Dalits, Global development, Human rights, India, South and Central Asia, Women's rights and gender equality, World news
Gail Omvedt: US sociologist who ‘lived by her principles’ among India’s poor
The respected academic, who has died aged 80, was a leading anti-caste campaigner and fought tirelessly for women’s rights
At the village of Kasegaon, in India’s rural western region of Maharashtra, huge crowds turned up for the funeral in August of a US-born, white sociologist whom many local people saw as one of their own.
Most of the mourners were Dalits, who belong to the lowest caste in Indian society, previously deemed “untouchables”.