The upsurge in atrocities against Dalits in recent years has punctured the claims of all round development by Indian rulers as they celebrate the 70th year of independence. The institutional murder of Rohith Vemula and the heinous atrocity against the Dalit youths in Gujarat by Hindutva cow vigilantes and many other oppressive incidents against Dalits across the country makes it clear that the Dalits belonging to poor and working class are the main targets of the Brahmanical fascist onslaught. It is against this backdrop that we are organizing a discussion on the annihilation of caste which any justice-loving person must aspire for.

Though attempts toward annihilation of caste have been made since the colonial era, with significant contributions from social reformers like Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar and the working class and communist movements too gave prominent place to annihilation of caste on their agenda, the sad truth is that such attempts have so far not been proven to be effective in so far as the annihilation of caste is concerned. It is high time we made a critical appraisal of the past attempts and came up with a comprehensive plan of action which should not only have a long term vision but also some immediate action points.

As part of a radical solution to the caste question we need to go to the roots and find out the scientific explanation of the origin of caste, how it evolved in different phases in Indian society and why does it continue to prevail in the Indian society which has undergone a transformation from a semi-feudal to a capitalist social formation in recent decades. We need to ask: which are the forces benefitting from the continued existence of caste and whose interest is it serving? Only then we can find out a comprehensive project of caste annihilation.

We will try to find answers to these questions in our discussion on the topic ‘Is Annihilation of Caste Possible?’ on Sep 6, 2016 in Lamakaan, Hyderabad. You are all welcome to join the discussion!