Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi shared a video on X on Monday in which he is seen cooking and enjoying a meal with Ajay Tukaram Sanade and Anjana Tukaram Sanade, members of the Dalit community.
Rahul Gandhi quoted author Shahu Patole in his tweet, “No one knows what Dalits eat.” Gandhi stated that his curiosity about what Dalits eat, how they cook, and the social and political significance of the Dalit cuisine urged him to spend an afternoon with the Sanades. Together, they prepared Harbharyachi bhaji, a vegetable of chickpea greens and tuvar dalwith brinjal.
Gandhi discussed the Sanade family’s experience with caste-based discrimination and the lack of awareness about the Dalit cuisine in his tweet. He spoke of the need for the proper documentation of Dalit culture and the necessity of providing true inclusion and equality.
Rahul Gandhi has, in the past, as the leader of the opposition, voiced out the need for a caste census vehemently. During his recent USA visit, he also averred that caste-based reservations should only be done away with when there is complete equality in India. This was undoubtedly an opposition to the silent anti-quota mindset of the ruling party. The ruling party retorted by maneuvering Gandhi’s statements to accuse him of being anti-reservation. This video comes out to solidify and clarify that the Congress’s pro-quota ideology is intact as ever.
Rahul Gandhi’s visit and his post make important contributions to the conversation on caste in an India where eating at a Dalit individual’s home is considered to make an upper-caste person impure. His post dispels deeply entrenched historical notions of impurity and upper-caste superiority.
