My Dalit Experiences with Balbir Madhopuri

SikhArchive

English - September 12, 2021 14:08 - 1 hour - 165 MB - ★★★★★ - 13 ratings
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Previous Episode: Debating the Dasam Granth with Professor Robin Rinehart

Next Episode: History of the Body in British Colonial Punjab with Nikita Azad

Hi, I’m Sukhraj Singh from Sikh Archive and welcome to the 30th episode of our Podcast series of conversations with historians, authors, academics, researchers and activists on topics related to their areas of expertise on Sikh or Panjabi history.

In this episode we are joined by Balbir Madhopuri who is a prolific author and poet most well known for his auto-biography, Changiya Rukh, which is about his upbringing and life experiences as a Dalit in Punjab.

He has been awarded many achievements for his work, including the LifeTime Achievement Award (2013) by Punjabi Academy, Delhi, Govt. of Delhi and an acknowledgement from the former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who honored Balbir Madhopuri for his contribution to Punjabi literature thanks to his classical writings.

I came across his work and his website whilst researching the topic of Begampura, which he has also written about before, and so I immediately reached out to him. We explore many anecdotes related to his life, his views on Punjab, Caste and Sikhi as well as other talking points such as Dalit history and assertion in Punjab.

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