The battle for Dalit pride

Persecuted by the Peshwas, infamous for their high-caste orthodoxy, the Dalits seized the opportunity and started enlisting with the British East India Company when it began recruiting for the Bombay

“This column is erected to commemorate the defence of Corigaum (Koregaon) by a detachment commanded by Captain Staunton of the Bombay Establishment which was surrounded on the 1st of January 1818 by Peshwas and withstood throughout the day a series of most obstinate and sanguinary assaults of his best troops.” The marble plaques in English and Marathi, adorning the four sides of the obelisk, go on to declare that it was “one of the proudest triumphs of the British army in the East”.

The memorial, just off a busy highway toll-collection booth, is not merely a colonial reminder though, but an