The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition

Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Nov 2022 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

About this audiobook

For readers of Caste and Radical Dharma, an urgent call to action to end caste apartheid, grounded in Dalit feminist abolition and engaged Buddhism.

“Dalit” is the name that we chose for ourselves when Brahminism declared us “untouchable.” Dalit means broken. Broken by suffering. Broken by caste: the world’s oldest, longest-running dominator system...yet although “Dalit” means broken, it also means resilient.
    Despite its ban more than 70 years ago, caste is thriving. Every 15 minutes, a crime is perpetrated against a Dalit person. The average age of death for Dalit women is just 39. And the wreckages of caste are replicated here in the U.S., too--erupting online with rape and death threats, showing up at work, and forcing countless Dalits to live in fear of being outed.
    Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts forth a call to awaken and act, not just for readers in South Asia, but all around the world. She ties Dalit oppression to fights for liberation among Black, Indigenous, Latinx, femme, and Queer communities, examining caste from a feminist, abolitionist, and Dalit Buddhist perspective--and laying bare the grief, trauma, rage, and stolen futures enacted by Brahminical social structures on the caste-oppressed.
    Soundararajan’s work includes embodiment exercises, reflections, and meditations to help readers explore their own relationship to caste and marginalization--and to step into their power as healing activists and changemakers. She offers skills for cultivating wellness within dynamics of false separation, sharing how both oppressor and oppressed can heal the wounds of caste and transform collective suffering. Incisive and urgent, The Trauma of Caste is an activating beacon of healing and liberation, written by one of the world’s most needed voices in the fight to end caste apartheid.

Ratings and reviews

Generalising the oppression of Dalits as 'brahminical' agenda is certainly not the present day reality. The affirmative initiative of the Government post independence has largely brought them to mainstream. No doubt repressive practises do take place in some rural pockets. More importantly brahmins-numerically smallest minority do not call the shots in any area. To keep harping on the present generation for acts of their ancestors seems out of place.

This book is a moving examination of what it means to live with and respond to casteism. Thenmozhi combines a critical examination of casteism with a fierce, abolitionist love. As an Indian-American savarna, I am thankful to have the opportunity to read her work to help build a future free of caste apartheid. Let's all read, discuss, and engage with this book as much as we can. Jai Bhim!

One of the most beautiful books I've read!! A very accessible and an emotional read that made me cry multiple times! A very heart-touching book full of so much power!!! It is written so prophetically and brought tears to my eyes multiple times. A very powerful reflection and an urgent must-read especially in the current moment where India is on multiple genocide watch lists and we are witnessing a rise of right-wing authoritarianism across the world!

About the author

THENMOZHI SOUNDARARAJAN is a Dalit American artist, community organizer, technologist, and theorist. She is the co-founder and ED of Equality Labs, the largest Dalit civil rights organization. Her work has been recognized by the White House, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Museum of Contemporary Art and The Sorbonne.