LA Brand Receives Flak For Selling ‘Dalit Ring’, Apologises

The company has renamed the product as‘Devi ring’

The ‘Dalit rings’ were priced at 2,000 USD.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

Recently, filmmaker Ronny Sen took to social media to call out a Los Angeles-based brand called ‘Haati Chai’ for selling a product named ‘Dalit rings.’ Sen posted screenshots on his Facebook page. The ‘Dalit rings’ were priced at 2,000 USD.

He wrote, “South Asians in America have made a jewellery product and named it ‘Dalit ring’. It’s a jewellery brand called Haati Chai and they are saying, “The dalit ring has raw unfinished stones, which many don’t find beautiful because they want perfectly finished diamonds. Just like the Dalit caste,(yes you read that right) the Dalit ring is very unique and extremely beautiful.” You can buy a Dalit ring for 2,000 USD.”

This sparked outrage on social media with many users calling out the brand, with many questioning how much of the proceeds from selling ‘Dalit rings’ would actually be going to Dalit communities.

Haati Chai’s Instagram account has been very vocal about the #BlackLivesMatter movement protests triggered in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in the USA. The brand later also took to their social media to respond to the criticism on Twitter.

The post said that the creator meant to bring attention to the struggle of the marginalised community but failed at execution. So, in order to rectify the mistake, the rings have been renamed ‘Devi ring,’ in honour of a Dalit woman warrior - Uda Devi.

The post further added, “We will also be changing the caption of the ring to a more in depth explanation of how important and in my opinion, beautiful the community is.”

The brand also further justified that they weren't able to donate to grassroots organisations in India because, being LA-based, it is difficult for them to vet the same.