Martin Macwan

Martin Macwan (born c. 1959 As a student, he watched assaults and killings of fellow Dalits, which motivated him to become an activist for Dalit rights. Since suffering this tragedy, Macwan has fought to bring the killers, a group of feudal Darbars, to justice. He founded the Navsarjan Trust in 1989 to promote the rights of Dalits, addressing issues of land rights, minimum wages, and women’s rights. In the same year, Human Rights Watch named him one of the year's five "outstanding human rights defenders".

He was also engaged in the bringing together of the Dalit Mithila artists of the godana tradition from Bihar. The godana or tattoo style within the Mithila paintings is practiced by the women of the Dusadh caste of the MIthila region. As Sindalli Thakur says "Macwan's plan was to introduce these painters to the dalit discourse, make them acquainted with icons like Phule and Ambedkar, and inspire them to paint these icons and themes related to caste discrimination. Some of the themes that these artists depicted at Macwan's organization include aspects of B. R. Ambedkar and Phule's life histories, such as the Mahad Satyagraha of 1927: caste discrimination in schools and in the access to public resources like village wells."