Dalit Camera

Dalit Camera is a YouTube channel set up around 2012 by Raees Mohammed (previously Ravichandran Bathran) to document life in India from the perspective of Dalit, Adivasi and Bahujan people and other minorities living in India.[1] It has been described as the first use of videos uploaded on social media to highlight the difficulties faced by Dalit students.[2] They recently announced plans of starting a website to publish news. [3]

Evolution of Dalit Camera

By 2014, Dalit Camera had a 23-member team working with four video cameras. Initially attracting attention in Andhra Pradesh, by then it was also being viewed by significant numbers in the states of Kerala and West Bengal, and was gaining viewers elsewhere in India and worldwide.[4] It has been described as the first use of videos uploaded on social media to highlight the difficulties faced by Dalit students.[5]

Aside from documenting, for example, the reaction of Dalit women to an incident of rape, it has showcased Dalit music and the activist-writer Arundhati Roy,[4] whom it has also criticised.[6] Being online, it by-passes the distribution problems of previous attempts to provide a media outlet for the Dalit people — print publications struggle to survive because sales outlets are often reluctant to be considered associated with the Dalit movement.[4]

Digital censorship

YouTube briefly terminated the Dalit Camera account in January 2017. The channel's page carried a notice that this was due to concerns about copyright infringement, although Ravichandran claimed that "YouTube has never welcomed depiction of content related to Dalit issues. A lot of explicit content is usually uploaded by YouTube but the site has a distaste for videos depicting Dalit and minority issues."[7] There was some speculation that YouTube might have bowed to pressure from Hyderabad Police following the conviction for defamation in December 2016 of some EFLU research scholars who had been featured on the channel. The channel had covered reaction to work posted by Rohith Vemula and his death.[8]

A collection of essays and debates from Dalit Camera has been published as Hatred In The Belly by Round Table India, which is an influential Dalit activist platform.[9]

History

The Dalit Camera YouTube channel was created by Raees Mohammad (previously Ravichandran Bathran) after he had been attacked by a group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad supporters on the campus of English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh,[9] for being a left-wing student leader.[5] He says he started the channel to give a voice to give Dalit movements a voice on the internet because mainstream media doesn't cover their issues. He is a Dalit from the state of Tamil Nadu and has finished his Phd from Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla.[4] [10] The members of Dalit Camera have pooled in money from their own resources to cover stories for their YouTube channel. They also claim to have raised funds from their funds.[11] In order to leave the caste system and 'bury his Hindu identity', Ravichandran Bathran converted into Islam and became Raees Mohammad on 20 January, 2020.[12]

References
  1. Mohammed, Raees (2020-02-05). "Why I converted to Islam and buried my Hindu identity: Dalit Camera founder". ThePrint. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  2. "YouTube channel becomes rallying point for India's Dalits". BBC News. 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  3. Dalit, Camera (9 June 2020). "Dalit Camera's official Twitter page". Twitter. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  4. Mehta, Vanya (7 January 2014). "YouTube channel becomes rallying point for India's Dalits". BBC News. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  5. Chaudhuri, Prasun (1 May 2016). "Posts, hashtags, action". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  6. Shanmugavelan, Murali (16 December 2014). "Arundhati Roy's book on caste rejected by some anti-caste activists". The Independent. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  7. "YouTube flip flop: Dalit Camera taken down, then restored". The New Indian Express. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  8. "Why Has Dalit Camera's YouTube Channel Been Terminated Without Notice?". The Ladies Finger. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  9. Nagpaul, Dipti (31 January 2016). "Write back in anger". The Indian Express. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  10. "Connecting the dots". The Indian Express. 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  11. Banerji, Mahika (2017-10-23). "Interview With Dalit Camera: Eradicating The Dominant Savarna Lens In Media". Feminism In India. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  12. Mohammed, Raees (2020-02-05). "Why I converted to Islam and buried my Hindu identity: Dalit Camera founder". ThePrint. Retrieved 2020-04-23.

Further reading
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