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It's a reference to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a Dalit icon and the architect of India's constitution, while Sherni means lioness in Urdu.

"I look upon Ambedkar as a father figure. So, I am my father's lioness," she says.

"I started educating myself about Ambedkar's teachings and caste politics, slowly I found a whole community of like-minded Dalits online," she told me.

A resident of Ambedkar Nagar, a low-income settlement in the shadows of the lavish headquarters of multiple global software companies in Bengaluru’s Whitefield neighborhood, Muthuvel is normally reliant on piped water, sourced from groundwater.

Mr. Bezwada said his politics were shaped by the architect of India’s Constitution, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who himself belonged to Mr. Bezwada’s Dalit caste.