Thurma

“In our streets, there is no snatching and grabbing in the name of dowry and such-like. People make do with what they have...

But among the more educated, nowadays, all this is changing. These people, for some reason, want to copy the upper castes. It's becoming a real problem having to make so many jewels for the bride and giving a lump sum worth so much, on top of that.

Such people can change themselves into a different caste only in these superficial matters, though. Because, whatever we do, whatever rituals we copy from other castes they, for their part, always rate us as beneath them. So what is the point of trying to copy them? Why should we lose all the better customs that are ours, and end up as neither one thing nor the other? It's like forgetting the butter in one's hand and going in search of ghee.”
― Bama, Sangati: Events

“Lying on his hard bed that night, he thought about all he had heard and took a decision. He said later,

I consulted no one. I had about 150–200 acres of well-irrigated farmland at Pasna village; I had some other pieces of agricultural land too—and I decided to donate them all. I stood up at the meeting on the second day and said so. I used to always feel vaguely guilty about owning land.

Returning home to Allahabad, he sent for the tehsildar, seeking a list of all the rural lands he owned in the district, and signed them away to the Bhoodan movement”
― Debashish Mukerji, The Disruptor: How Vishwanath Pratap Singh Shook India

“Behaving like men or obtaining what men have or achieving parity with men was (and still is) not only shortsighted, it was deemed innately oppressive and therefore not in line with Black feminism. After all, the machinations that make what men have and how they historically operate—patriarchy—possible relies on the exploitation of others. The oversight of economic interests as the fundamental guiding principles of how our society has been constructed has had devastating historical consequences.”
― Koa Beck, White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

“Even though they are male, because they are Dalits, they have to be like dogs with their tails rolled up when they are in the fields, and dealing with their landlords, There is no way they can show their strength in those circumstances. So they show it at home on their wives and children. But then, is it the fate of our women to be tormented both outside their houses and within?”
― Bama, Sangati: Events