a real converted Dalit intellectual.
Early this year Paul Diwakar and a team digitalized Dalit Voice and they asked me to be there at the Bengaluru Indian Social Institute while the website was being inaugurated, but unfortunately I could not go. However that happened when this legendary Dalit was alive.
It is not possible to think another Rajshekar would emerge who could convert like him from a Shudra upper caste to Dalitism and fight all his life for their liberation. His Dalit Voice was known all over the world—particularly in Africa and in several Muslim countries.
Since he left this land after such a long life, having lived for the cause of liberation of the most oppressed in the world, we need to celebrate VTR’s life, ideas and writings as long as we are also alive. Good by VTR.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author.
