Rajni Tilak

Tilak died on 30 March 2018 at the age of 59 at St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi. She had been taken to the hospital for treatment for an illness of the spine. She is survived by her daughter- actor, artist, activist and writer Jyotsna Siddharth.

In 2011, the Bollywood film Aarakshan (directed by Prakash Jha) caused controversy, as the director was alleged to have insulted Dalits. Tilak was asked to view the film before its release. In 2012, she was part of a coalition of Dalit and non-Dalit writers, scholars, and activists who petitioned the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to correctly represent the role of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in school textbooks.

In the 1980s, Tilak started a union with Bharthiya Dalit Panthers in Delhi. They opened a Dalit theatre group called Ahahwan and started a students' awareness programme by establishing a youth study circle.

Rajni Tilak (27 May 1958 – 30 March 2018) was one of the most prominent Indian Dalit rights activists and a leading voice of Dalit feminism and writing. She served as the Executive Director of the Centre for Alternative Dalit Media, co-founded the National Association of Dalit Organisations, and served as President of the Dalit Lekhak Sangh (Dalit Writers' Group).

Tilak was born in Old Delhi, India on 27 May 1958 in a family with limited means. Her father was a tailor whose ancestors had migrated to Delhi from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Being the first of seven children, she had to give up on her aspiration of becoming a nurse due to lack of financial support and took up a job to aid her family. She had an early interest in writing, expressed by writing a poem called “Ka Se Kahu Dukh Apna” as her first poem. After completing her higher education in 1975, she joined ITI (Industrial Training Institute) for vocational courses like stenography, cutting and tailoring.