//The dust of the Grass-roots and the Disturbance from the Margins
Bon AppetitMarch 14, 2018

The dust of the Grass-roots and the Disturbance from the Margins

This insightful book has deep messages that are simple, universal and compelling. The author invites us to experience our cultures, society and organisations from the perspective of the underprivileged, and thereby to understand the social, economic and political biases that cause and entrench discrimination and inequality.

Each chapter starts with a story of his experiences of living and working with Dalits, (or what he calls the “Other”), a story of their struggles and failures, and his. He then goes on to reflections about human limitations and possibilities. And the possibilities encompass a great deal of hope!

Part One of the book explores what poverty is in the broadest sense: the ideological worldviews of caste, neo-liberalism and patriarchy. His experience of interacting with the Other forced him to locate his own faith and worldview in the real poverty of the Dalits, and in doing so it changed both.

Part Two explores “the Other World”. He learnt to feel their disadvantage, their social dispossession and political voicelessness. To do this required letting go of many perspectives and beliefs – but such letting go was to be the seed of much personal growth. He learnt from them a lot about simplicity, about another possible life-style, about Mother Earth, about the Gospel.

Part Three explores the author’s very personal challenges, the need to take sides with them, to advocate for and with them. He learnt that to stand with them, besides helping them, was a means of authentic human living, one that transforms the life of the giver through self-knowledge of “the real person without the props and masks.”

Part Four explores visible signs of hope (for the Other and for Us, the privileged) resulting from such interaction with the Other.

This book disturbs the “dust” – a metaphor for poverty, injustice and the human systems that create it, and our complacency which allows it. It disturbs the readers into reconsidering their own perspectives and beliefs. Nonetheless, it is a gentle read. The author exemplifies humility and thoughtfulness and conveys the joy of inclusion and being included!

  • Ken Pritchett

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