Sujatha Gidla on being an Ant amongst the Elephants (Live)

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2017

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sujatha Gidla was an untouchable in India, but moved to the United States at the age of 26 and is now the first Indian woman to be employed as a conductor on the New York City Subway. In her memoir Ants Among Elephants, she explores the antiquities of her mother, her uncles, and other members of her family against modern India’s landscape. Through this book she redeemed the value of her family’s memories, understanding her family’s stories were not those of shame, but did reveal to the world the truth of India and its caste system.

During her conversation with Tyler, they discuss the nature and persistence of caste, gender issues in India, her New York City lifestyle, religion, living in America versus living in India, Bob Dylan and Dalit music, American identity politics, the nature of Marxism, and why she left her job at the Bank of New York to become a New York City Subway conductor.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded October 25th, 2017

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.6	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:28.2	I'm honored here to be chatting with Sujatha.
0:30.9	In my view, her book, And Some Young Elephants, is one of the most important of this year.
0:35.7	Let me start with a simple question of definition.
0:38.3	Define for us all just very quickly.
0:40.8	Dalits, Untouchables, and Scheduled Casts.
0:44.0	And, Harijan, all these words are untouchable, depending on the political era.
0:51.0	Dalit is the latest politically correct term for untouchable, which is also accepted by Untouchables.
0:57.7	And is it correct to say that about one-sixth of India is Dalit?
1:02.4	Now give us an example of segregation through the cast system as it would affect Dalits.
1:07.0	The word is untouchables.
1:08.5	That is the neutral matter of fact, politically neutral word.
1:13.7	And it is all in the word.
1:17.1	They are not to be touched.
1:19.0	If you touch them, you're polluted and you have to cleanse yourself.
1:23.1	And so segregation is the most prominent issue for untouchables.
1:27.5	They are not allowed to live inside the village.
1:30.4	Actually, all casts, they have their own colonies.
	...

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