Dalit
marginalized communities in the South Asian caste system
Dalit (English: /ˈdælɪt/, Hindi: [d̪əlɪt̪] from Sanskrit: दलित meaning "broken/scattered"), also called Harijans (Hindi: [ɦəɾɪdʒən]) is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represent the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy in Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama.
Several scholars have drawn parallels between Dalits and the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea and the peasant class of the medieval European feudal system.
Dalits predominantly follow Hinduism with significant populations following Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam. The Constitution of India includes Dalits as one of the Scheduled Castes; this gives Dalits the right to protection, affirmative action (known as reservation in India), and official development resources.
Terminology
The term Dalit is for those called the "untouchables" and others that were outside of the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy. Economist and reformer B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said that untouchability came into Indian society around 400 CE, due to the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism. Some Hindu priests befriended untouchables and were demoted to low-caste ranks. Eknath, who was an excommunicated Brahmin, fought for the rights of untouchables during the Bhakti period.
In the late 1880s, the Marathi word 'Dalit' was used by Jyotirao Phule for the outcasts and untouchables who were oppressed and broken in the Hindu society.
“Dalit” enters the record as marginalized communities in the South Asian caste system. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dalit, marginalized and communities can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Dalit” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dalit, marginalized and communities provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q219517. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1891 and 1956.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dalit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.