Caste system in India – the four-fold varna system- was arranged in a stringent rather rigid hierarchy, the highest caste being that of the Brahmins. Other castes included the nobility and the military, the mercantile class, and the farmers. Those not included in the caste system were quite literally ‘outcasts’ and deemed ‘untouchables’, whose very touch, even their shadow, was detested and avoided like plague. Outcastes were subjected to unspeakable social humiliation, and they barely had the right to life. . The irony of the situation was, while they were burdened with the scavenger’s duty of keeping human habitat clean, their bodies – their touch, their shadows – were codified as unclean, defiled, and contaminated. The term ‘Dalit’, derived from the Sanskrit word, ‘dalita’, which is used to designate these outcastes literally translates into ‘the oppressed’ – a fitting nomenclature for a population of people who have been at the receiving end of mindless upper caste brutality for ages. In the 19th century, setting an exemplary mechanism of revolt, a sect of these people called Ramnami, tattooed their bodies and faces with the name of the Hindu God, Ram (राम). This was a disruptively bold act, given that outcastes were barred from entering temples, although they were the ones who kept the temple precincts clean.

Since the middle of the 20th century, under the aegis of colonial rule, the country has enacted several laws and taken social initiatives to protect and improve the socioeconomic conditions of its lower caste population. Mahatma Gandhi’s renaming of ‘untouchables’ as ‘Harijan’ (meaning, people of the God) gained some political currency before the independence. However, Gandhi’s endeavour of appropriating the Dalits into the Hindu caste-fold was contested by Dr. B R Ambedkar, who thought it was important to recognise Dalits as an independent community, outside the Hindu caste-system. In any case, little has changed so far. The caste-system is not dead yet, although it has been outlawed. Caste-based prejudices are rampant and the cycles of poverty inherited from that system persist. In fact, casteism is so inextricably ingrained in people’s mind that despite conscious-raising programmes across the country, the hierarchical power relation between the ‘caste’ Hindus and the outcastes has not essentially changed. Instances of casteist violence in both urban and rural sectors fill newspaper columns even today.

Till this day, the Ramnamis worship, and sing and dance the praises of Ram. They have faith in the power of his name and recite and swear by the holy Ramayana, a scripture that combines ethical values with the spiritual beauty of poetry. They neither maintain a temple nor worship an idol. However, the population of the Ramnami Samaj is shrinking due to the socio-economic approach of the newer generations and as a result, a group, once prominent in the society, is on the verge of extinction.