Shailaja Paik recently became the first Dalit scholar to receive the prestigious McArthur Fellowship. And also the target of vitriol from dominant caste Indians.

The Hathras case, as it became known both in national and international media, played out in the exact same fashion as other cases of violence against Dalits, especially Dalit women, play out across the country.

Those like Roshmita Harimurthy and Radhika Vemula shattered public myths of what Dalit women could do, look like or mean.