Hasrat Mohani 2025 Fellow – Khalil Ur Rehaman
Invisible Dalits: Exploring the 1950 Presidential Order and its impact on Dalit Muslims and Christians
Khalil’s research examined the 1950 Presidential Order that prevented reservation provisions for Dalits Muslims and Christians. He investigated the debates in the Constituent Assembly leading up to the decision and the present-day impacts on the Mehtar community in Karnataka. He captured his painstaking fieldwork in a documentary that highlights the lived reality of the 1950 order.
Documentary
This is the culmination of Khalil’s research over the 6 months of fellowship – a one-of-a-kind examination of the lived realities of Dalit Muslim and Dalit Christian communities through historical research, archival analysis and months of fieldwork. If you want to listen to Dalit voices talking about their lives and the Constitutional changes they desire, do give it a watch!
The documentary consists of 4 parts, which will all be uploaded soon. Watch the first part here!
Research Outputs
In this video, Khalil talks about the realities caste hierarchies in Islam, erasure of their caste status due to the 1950 Presidential order and a need for a revision of reservation laws
Based on his fieldwork to a Dalit Christian locality, Khalil writes about the Order of 1950, the urgent need for a revision in the provisions. He talks about how the community is torn between their faith and the caste realities they live through every day, without the recognition of the State – thus, showing the need for a more empathetic and a more inclusive citizenship.