India, June 29 -- Penance for killing an untouchable is the same as penance for killing a dog, bear, frog, crow, or owl (Mahabharata 12.165.56; Agni Purana 169.25-32).

O Hindu,

That sentence Is an acid poured On the soul.

It eats through generations Through lullabies whispered In fear, Through the young Dalit boys learning To bow before they learn To stand, Through Dalit girls taught To make themselves smaller Than a footprint.

Ontological wound: When a people are told, From birth to death, From Hindu to Muslim, From shastras to fatwas, From census to courtroom, That their very being Is pollution.

Yet even here, Inside the deepest cut, Something resists.

The Dalit boy Who was forced To eat your excreta Grows up to spit truth Into a...