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Article: LOWER-CASTE INDIANS SAVOR POWER GAINED IN POLITICAL PARTY.(News)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- September 27, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In this poor, muddy village in the heart of the world's largest democracy, Binda Prasad, a burly man whose mustache twirls up in a flourish, tells a story about himself - a story of triumph, humiliation and fighting back.
As hundreds of millions of Indians vote in national elections this month, his parable of village life helps explain why people like him, from the most despised castes, are voting in greater numbers, gaining new influence and turning political calculations upside down as they refine the very meaning of the centuries-old caste system.
His story goes like this:
Four years ago, Prasad, a landless laborer, became the first of his ...