India’s Dalits seek to reclaim dignity by pushing back on insulting baby names
- In northwest India, Hindu priests name children from the so-called low caste Dalit community, who are then afflicted for life with sometimes demeaning names
- The House of Dignity movement aims to educate parents who may not be aware of the degrading nature of the names, and recommend alternatives for their babies
In an age-old tradition, Indians in rural areas visit a Hindu priest to select a name for their newborns but Dalits – members of a so-called low caste – in the northwest are rebelling against the demeaning names the priests have been giving their children.
Some of the titles the youngsters in Rajasthan are afflicted with for life include ‘kali’ (black) – lower caste populations tend to be those with darker skin – tolia (stone) and rodi (animal dung).
Other names are not so obviously humiliating but have no meaning and are silly ‘sounds’ intended as a form of mockery.
Harlal Bairwa, 40, who is Dalit, founded the Garima Bhawan (House of Dignity) movement, whereby new rooms built in several villages have their walls covered with lists of hundreds of recommended alternative names and their meanings.
He saw the need for such lists having been dismayed to find demeaning names common in the state’s Chittorgarh district.
“This area is so undeveloped, with so little education and awareness, that Dalit parents didn’t even realise the names were insulting. They just accepted them,” Bairwa said. “We had to make them aware first.”
He had to counter the belief that ‘God’ had bestowed the name via the priest, usually a Brahmin, a member of the so-called highest caste in the system’s four-level hierarchy. Once parents accept they can actually change the name bestowed on their infants, they are encouraged to visit a House of Dignity where they are advised on other names.
Names in India are powerful. About 90 per cent reveal a person’s caste and religion and often the region they come from. Discrimination based on a name starts from birth and can contribute to a person’s fate.
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“If there is no dignity attached to your name, then what chance are you going to have in life? For children to hear themselves being called out, at play, in the classroom, by an insulting name is painful,” said Bairwa.
When a family has selected a new name, he organises a small ceremony in a House of Dignity. Tea and biscuits are served, the parents wear garlands and a gift, usually cash, is handed over for the child. So far, around 200 babies have been through the process.
There has been some backlash from priests, said Bairwa, “who ask us angrily what right we have to take up ceremonies such as naming, which is their domain. They select a name based on astrology and religious texts”.
So powerful is the impact of a name that in 2021 the Dalit Chamber of Commerce proposed the idea of concealing the surnames of the million or so candidates who sit the country’s ultra-competitive, annual civil service exam.
In the state of Maharashtra, the government has been campaigning for years against newborn girls being given belittling names because they are not as welcome as boys.
They include kachrabai (garbage), bhateri (enough), or phasibai (deceiver). Among these epithets, the most common is nakoshi or ‘unwanted’.
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The apparent purpose of ‘unwanted’ is that, if the parents make it clear to the universe, through the name they give a girl, that they are not happy with her gender, then the gods might bestow a desirable boy on them next time.
This is in part because a dowry is still offered in much of India when a young woman marries, which many people cannot afford. Furthermore, as daughters leave home after marriage, for their husband’s homes, they are not seen as a support in old age for their parents.
