Bakery Prasad

19 February 2025

Illustrating Black History with Dalit Icons

"Savitribai Phule and Frederick Douglass lived in different worlds, yet their struggles against systemic oppression were strikingly similar. Both confronted societies that preached equality while denying it to millions." writes Bakery Prasad.

"Ayyankali and Rosa Parks, born decades apart in India and US, fought against deeply entrenched systems of caste and racial segregation. While Ayyankali challenged caste-based discrimination in colonial Kerala, Rosa Parks ignited the civil rights movement in segregated America. Both understood that oppression was enforced through social norms and public spaces—and both used acts of defiance in those very spaces to disrupt these injustices."

"Sant Ravidas, a 15th-century Dalit saint-poet, and Audre Lorde, a 20th-century Black feminist writer, both envisioned a world where the marginalized could reclaim dignity and liberation."

"Sojourner Truth and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy were fearless voices who challenged the dominant structures of their time—one in the American fight against slavery and gender discrimination, the other in India’s struggle against caste and Brahmanical patriarchy. Though from different contexts, both used their powerful oratory and radical ideas to dismantle oppression and empower marginalized communities."

"Bama and James Baldwin, writing in different contexts—Dalit oppression in Tamil Nadu and anti-Black racism in America—share a powerful literary and political vision. Both expose systemic injustices and assert dignity in the face of dehumanization, using personal narratives to illuminate collective struggles."