Many people know that throughout human history, people have been mistreated and thought of as less than human. Gaurav Pathania, professor of Sociology here at Eastern Mennonite University, wants more people to know about one system that not many have heard enough about yet,the Caste system. Pathania has been a professor here at EMU for about two years, and before that was a visiting professor here for a little while and worked with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP). Pathania said that before working with CJP he had never heard of EMU before or even Mennonites for that matter. Before he started working with EMU he was an anti-Caste activist. Pathania said that, “the reason why I started pushing against the Caste system is because I am from the outcast Caste, also known as the untouchables, also known as the Dalit.” Pathania said that, “the untouchables are the lowest of the low in the caste system.” When asked if he  could compare the treatment of slaves in the US to the treatment of the Dalit in India, Pathania said, “to a certain extent yes, but at the same time the Dalit were almost treated worse, because in the US slaves were treated as property and owned by people which is awful, but at the same time they still had a monetary value attached to them. The Dalit had no value whatsoever; they would be used then just tossed away like trash.” With all of his work that he has been doing recently fighting against the caste system, one of his friends said that he should try to publish in a big paper. Pathania decided that was a good idea and reached out to the Boston Globe to write an article for them about this and they agreed. After he wrote his article, PBS reached out to do an interview, which he did  some time in early March. Pathania said that he was not nervous for the Boston Globe or the interview because it was on a topic that he loved and was passionate about. He said that he has never done an interview like PBS before, but he has written for papers in the past. Pathania said that he had written for the Indian National Newspaper before, and that the Indian National Newspaper probably reaches more people, but just in the Indian subcontinent. On the other hand the Boston Globe probably reaches less people but over a bigger area and more diverse group of people. 

One of the people that Pathania said that he looks up to is Ambedker, who is known as the father of the Indian constitution, and was an untouchable just like Pathania is. One thing that Patania said is important is to show the newer generation of people of Indian descent, especially those living in the US that the Caste system is still alive and it is thriving, but it is just more hidden than before. One thing that Pathania said that seemed very impactful was a quote from Isabel Wilkerson: “Caste is the bones, race is the skin, and class is the clothing.”