A Quest for Dignity: The Dalit Experience in Nepal

Gulmehar Dhillon Jun 01, 2021

Dalit: A Quest for Dignity is a 2018 visual archive which highlights the pain and struggles of Dalit lives in Nepal. Edited by Diwas Raja Kc and produced by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, the book (emerging from an exhibition in 2016) combines text with photographs—made largely by tourists since cameras in Nepal were prohibitively expensive and difficult to acquire—to depict the brutality and structural injustice that the Dalit community has been subjected to over the course of Nepal’s history.

Published by the Nepal Picture Library run by photo.circle, the book curates photographs of Dalit life and resistance. It is divided into three sections titled “The Toilers of the Land,” “The Sound of the People” and “The Artisans of Freedom.” Each section explores the social, economic and political aspects of being Dalit in Nepal, demanding that the reader see and acknowledge the suppressed voices and histories of Dalit lives.

All images from Dalit: A Quest for Dignity. Kathmandu: Nepal Picture Library, 2018.

Click on the image to view the album

This photograph appears in the introductory pages of the book with the words, “Have the nerve to meet my eyes pious one! Either roast my existence in red hot embers and have the nerve to uphold dharma or rip up the learned pages that humiliate me and have the courage to set them ablaze…” (Kathmandu, 2007. Image courtesy of Jagaran Media Centre.)