Nayana Jhawar responds to person questioning her for Satyanarayana Pooja

Nayana Jhawar, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Mudigere constituency posted on X, formerly known as twitter about having celebrated the Satyanarayana Pooja on August 18th. 

Sudipto Mandal, Executive Editor with The News Minute responded to this. “This is so heartbreaking. What is the need for an elected rep to keep displaying their religious affiliations? And it is personally crushing because the leader also happens to be a Dalit. What can Hindu Dalits possibly offer in terms of social change,” he said. 

Nayana Jhawar responded to this by saying, “It’s heartbreaking for me to realise that everyone needs to be boxed in a particular manner abt their identity & your interpretation of “Hindu dalit” may not be mine. I wear and display a whole lot of affiliations that I identify with including my Dalit identity with equal ease.” 

It’s heartbreaking for me to realise that everyone needs to be boxed in a particular manner abt their identity & your interpretation of “Hindu dalit” may not be mine. I wear and display a whole lot of affiliations that I identify with including my Dalit identity with equal ease.

— Nayana Jhawar /Nayana Motamma (@NayanaJhawar) August 19, 2023

The argument however did not end there. Sudipto responded to this statement by saying, “Madam, the anti caste movement is about breaking out of boxes. I wish you well and hope that you will discover not just the writings but also the import of Ambedkar's thoughts some day. Until then you will be just another Dalit who won from a reserved constituency.”

Nayana Jhawar was also persistent in her stand and said, “Stop schooling me on the anti-caste movement & Ambedkar’s writings.I am aware I am born out of it.For me ppl like you want to define a narrative where “Dalit identity” is paused in a particular period.Move on,wake up & smell the coffee.I chose to be a Dalit for this generation.” in response to Sudipto Mandal’s retort. 

The argument extended for a while and brought to the forefront a relevant discourse about the intersection of caste-based and religious identities.