According to available details, EV Ramasamy Naikar Periyar came to Uttar Pradesh in 1944, 1959 and 1968. In 1944 and 1959, he came to Lucknow to address the Sammelan of Backward and Untouchables of Uttar Pradesh. No details of his 1944 program are available. Regarding his arrival in Lucknow in 1959, a picture of Dr. Chhedi Lal Sathi, the then[Read More…]
It is the historical speech of Dr. Ambedkar which discusses the reasons for the failure of the Justice Party and the shortcomings of the Dravidian movement As far as I have been able to study, the advent of the Non-Brahman Party has been an event in the history of India. Many people had been able to realize that the fundamental[Read More…]
At present, the entire country is discussing the remarks made by Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, in a meeting about Sanatana Dharma. In this, he has criticized the caste discrimination and system of high and low prevalent in Sanatan Dharma, compared it to a disease and has talked about eliminating it. BJP has projected it[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar is often recognized as the saviour of Dalits, while he fought for the rights of all downtrodden classes, Dalits and Backwards. But because of the varna system, the backward castes that are Shudras consider themselves higher on the social ladder than the untouchables (Dalits). According to one definition, backward castes are Shudras, and Dalit castes are extreme Shudras.[Read More…]
A 17-year-old Dalit student Chinnadurai, and his 14-year-old sister were attacked with sickles, at 10:30 pm on August 9 at his house, by six minors in Nanguneri in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. When his younger sister came to save him, she too was hacked. Both victims were undergoing treatment at the Nanguneri government hospital. When the neighbours gathered, the assailants[Read More…]
Caste system is not federal. It is in a unitary because of its hierarchical nature. The castes are separate but not independent or equal. It is one caste centric and that caste is Brahman. It is above all the castes. Its position is superior to all the castes. It is not only on the top of the hierarchy of the[Read More…]
Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) is shocked by the decision of a masjid committee in Kerala asking a Dalit Muslim to stay away from a general meeting on the ground that “traditionally your ancestors were prohibited from attending the general meeting” (https://sabrangindia.in/casteism-in-the-kerala-muslim-community-dpjc-strongly-objects/). There is no concept of caste in the religion of Islam but evidently caste and caste-based discrimination[Read More…]
Migration has played a crucial vital role in the development and evolution of humankind. Exchange of idea’s, knowledge, cultures, food, medicines, economics….. religion, philosophy, and ideologies etc together contribute to this process. Conquest and War, Trade and Commerce and Ecology and Environment were principal reasons for people to migrate in earlier history. Today, it has been replaced with opportunities of[Read More…]
Dr. Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar first hinted at religious conversion during the Mahad Talab Satyagraha in 1927 when he said, “We want equal rights in society. We will achieve as far as possible by remaining in Hindu society or if necessary, by kicking this useless Hindu identity.” In the beginning, Dr. Ambedkar tried his best to reform Hindu society. He[Read More…]
Ambedkarite movement is a term most Dalits, Bahujans, Activists, Academia from Social Sciences and Political fraternity are aware of. This has been and will be used abundantly in their writings, speeches, slogans etc. No one can in totality define ‘Ambedkarite Movement’ but one surely knows what it means in their respective domain. Having travelled enough, after meeting abundance of activists,[Read More…]
On the eve of the birthday of the towering Indian scholar and undisputed Dalit leader, South Asian activists gathered in Surrey to light the pyre of a racist text that sanctions the brutal case system. Manusmriti is an orthodox Hindu doctrine that divides society in four caste groups, and discriminates against the so called untouchables or Dalits. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar,[Read More…]
On 14th April 2023, I had an opportunity to meet and listen to Prof Scott R. Stroud at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar Mumbai. He has recently authored an amazing book, “The Evolution of Pragmatism in India” and was speaking about the same. With a mind captivated by the contents of the talks, combined with a zeal due to[Read More…]
The decade of 1990s has marked by the growth of Mandal and Kamandal politics. It was also the period when global effects of popular culture had spurred the Indian viewership pattern and the transnational flows of goods, information technology, media culture, people, markets, and cinema have created new dimensions of understandings. Diasporas, pop songs and advertisements became significant baseline[Read More…]
The nation concept is an 18th century phenomenon. The ‘state’ and ‘nation’ are not synonymous terms. According to one definition, “the state is a political and geopolitical entity, while the nation is a cultural and ethnic one.’ Thus, the nation has a racial tone. But not all accept this definition. Some say it consists of a merger of state and[Read More…]
Rajneesh Kumar Ambedkar, a PhD scholar at Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi VishwaVidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra, India, has been sitting on a satyagraha at the university campus. He was forced to go on strike after the university administration failed to address his grievances. Ambedkar has alleged that he is being victimized by the university administration because of his Dalit identity. Narrating his[Read More…]
The recent death of the first year dalit undergraduate student, Darshan Solanki, has once again raised the question of the caste discrimination and related biases on the IITB campus. The institutions and support system that the Institute has built over the years in order to deal with the mental stress and the caste related discrimination have rightly come under the[Read More…]
[Sunil Kashyap, a staff writer at The Caravan, spoke with Dr Indu Chowdhary, an assistant professor in Banaras Hindu University’s English Department, founder of Bahujan Shakti Mission, regarding Bahujan Movement. Excerpts:] Sunil Kashyap: What is the Bahujan Shakti Mission? What kind of work is it doing? Indu Choudhary: The name is self-explanatory. Kanshi Ram taught us the word ‘Bahujan.’ Scheduled Castes, Scheduled[Read More…]
by Sanjana Sree Manusanipalli and Sandeep Pandey The city is supposed to be the place where anyone can be anything they want to be. They say in a city like Hyderabad, there are no feelings of caste, class or religion. Everyone is supposed to be equal. Sociologists have also believed that urbanisation could signal the end of the caste system.[Read More…]
Lot of discussion and writing is happening in India about anti-caste laws and rules getting framed in America, the dream land of Dwijas of India. Several Hindutva intellectuals are telling stories about their love for Dalits without telling anything about how their forefathers created this barbaric system, which is now getting globalized and how they want to participate in abolishing[Read More…]
Recognizing the historic move of banning caste-based discrimination by a Seattle City Councillor, Vancouver-based online magazine has decided to pick her as person of the year. Kshama Sawant, the lone Indian-American member of the Seattle City Council, has been known for her unwavering dedication to social justice. She has consistently stood up for the underdog, including the poor working class[Read More…]
Seattle, WA (February 21, 2023) – A coalition of Indian-American civil rights organizations today commended the Seattle City Council for its leadership in passing the historic legislation to ban caste-based discrimination in the city. Introduced by Council member Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), the legislation passed on Tuesday with a 6-1 vote prohibits, “businesses from discriminating based on[Read More…]
Based on his twenty-one-year fieldwork, Jonathan P Parry authored ‘Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town’, in which he argued the weakening of the caste system as a principle of stratification. According to Parry, with a few exceptions, class system is key for social divisions and in determining social behaviour of individuals. Though his arguments[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar is considered as a symbol of resistance of Dalits against caste system and who stood for annihilation of caste. On 14th October 1956, he along with 6 lakhs of his followers converted to Buddhism at Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur. As chairperson of the drafting committee of the Indian constitution, his contributions to emergence of a liberal democracy and[Read More…]
Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and embraced Buddhism on 14 October 1956 in Nagpur (Deekshabhoomi) along with five lakh followers. On the same day first he himself had received the initiation of Buddhism from the Buddhist monks and after that, he himself gave the initiation of Buddhism to the people present. As part of the initiation of Buddhism, he[Read More…]
The popularity of Bhojpuri music has grown to reach a wide audience, both in terms of listeners and watchers. Songs, in a sense, are a means through which cultural identities may be asserted. Bhojpuri songs promote certain prejudiced natures and settings in terms of gender, caste, class, and regions, among other categories. Some of the key aspects that are prevalent[Read More…]
Few recall these days the furore on the Mandal Commission report.At that time I found to my dismay even some progressive academics at the Delhi University campus wavering on the question of reservation.(I had been there for some reason I do not remeber now,but vividly remember the vehemence of passion against the policy of reservation in the campus.)Some well-known professors[Read More…]
The state is featured among the top five states having more number of atrocity cases against SCs and STs. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its annual report Crime in India 2021 captures the trends of crime in our country. The report contains crime against vulnerable sections such as women, children, senior citizens and SC’s and ST’s and others. As[Read More…]
Ambedkar King Study Circle’s 3rd annual conference urged the companies in the USA to include caste discrimination in the policy documents Anti-caste activists gathered in Cupertino on Aug 27th under the theme to resist Brahminism and Hindutva urged the companies in the USA to include caste discrimination in the policy documents and appriciated Apple being the first company in the[Read More…]
Indra Meghwal a nine year old student of Sarswati Vidya Mandir, Jalore in Rajasthan was beaten by his teacher on 20th July 2022. The crime of this boy, was that he drank from the water pot reserved for his upper caste teacher. This is the version of Indra’s parents and classmates. Another version is being floated that the boy was[Read More…]
by Balmurli Natrajan and Raghav Kaushik Dr. Balmurli Natrajan is Professor of Anthropology at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA. He works at the intersections of the material and the symbolic, of the biocultural and political economy, and of culture, cognition and practice. His key research and teaching foci fall into three domains: group formation & inequalities (caste, race);[Read More…]
The recent death case of a 9 year old Dalit student, Indra Meghewal, in Rajasthan on the ground of untouchability practice in school must be seen as a national shame. Azadi Ki Amrut Mahostav to mark the 75 years of our freedom must seriously engage us to honestly introspect about the status of freedom from untouchability practice in our villages.[Read More…]
Co-written by Ms. Akanksha Sharma and Mr. Skand Priya I The phenomenon of caste as we see it today has evolved historically and been shaped materially. It is also perhaps the most written about Indian phenomenon and, consequently, has generated a truly colossal amount of scholarship, and this shows the hegemonic position Caste possesses in the contemporary Indian society and politics. Though[Read More…]
The canonization of the first ever layman of India, Devasahayam, or Lazarus (1712–1752) as saint, on the lines of Mother Theresa or on the lines of St.Peter, by the Vatican on 15 May, 2022 is historic in many strange ways. The human history of religions does not find a man of his kind of torturous life from birth, growth and[Read More…]
If the poorest of the poor people must get the topmost priority in terms of welfare programs, then surely those households who have been employed in manual scavenging (MS) work in India should get the highest priority. The scheme for self-employment based rehabilitation of those employed in MS has therefore been considered a high priority scheme. Despite this, it is[Read More…]
On May29th we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dalit Panther Party .Its formation was a landmark event in the post-1947 era of India defining a new epoch in the assertion of the dalit community. It was a manifestation of the rage simmering at a boiling point against their subjugation for centuries which hardly diluted after Independence. The Black Panther[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar is considered the father of Dalit politics. He raised the demand for political rights to the Dalits in the Round Table Conferences and despite Gandhiji’s strong opposition, the Dalits got the status of a minority class and political rights apart from the Hindus, which were announced in the form of Communal Award. In this, Dalits got the right[Read More…]
by Aseem Hasnain and Abhilasha Srivastava The California State University system, America’s largest public higher education system, recently added caste, a birth-based social hierarchy system, to its anti-discrimination policy, allowing students, staff and faculty across its 23 campuses to report caste bias and discrimination. CSU’s move has drawn a sharp response from some in the Indian diaspora: About 80 faculty members of[Read More…]
Barhampur or Mahisha-Barhampur is an island-village nestled into Chilika lake, located in Krishnaprasad Tehsil of Puri District of Odisha. A news concerning some Dalit families leaving this village under compulsion due to the incidents of ethnic harassment and social ostracise buzzed around in various media. After leaving their village Barhampur, these migrated Dalit families took shelter in a temporary hutment,[Read More…]
Melavalavu massacre, on June 30, 1997, is a landmark case that haunts Tamilnadu polity for over two decades, and hence merits a relook. Panchayat president Murugesan, vice president Mookan, along with five others (Murugesan’s younger brother K Rasa, Chelladurai, Sevugamoorthi, M Boopathi and Sountharapandi) were hacked and killed by the dominating communities (Thevars etc), for defying their warnings and winning[Read More…]
Although elaborate arrangements have been provided for eliminating iniquitous customs, practices and institutional arrangements, we need more than just laws to combat a problem as deep-rooted and multi-dimensional as casteism, which appears to have set in below the surface, and is corroding our moral fibre. A student holding a placard with the Preamble of the Constitution at a protest against[Read More…]
On 18 Feb 2022, Sunil Kumar Dhanwanta, an IPS officer, took help from the Police in Jaipur, Rajasthan, to take his wedding procession. Sunil’s bureaucrat’s position becomes redundant in the eyes of upper castes Hindus because he belongs to the Scheduled Castes (SC) community (commonly known as Dalits). In 2018, a similar case was highlighted in UP’s Kasganj District. Sanjay[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the occasion of the release of book ‘Dalit Truth’ edited by Dr K.Raju, and published by Penguin India, has gone viral as Darbari media has again launched offensive against him while the BJP trolls have started picking up hole in it. Jawahar Bhavan conference hall, where the Book was launched was completely packed. The invite that[Read More…]
Vishnupriya (in the photo), aged 27, a woman police officer of DSP rank, dalit by birth, was found hanging at her official residence in Tiruchengode (Tamilnadu) on 18th September 2015. She was a single woman and was the Investigating officer (IO) in the sensational Gokulraj (dalit-born) murder case, discussed earlier in the series. This incident of suicide of this DSP,[Read More…]
In a historic move, the NDP government in Victoria has recognized April as Dalit History Month. Responding to an application moved by Radical Desi, an online magazine that covers alternative politics, the provincial Attorney General and the Lt. Governor signed the proclamation declaring April 2022 as “Dalit History Month”. Dalits, the oppressed community of India, are often treated as “untouchables”[Read More…]
Yuvaraj, at the Madurai district court, was recently, on 5th March, 2022, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder (in June, 2015) of Gokulraj , for being friends with a young woman of a ‘higher’ (OBC) caste, whose ‘honor’ was sought to be protected by murdering the dalit-born engineering graduate. The convict Yuvaraj, a leader of a brazen caste mafia[Read More…]
It’s been six years since the Rohith Vemula has left us, but the nation has hardly learnt from his death. There were many well-wishers of Rohith Vemula who mourned on his death. The nation has seen numbers of protests in the universities, Vemula was also discussed in the parliament. But when we will evaluate the result of his big sacrifice,[Read More…]
Dawn of 21st century, for Dalits, should have been better because of the long war they waged on superstructures of discrimination, the price they have paid with their lives, agony, torture and humiliation they have been subjected to should have resulted in offering better fruits. They should not have faced even an iota of discrimination; notorious primitive forms of untouchability[Read More…]
A screengrab from the video showing a dozen men lowering the dead body of N. Kuppan. Courtesy: India today, August 22, 2019. There are still cases “ where the dalits could not even carry the dead bodies across certain lands belonging to the people of the so-called higher castes,” lamented Justice R Mahadevan of the Madras High Court, reported last [Read More…]
On 21 December, 2021 a majorNational Shudra/OBC conclave took place in Delhi Talkatora stadium with hundreds of Shudra/OBC activists, intellectuals and political leaders across the parties, different universities and civil societal organizations gathered. They put out the first ever Shudra/OBC declaration, which has a historical significance for the nation . After the historic farmers struggle, which essentially was a Shudra/OBC[Read More…]
Supreme Court Judge Justice D.Y.Chandrachud recently gave voice to the suppressed agony of millions of members of denotified tribes when he clearly stated that injustice and discrimination was still being suffered by them over 7 decades after independence. Speaking on the occasion of the 13th B.R.Ambedkar Memorial Lecture on ‘Conceptualizing Marginalisation’ organized by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies[Read More…]
New Delhi, November 27th: A “Roundtable with Sewer Workers” was organized on 27th November, Saturday, 2021 in New Delhi from 2:00 pm- 5:00 pm in which sewer workers from Delhi came together along with Worker Unions and Government bodies. The workshop was attended by more than 100 sewer workers. The Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) has worked on the[Read More…]
Introduction: The Hindutva school has been in power since 2014. It wants to rule India forever. Actually it was never out of power in another sense of the concept, power. As an organization–the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)– that came into existence in 1925 was controlling many nerve centers of India’s socio-spiritual structures of the Hindu system. Ideological browbeating of Muslims[Read More…]
(Note: Although Bhagwan Das wrote this article in 2001, but in this he had identified the shortcomings and weaknesses of Dalits and predicted a bleak future of Dalits, it is proving to be completely correct today. Therefore, Dalits should learn from this article and fight for their rights by adopting Buddhism and forming a strong organization to secure their future.[Read More…]
The counter-public sphere is contrary to power, domination, and hierarchical structure. It has emerged with a task to develop a different mode of public discourse in a complex society. The counter-public sphere appears as a new and different space wherein the representation of the ‘self’ and re-presentation of new ‘world view’ or standpoint to ‘others’ perpetuates with self identity. Fraser[Read More…]
Phule-Ambedkarite ideology is the only alternative for Bahujans, says Dr Manisha Bangar, National Vice President, People’s Party of India, former National Vice President, BAMCEF in conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dr Manisha Bangar is a practicing Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist and Transplant Hepatologist, with around 20 years of clinical cum research and teaching experience. In terms of her medical qualification, she completed[Read More…]
But for the accidental reading of Shahu Maharaj’s letter to the retired Governor of Bombay presidency, Lord Sydenham, written in 1918, I would not have thought of writing this essay. In my life time experience of writing about the Brahmin-Bania power in contemporary times at the expense of life threats and cases in various levels of courts the Dwija pundits[Read More…]
The social groups whose development is more linked to radical social change are the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Odisha. The Government of India Scheduled Castes Order 1936 had identified 54 sub-caste groups of Odisha as SCs but during last 70 years, the number of sub caste has increased in State and currently till 2015 it is 95 while some sub[Read More…]
Ish Kumar Gangania is an eminent Ambedkarite thinker, writer and poet who started writing nearly 20 years ago and has till date authored over 22 books of poems, essays, analysis and even Ghazals. Some of his poetry books have also been published in English. Born in Chhaprauli now part of district Baghpat, famously known for the constituency of former Prime[Read More…]
To Shri Apurva Chandra Union Labour Secretary Dear Shri Apurva Chandra, The preamble to the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 defines its primary objective to be “to regulate the employment of interstate migrant workmen and to provide for their conditions of service and for matters connected therewith“. This Act is by and large[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar had said, “Political power is the key to all problems and Dalits can get their emancipation by uniting and seizing power. Political power should be used for the development of the society.” Therefore, he also called upon the Dalits to win political power. That is why Dr. Ambedkar raised the demand for minority status for Dalits and political[Read More…]
India’s caste system is the major obstacle for betterment of the socio-economic condition of the downtrodden. The lowest in the rung of caste hierarchy, the victims of caste oppression are addressed as dalits or Scheduled Castes (SC). There are others who are also on the lower scale of hierarchy, the tribal (ST) and other backward castes (OBC). For centuries the[Read More…]
Dalits in West Bengal have opened the eyes of all political parties to the core constituency of Dalit vote as a political determiner in the Indian electoral game. It has now descended late on the political parties across the hue, that it was Dalits in Bengal who ensured Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s entry into the Constituent Assembly, when Sardar Patel was[Read More…]
Though IIT Kharagpur teacher Seema Singh has apologised for her abusive remarks against the students of SC-ST-OBCs in an online class, the matter does not end here. When the video of her abusive class went viral, I thought whether she was a teacher at the prestigious institution or an old caste prejudiced head master in some nondescript part of the[Read More…]
For Dalits now and backward castes then, from Phule to Periyar, while the education provided by the ancient natural philosophies like Budhism, modern egalitarian religions like Christianity, exploitative but ‘progressive’ British government and the independent India’s democratic government has been one of the prime factors in promoting consciousness of Dalits on their degraded social position, on their exclusion from knowledge,[Read More…]
April 14 is celebrated as Dr. Ambedkar’s Jayanti, that is, Dr. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, not only in the country but also abroad. On this day, while he is officially paid tribute and he is praised by government representatives, his devotees also pay homage to him. All these events mostly take the form of a celebration and ritual. There are very[Read More…]
It is a matter of pride for the Indians that the United Nations including the University of British Columbia declared 14th April as “International Equality Day”. All over the world, Ambedkarites, and Buddhists are celebrating 130th birth celebration of Vishaw Guru Baba Sahib Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Ambedakrites & Buddhists, nationally and internationally, have organized function virtually as well as physically[Read More…]
“Inequality is the soul of Hinduism”. And that is why he finally came to conclusion that, “I was born a Hindu, but will not die a Hindu” (Dr. BR. Ambedkar) “Until 1990, Ambedkar was untouchable to all mainstream political parties’’ (Prof. Kancha Ilaiah) On the auspicious occasion of the 130th birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar (celebrated as the Ambedkar[Read More…]
This is part-1 of an article, being published to mark the Birth Anniversary on April 14, of Dr. BR Ambedkar (1891-1956). Referring to “a great deal of controversy” regarding the origin of caste, “as to whether it is due to the conscious command of a Supreme Authority, or is an unconscious growth in the life of a human society[Read More…]
Who is a teacher? In a loose sense a teacher would be anybody including Mahatma Gandhi who was not a teacher in any school or college and Ambedkar who was a teacher in a college for some time. On the other hand, only the school teachers are called the teachers in a strict sense and not the university teachers who[Read More…]
With the recent book “The Shudras : vision for a new path” (edited by Karthika Raja Karuppasamy and Kancha Ilaiah) and the Shudra farmers protesting on the capital borders, the issue of historically neglected Shudras came to the forefront. At a time when the right wing hindutva agenda is on its rise, the need to counter[Read More…]
A well-known Dalit scholar Gopal Guru, presently editor of the Economic and Political Weekly, once wrote that “Indian Social Science represents a pernicious divide between theoretical Brahmins and empirical Shudras’ (2002). But Shudras did not get much attention in his, otherwise useful article. He immediately shifted his argument to the question of Dalits. Nowhere he elaborated his understanding of the[Read More…]
Jai Bhim, Jai Bheem, Jay Bhim, Bhim Salam, Neela Zindabad, Ek Number, Babasaheb Zindabad, Neel Salaam, We are because he was… etc are the comments one would observe in an online social media post, on or about Ambedkar, with lot of likes and comment when posted by a noted person with following. Ambedkarties have become excessively emotional about Ambedkar, a[Read More…]
A lot has been said about the barbaric incident of a Muslim boy being brutally beaten and denied water to drink at a temple complex near Ghaziabad. Many people expressed shock and sorrow and rightly expressed solidarity with the boy. Many said that their ‘Hinduism’ does not reflect this and that they are ashamed of the incident. Many apologised that[Read More…]
I live next to a textile mill complex from an era long-passed. Today, the old stone buildings have been reduced to rubble and the trees that surrounded them, more than 100 in number have been felled. My tired senses don’t feel the same when I look out the window and see pale-grey, concrete walls. The sound of drilling, hammering, crushing[Read More…]
When we were finalizing the title of my latest book The Shudras–Vision for a New Path edited along with Karthik Raja Karuppusamy for Penguin, there was a serious view that the concept “Shudra” must be avoided as it is not acceptable now. The secular intellectuals in post- colonial India completely avoided caste/varna categories in teaching and writing as if they never existed[Read More…]
Indian state is part of Indian society and Indian society is built on caste based social order. That way state or the government can do very little to destroy the caste system because as the state is built on the caste and the caste society is controlled by the top castes – the state cannot go against the system[Read More…]
The caste system in India is the oldest surviving social hierarchy. India is as much a caste-based country as it is an agriculture-based country. The whole societal structure is based on castes and class – dating back to the four varnas system, i.e. the Brahmins (priests), the Kshatriyas (soldiers), the Vaisyas (traders) and the Shudras (labourers). A fifth category that[Read More…]
Atrocities Caste, Present and Future Sandip, Ramu, Lavkush and Ravi. Those are the names of the upper-caste Thakurs who tortured and gang-raped a 19-year-old girl in Hathras, Utter Pradesh, JatiIndia, on September 14. Folding his palms, [Manisha’s father] pleaded, ‘Our daughters are no longer safe. We are helpless, I request the nation to stand with us, help us get justice[Read More…]
It’s around 2.30 at night. In the silence of the night, when darkness engulfs the surroundings and there is deafening silence, people are sleeping under their roofs, suddenly a police jeep sneaks into the settlement. People are forcibly removed from their tenements, causing a disturbance in the sleep of the hard-working daily wage laborers who have been labouring hard and[Read More…]
This article is about visiting Keezhvenmani after 50 years, where the Keezhvenmani Massacre was held and I discussed about the present condition of the village. It was during my post-graduation journalism studies at the Central University of Tamil Nadu in Thiruvarur, one of my professors enquired about my view on the recently watched movie; Asuran, a 2019 film directed by[Read More…]
Unlike other leaders, why is Ambedkar’s statue caged? Is a question that needs to be answered before starting any debate about Dalits and the policies being framed for them. India’s social division is based on “caste” and not “class”. Sadly, the privileged lot always tries to confine the topic of “Caste discrimination & Dalits” to “Class discrimination & Reservation policies”[Read More…]
India is a nation of second largest population in the world. China is the first largest populated nation with a land size bigger than India. India’s population according to 2011 census was 1210.2 million and China’s population was 1347.3 million. India’s land size is 3.287 million KMs, whereas China’s land size is 9.597 million KMs. China’s land size is three[Read More…]
Absurd Scientific claims: The Brahmins induce below normal thinking by advocating absurdities. Their claims rest on the stories/fables told in their old books, Ramayana, Mahabharata or various Puranas. Some such claims are: a) Aeroplane in the Ramayana period b) Plastic surgery (claim by Ganesh deity which has human neck and head and lower part a elephant body) c) Existence of[Read More…]
On 25th May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis, USA. A video showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was pinned to the floor went viral. Following this, large anti-racism protests took place with many white people also standing against racism and police brutality.[Read More…]
For quite some time now, the word ‘ Bahujan ‘ has been used in politics instead of Dalits. According to the promoters of the Bahujan concept, the Bahujans include Dalits and Backward Classes. According to Kanshi Ram, Muslims are also involved and the number is 85%. According to their theory, the Bahujans should come together and take away power from[Read More…]
“Even though I was born in the Hindu religion, I will not die in the Hindu religion–this oath I made earlier; yesterday, I proved it true. I am happy; I am ecstatic!” -Dr.Ambedkar, October 15, 1956, after accepting Buddhism the earlier day at Nagpur While I was doing my engineering degree at the fag end of the 90s, I became[Read More…]
It is not surprising when Police, judicial system and mainstream media deny the existence of caste in Hathras rape case. This practice of denial is a historical, ritualistic and expected strategy from the dominant caste ideologies to decontextualise, depoliticise deradicalise responses to Dalit atrocities from their content and context. In such incidents of atrocity, every time, Dalits have to[Read More…]
Supreme Court’s order allowing the three accused of abetting murder of Dr Payal Tadavi namely Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare and Ankita Khandelwal to complete their medical studies is deeply disturbing and indicating a trend where violence against Dalits and Adivasis seems to be happening with impunity. Dr Payal Tadvai belonged to adivasi community and worked harder to reach the stage[Read More…]
Swati Kamble, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Geneva. She considers herself a Dalit-Bahujan activist and intersectional feminist. Her research interest involves studying the marginalized communities with an intersectional and reflexive lense and commit to bringing their narratives at the forefront both in academia and policy. These narratives are created collaboratively with the marginalized communities being the active agents[Read More…]
The recent Hathras incident of violence against a 19-year-old Dalit girl has boomeranged the relevance of caste question in academia and at least digital media. It has again illustrated the complex structure of violence against women, which places the Dalit woman at the absolute bottom. The unfolding of the debates, however, indicate an interesting trend of Savarna spokespersons from various[Read More…]
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted with a main objective to protect marginalised communities viz. schedule castes and tribes against discrimination and atrocities. Sec.3 of the said Act enunciates the nature of various acts committed against a schedule caste or a schedule tribe to constitute an offence punishable under the said Act. The said provision stipulates that any act which is[Read More…]
Introduction National Commission of Scheduled Castes and National Commission of Scheduled Tribes, both constitutional bodies constituted to protect and monitor implementation of safeguards to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been lying vacant at highest level for the past six months. Barring employees, there are no Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Members. The governing body is vacant. Both the constitutional bodies are[Read More…]
In Gujarat a young Dalit activist lawyer Devji Maheswari, belonging to BAMSCEF was killed in Surat by the Brahmin goon who was warning him against his facebook posts not to speak up against Brahmanism but then there are other angles also which are mostly related to land disputes, many time ignored by the activists. Fact is that Devji Maheshwari was[Read More…]
In early September, circles from the Bengali academia and Left political spectrum, strongly vocalized their seemingly disgruntled voices against the trolling of Professor Maroona Murmu, Assistant Professor from the Department of History at Jadavpur University. At the same time, many of them also claimed to be “astonished” at something of this nature happening in Bengal. Soon after my arrival in[Read More…]
C N Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu , and who headed the first DMK ministry in the state, was one of the few political leaders in the country who welcomed Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar’s decision to convert to Buddhism. Here is what he wrote (in 1956) about that momentous event. Annadurai’s birth anniversary was observed on September 15, and[Read More…]
In Conversation with Dr Obadele Bakari Kambon on Racism, white supremacy and caste system Dr Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, Ph.D. is an Afrikan anti-amerikkkan. In India, he has been known for advocating vociferously for the removal of the statue of Gandhi, from the University Campus in Ghana which was gifted by the government of India. He had famously advocated that ‘we[Read More…]
Dr Hemangi Kadlak in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dr. Hemangi Kadlak is a native of Maharashtra, India. She did her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Ph.D. topic was “Interface of Caste and Occupation: Case Studies of Children of Safai Karmacharis in Higher Education in Mumbai.” She also holds an MPhil degree in Social Work from[Read More…]
Co-Written by Aseem Hasnain, Abhilasha Srivastava and Avinav Kumar Sudharak Olwe’s photographs of conservancy workers in Mumbai are heartbreaking. They depict the lives and work of sanitation workers, as much as they reflect the fundamental nature of our society. In this haunting image a young adult is standing neck deep in an open bubbling drain, underground, both literally and metaphorically.[Read More…]
ABSTRACT The recent incidents of Dalit oppression in Gujarat has got the attention of the entire country. Gujarat though known for its development and progress is still ruled by feudal laws, where sporting a moustache, wearing goggles, watching Garba, or even riding a bike offends the upper caste pride in this day and age. In nearly 50% of villages in[Read More…]
I was born a bania, a savarna or upper-caste, and that is why I was born a bad person. Let me explain. I am part of that minority for whom the benefits of the caste system far outweigh the costs (if there are any costs at all except for making me lazy, stupid, selfish, and arrogant by making everything in[Read More…]
The Bhima Koregaon battle took place on 1 January 1818 between a contingent of the East India Company army mainly consisting of soldiers belonging to the Mahar caste (one of the many “untouchable” castes in India whose members are today known as Dalits) and the army of the Peshwas, who were the rulers of the Maratha confederacy. The Peshwa army[Read More…]
Assertion of Dalits and consciousness that began flowering in the second half of twentieth century was not to create submissive Dalits to any force of oppression. Its intention was very clear. Dalits said out loud that they had enough. They declared out loud that from then on, they would fight for their rights, dignity, history, culture, power and property. The[Read More…]
Till now Dalit politics / Dalit movement has been limited to saving reservation in government jobs only and Dalit leaders have been considering gaining power as the victory of Dalit politics. Their goal has been very narrow. It is well known that even if a Dalit becomes Prime Minister in today’s capitalist system, Dalits cannot be saved. In such a[Read More…]
“Because of the ascendancy of lawlessness, Krishna, The family women are corrupted; When women are corrupted, O Krishna, The intermixture of caste is born. Intermixture brings to hell The family destroyers and the family, too; The ancestors of these indeed fall, Deprived of offerings of rice and water. By these wrongs of the family destroyers, Producing intermixture of caste, Caste[Read More…]
What happens to caste when Indians migrate to Western countries? Do their feelings of being born superior or inferior, their belief in the purity-pollution ethic, just melt away? The “model minority” has tried to avoid a conversation on this issue but it returns to haunt them time and again. Now the American state of California is at the centre of[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dag-Erik Berg and Torjus Midtgarden The scholarship of Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956) has become visible during the last couple of years, but the discussion of his conceptual contribution and his relevance to contemporary political theory appears underdeveloped. Ambedkar was a scholar on caste, democracy and law; and he has been celebrated as the chairperson of the drafting committee of[Read More…]
Humanity, which aspires to move to the moon to expand its empire by virtue of its so-called scientific advancement is forced to learn an indelible lesson taught by the virus Covid-19. The invisible tiny virus has completely overturned our perspectives of high and low; haves and have nots; rich and poor; black and white; male and female; educated and uneducated;[Read More…]
Following the brutal police killing of Georg Floyd, an African-American Citizen of US, an unprecedented wave of movement for black rights is sweeping all over the world. The powerful message of Black Lives Matter has been conveyed through mass rallies, demonstrations, and more forcefully by setting fire to the Minneapolis Police Department building and, in some places by toppling the[Read More…]
Even today the attempt is to whitewash Manusmriti, not shun it. But all is not lost as the ripples of Black Lives Matter have reached Indian shores. It was 1927, the second phase of the historic Mahad Satyagrah was on, and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar led thousands of people in burning the Manusmriti, an act he compared with the French Revolution[Read More…]
A teenaged Dalit boy was shot dead at his home in Uttar Pradesh’s Domkhera village in Amroha district at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement was shaking the whole world. He was shot dead allegedly by youths from an upper caste community for visiting a temple in the village, according to media reports. Such killing of Dalits in[Read More…]
A storm has risen in America and Europe. Under the influence of that storm, we, in India, are experiencing a gentle breeze. An African-American man named George Floyd had been a victim of racism in the United States, and the storm of protest is due to his death in police custody. In India, people on social media are once again[Read More…]
Dalit and Bahujan lives, safety, and dignity continue to expendable in Uttar Pradesh (U.P). It is the ideological and geopolitical heartland of the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ model of the political nation-state, and the suppression and relentless alienation of Dalits and Muslims is central to its machinations. U.P was the state with the highest recorded atrocities against Dalits according to NCRB data[Read More…]
On 1 June, 2020, Devika, a Dalit child of fourteen from Kerala committed suicide by burning herself alive for want of a functioning television set on which to continue her studies. And now she is a name, a picture, and a tragic spectacle, like so many that appear and vanish on the mobile phones, flatscreens, and laptops of the upper[Read More…]
Caste is not entirely the same as Race, yet Casteism and Racism remain blood brothers. They are both systems of structured oppression which date back centuries. While Racism surfaced back as a white knee crushing a black neck that belonged to a man called George Floyd who lost his life minutes after, clearly a case of murder in broad daylight,[Read More…]
In spite of India’s perceptible economic and social development, the caste system still obstructs and isolates the section of its population, the Scheduled Caste (SC) also called as Dalits and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The Dalits, who form around 16.6 per cent of Indian population[1], undergo systemic discrimination, and excluded from the development process even after 72 years of independence is[Read More…]
The novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 has already touched 212 countries and territories around the world and two international conveyances. According to the latest records on worldometer, India stands at 11th position with 96169 COVID-19 cases and 3029 recorded deaths is moving towards a much more difficult phase. Since 24 March, 2020 India is under a lockdown, however this phase has[Read More…]
Caste is an institutional ‘lockdown’ that has existed, developed, and fortified itself in an organic relationship with the material conditions of history. In his pioneering journal Mooknayak, Dr. Ambedkar used a potent metaphor to describe the caste system— a multistoried building with no staircase connecting the floors, in which people live and die in the same floor they were born[Read More…]
It was exactly 13 years back that the Thorat Committee, constituted in September 2006 to enquire into allegations of differential treatment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students at the premier medical institute, AIIMS—was released. The first of its kind in independent India, this three-member committee led by then chairman of the University Grants Commission, Sukhdeo Thorat, had looked deeply[Read More…]
I have borrowed nothing excepting title from Liu Shao Chi, the famous Chinese leader and author of the book ‘How to be a good Communist?’ which converted thousands to Communism. Besides the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and the ‘Das Kapital’ perhaps the Emile Burns ‘What is Marxism’ is perhaps another world famous book which appealed to the educated people and explained Communism[Read More…]
Corona attack on India seems to have suddenly changed our understanding of Safai karmacharis of India. They are now seen as desh bhakts even by those who never recognized their desh bhakti. When the life of rich who treated them lowly and unworthy of respect and dignity are in danger as never before, they are recognizing what I call the[Read More…]
This pandemic (COVID -19) situation is hitting the marginalized poor the worst because of their inherent vulnerable condition. The entire country is being converted to a police state with an absolute power exercised by police to mercilessly beat anyone on street. It is mostly the poor and marginalized on the streets who are being harassed and humiliated. The socially and[Read More…]
The COVID 19 pandemic has resulted in anxieties and mental health stress for many in an era of self-isolation in places like North America But a group of oppressed people in the world’s so called largest democracy, has been enduring social ostracizing for centuries. Dalits continue to face blatant discrimination under a brutal caste system practised by Indian society, in[Read More…]
In recent times the issues of Muslim minority has been discussed much over the issues of their citizenship but many more important socio-economic issues have been left out while focus has been more on religious identity issues. The issues such as employment, land, business, education, health, access to basic amenities and most important participation in governance has been ignored since[Read More…]
Seven decades ago, Dr B.R Ambedkar declared that India was entering the life of contradictions. Across political front, India had achieved equality i.e. one man, one vote, one value. However, India, then, had not achieved equality on social and economic fronts, the status quo, which continues till date. But what probably could have baffled Dr. B.R.Ambedkar is not only the[Read More…]
According to the 2011 Economic and Caste Census, 4.42 crore families out of total families in India belong to the Scheduled Castes (Dalits). Only 23% of these families live in good houses, 2% in habitable houses and 12% in dilapidated houses. 24% of these families live in grass pallet, polythene and mud houses. It is clear from these figures that[Read More…]
Manual scavenging is constantly on news often not so much for diverse reasons, but typically due to the primitive barbaric practice of selectively forcing the employed workforce, who are exclusively from the lowest social categories, into sewer underworlds to de-clog and to offer freedom to the choked sewers by the uninterrupted passage of sewerage. The menace of manual scavenging is[Read More…]
The crime report released by the National Crime Bureau (NCRB) last year” Crime in India – 2018” has been released with a delay of about one year in which crime and atrocity figures against Scheduled Castes have been released along with other crimes. With these figures, on the one hand, the rate of crime / oppression against these sections in[Read More…]
On September 14, 2018 Perumalla Pranay, a Dalit young man of 24 was hacked to death in Miryalaguda, Telanaga in front of his pregnant wife Amrutha. Amrutha belongs to Arya Vaishy family and got married to him in defiance of her father, Maruthirao. Amrutha is about 25 now and only daughter of her rich parents. Her father has massive property that he enmassed trough real estate business and other means. According the police who[Read More…]
Una taluka of the Gir Somnath district in Gujarat is notorious for the violence against the Dalits. Most of them actually are landless and work as farm labourers. It is this economic dependence that keep them tied to the oppression. This model of dependence on the Savarna kept flourishing and any attempt to empower Dalits in the rural Gujarat is[Read More…]
To the utter shock of American Brahminism an unusual organization called Equality Labs came into being in New York. IT was established by second generation, American born, Dalit women activists to chase it in America in every sphere of life, including in the digital media. Thenmozhi Soundararajan and few other US born citizens with amazing talents and were told by[Read More…]
Today mark the centenary of the publication of ‘Mook-Nayak’, founded by Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Exactly on January 31st, 1920, Baba Saheb Ambedkar launched this fortnightly to give voice to the voiceless as reflected in its name. I wont go into much research of this as many scholarly articles of already appeared on it commemorating a century of it. It is[Read More…]
Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Exactly 100 years ago Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started his first newspaper named Mooknayak on 31 January 1920.Once Ambedkar entered into the[Read More…]
Chhotu Mushahar, 30 years, s/o YogendraMushahar, was found murdered because of some dispute over a fish by the two persons of the Udaipura village in district Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, on October 28th, 2019. His dead body was found floating at the river chhotiGandak in village Raman Chhapara which is about a kilometer from his home. The accused Lav Mishra[Read More…]
Many would complain that it is unfair to limit Ambedkar to one community. Yes, it is true that his writings, his activism, his work as minister, constitutionalist, law maker does cover politics, economy, foreign affairs, welfare, labor issues, history, caste, rationalism and religion and addresses deprivation of the rights of every vulnerable section of the society. This means that he[Read More…]
BR Ambedkar wrote in Annihilation of Caste that “…the world owes much to rebels who would dare to argue in the face of the pontiff and insist that he is not infallible. I do not care about the credit which every progressive society must give to its rebels. I shall be satisfied if I make the Hindus realize that they are the[Read More…]
For any one to understand Joti Ba Phule, it is the pre-essential quality that change begins from home. We speak a lot, lecture others about change and communicate with people in such a language unknown to them or un-understandable to them. Many times, I found, people speak of their ‘knowledge’ and not what the audiences want. In India, the biggest[Read More…]
Iconic statue of EVR Periyar at the Periyar Thidal. His powerful presence in the Dravidian land ensured that the hate-mongering caste supremacists remain out of the power game in Tamilnadu but now the Tamil land is being targeted by the Hindutva forces and their agenda is to finish the Dravidian movement in the state. I asked this question to Dr[Read More…]
He was the only son of his landless parents in a village named as Udaypura in Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh. When the brick kiln season is off, most of the people from Mushahar community who live on the river bank are engaged in fishing as they have no other source of food.. This time, with so much of rain,[Read More…]
People’s Union for Democratic Rights(PUDR) today released its report on deaths of workers in Delhi while cleaning sewers/septic tanks over the last two years, titled “Chronic ‘Accidents’: Deaths of Sewer/Septic Tank Workers, Delhi, 2017-2019.” The release marks the occasion of the declared ‘target’ year for the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan (campaign) on 2 October 2019, coinciding with the 150th birth anniversary[Read More…]
by Anurag Bhaskar and Sandeep Pandey The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is considered to be one of the most reputed academic institutes of the country. IIMs are the most sought after institutions by students trying to get admission into a two year management programme. Among the several IIMs, IIM Ahmedabad has developed itself into a very fine institution with evolved[Read More…]
Is it possible to speak of social justice and democracy without talking about the privileges of those who have looted the resources as well as exploited the social system and provided it ‘divine’ sanctity to justify the caste discrimination. I have found this biggest challenge in India from those who claim to fight for the ‘poor’. Now we should all[Read More…]
Two kids who happened to born in the Valmiki community became the victim of deep rooted caste hatred which the caste Hindus have been nurturing since centuries. What was the fault of these kids. The fault is their being Dalits and that too of the community which is ‘supposed’ to keep the street, houses, ‘clean’. A community which has kept[Read More…]
Two Dalit children were on Wednesday beaten to death by two persons for defecating in front of a panchayat building in Shivpuri district’s Bhavkedhi village of Madhya Pradesh in the morning. Sirsod police station SHO RS Dhakad said the two children, Roshani (12) and Avinash (10), suffered serious injuries in the incident and were rushed to the district hospital where[Read More…]
In my village in my childhood and now there was/is one common practice. Each occupation is performed by a single community. Each community has its own name. Tilling the land, shepherding or cattle rearing, fishing, toddy tapping, pot making, cloth washing, clothe weaving, barbering and chappal making, including handling of dead bodies of animals or humans are done by each[Read More…]
(Note: This essay was written by Bhagwan Das in 2005 on my request. Actually Bhagwan Das proposed to write a book on Untouchables role in Indian Army and he had collected some material also but he could not. It was because Bhagwan Das himself had served in Royal Air Force as Radar Operator and was deployed on Burma border to[Read More…]
In an article by Shoaib Daniyal, published in www.scroll.in under the title Why are angry Dalits recalling a Delhi sultan to protest the demolition of a bhakti saint’s temple? It is stated “They claim that the plot on which the shrine stood was gifted to the sect by Sikandar Lodi six centuries ago”. https://scroll.in/article/934967/why-are-angry-dalits-recalling-a-delhi-sultan-to-protest-the-demolition-of-a-bhakti-saints-temple I would like to put in[Read More…]
Tughlabad is a town situated in Delhi National Capital Regions. This area is not fully developed as compared to other posh localities of Delhi. Several big or small forts were built in this area during the reign of Sultan Ibrahm Lodi(1517-1526). Tughlabad is politically hot area due to the presence[Read More…]
The ethic that dehumanises dalits continues 72 years after the country’s Independence. ‘What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty,[Read More…]
Flaws in Indian education system have been discussed at length by various analysts and root causes have also been pointed out. Still, the situation has not improved. Marginalised sections find difficult to pursue higher study even though some of them successfully clear entrance exam and enter reputed institutes like IITs and IIMs. Drop- outs The surge in enrollment of dalits[Read More…]
I want to share one of the incidents that I encountered recently. But before that, I would like to set the context. I am a student at IIM Ahmedabad (PGP 2). As a part of my curriculum, I have taken a course called TSM (Transformational Social Movement) where we have been taught about many social movements by our professor, Dr.[Read More…]
Denotified Tribes: Denotified Tribes (DNTs) are the tribes which were listed by British under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 which notified certain tribes as “criminals,” regardless of the activities of individual members. The DNTs being a nomadic group have remained outside the Indian constitution and have not received any constitution rights and welfare activities. The Criminals Tribe Act was revoked, and Habitual offenders[Read More…]
Ten adivasis including three women were massacred and nearly 14 others wounded in a bloody attack on them by the feudal caste forces led by the head of the village in district Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh. According to reports appeared in newspapers, the main accused Yogdutt Bhurtiya, his two brothers and 23 other people have been arrested out of the total[Read More…]
This rejoinder is in response to the article: A Common Hindu Identity has always appealed to OBC and Dalit Castes by Abhinav Prakash Singh, Assistant Professor, SRCC, university of Delhi published in Hindustan Times on[Read More…]
A giant has gone. I had met him several occasions and found him extremely dedicated to Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s mission. His command over language and subject was complete. He was forthright to the extent of calling a spade a spade. Raja Dhale, one of the founding fathers of Dalit Panthers movement passed away in the morning today at his Mumbai[Read More…]
“Some of the sanitation workers I met, face such high instances of mental trauma that they cannot wear anything yellow, cannot eat anything yellow.” -MaulikrajShrimani, WhistleblowerTheatre Group “I do not know anyone from my community who does anything apart from sanitation work. The only person I know to do something else is Mr.Purushottam Vaghela, who is working in an NGO[Read More…]
While in truly technical terms Dr Payal Tadvi committed suicide on May 22nd 2019 in her hostel room in Mumbai, but for all practical reasons, I would call it a murder, a crime which was not merely racial hatred but also look like Islamophobia as she seem to belong to tribal community practicing Islamic faith. The twenty six year old[Read More…]
A Hindi reporter of a brahmanical channel yesterday tweeted about former Bihar Chief Minister Rabari Devi whether she knows the spelling of ‘tweet’ ? We all know well the background of Mrs Rabari Devi who was the chief minister of Bihar for two terms. A few days back, another channel termed Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav as ‘Lalua’ in a public[Read More…]
Dead capital is the capital that cannot (easily) be converted into investment. Hernando de Soto’s term dead capital could have been about India as well. The country has a huge stock of informal assets held by the poor that is not recognised by the law, but worth in billions. De Soto’s story however captures only one side of the Indian[Read More…]
“If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country No matter what the Hindus say. Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.” (Dr. BR Ambedkar) The political parties, civil society intellectuals belonging[Read More…]
In a shocking incident on the eve of the 128th birth anniversary of the father of the Indian Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar, a freshly-erected 10-ft-tall statue of the leader was vandalised by the Greater Hyderabad Muncipal Corporation. The reason given was permission was not sought for the building of the statue. The statue was erected at Punjagutta early on Saturday[Read More…]
As we celebrateDr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, we need to imbibe his important motto- Educate, Organise. Agitate. As Karl Marx said philosophers have interpreted the world in different ways. The point is to change it. This is the most important heritage of Dr Ambedkar, changing the world. One of the great advantages of Dr Ambedkar’s teachings was the tremendous awakening[Read More…]
400 scholars, academics, activists from 16 countries have signed an International Statement of Solidarity against “caste-discrimination and institutional harassment” of Dr. Subrahmanyam Saderla, an associate professor at IIT Kanpur’s Department of Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Saderla belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. Renowned scientists including American mathematician David Mumford, a recipient of the Fields Medal (considered “Nobel Prize for Mathematics”), Indian[Read More…]
Next to Hyderabad, Warangal is the second biggest city of the Telangana state. Most of the present Telangana state’s heritage symbols, Kakatiya Gate, and its tank based irrigation system go back to the history of Warangal, which, in the medieval and pre-medieval Telugu, was known as Orugallu. After this town became the capital of the famous Kakatiya dynasty in the[Read More…]
Whereas previously SC affirmed indigenous people’s inalienable rights to their land, it now orders their eviction from their land unilaterally There are three significant SC judgments on the indigenous Adivasi people’s rights over their land and natural resources: 1) In 2011 the SC, hearing a complaint petition by a young Adivasi woman who was raped and paraded naked by[Read More…]
Today, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ organisations, decided on a national Wave of Struggle over the next two weeks against the unjust attack on millions of people whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected. The Supreme Court’s order to evict over one million claimant families is the direct[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) rejects the atrocious February 13 order of the Supreme Court that calls for eviction in a summary and time-bound manner of those whose claims for forest rights under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA) have been rejected. This amounts to an attack on the rights of adivasis[Read More…]
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has ordered eviction of Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities from the ‘forest’ regions whose claims for entitlement have been rejected by the Forest department. The written copy of the order was made available on February 20th, 2019 which makes things unambiguous and the intent. The court order says : “The[Read More…]
Supreme Court Order for Eviction of a million forest dwellers in more than 16 states perpetuates ‘Historical Injustice’ ! BJP-led Union government jeopardizes the interests of country’s forest dependent people and adivasis: State governments fail in implementing FRA in true spirit Centre must issue Ordinance to stop evictions as per SC Order 21st Feb, 2019: National Alliance of People’s Movements[Read More…]
The Supreme Court of India has ordered the forced eviction of more than one million Adivasi and other forest-dwelling households from forestlands across 16 states after the government failed to defend a law protecting their rights. The final country-wide numbers of forced evictions are likely to rise substantially as other states are forced to comply with the court orders. The[Read More…]
Caste is not something that is only related to stratification of a society. It’s related with everything. That we have studied in the history book how the Hindu caste system creates a domination of the Brahman and put the Dalit and backwards on the back foot of the society. This whole phenomenon is related to the Socio-economic aspect. That one[Read More…]
For long they have been calling me to visit. ‘ We cant carry our traditional occupation as it has not given us anything. We want to educate our children so that they too can get some job’, said one of them. Yes, it was an ocassion for me to listen to the voices of the Bahurupiya community in Rajasthan. Yesterday,[Read More…]
In a shocking incident, a minor boy carried his mother’s body on a bicycle for three-four kilometers after neighbours refuse to help for the funeral over the caste differences. The incident has taken place at Karpabahal village under Lakhanpur Block of Odisha’s Jharsuguda district. According to reports, one Janaki Sinhania (45) died after falling on the ground while she had[Read More…]
With the recent surge of sheer “ignorance” about what is Brahmanical patriarchy and treating it as a concept that never existed before the discussion that took off on Twitter, it is perhaps important to see where exactly does this ignorance configure in a casteist system. Jaahil, ganwar, dehaati[1]: these were three words that I often heard in my Brahmin upbringing[Read More…]
A Six Hundred Twenty Kilometer long human chain was created yesterday in Kerala against the attempt to communalise the environment in the state particularly related to the issues of Sabarimala which the Hindu organisations have been violently protesting against the Supreme Court order of allowing the women to enter into the temple. That even after 71 years of our independence,[Read More…]
As new year draws closer, there is an increase of tensions on caste and communal lines. The Naseeruddin Shah affair has not yet subsided and another instance of repression took place in Mumbai. The dashing dalit leader Chandrasekhar Azad who was invited to address a rally on December 29, wanted to use the opportunity to visit Dr. B. R. Ambedkar[Read More…]
The just-released autobiography of Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a unique project of substance as it comprises the discourse of production and intellectuality. A discourse of this kind was/is nowhere figured in any autobiography written by notable Indian scholar or politician. In India, the autobiographies like ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’ of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘My Search of Truth’[Read More…]
The institute’s recent order, now withdrawn, of separate entrance for non-vegetarians is just a part of the overall policing and push for vegetarianism after the Modi government’s ascent. Nagesh (name changed), a bright student at the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras, who hails from a very poor economic background, had a shock of his life when he was entering the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Badre Alam Khan and Sanjay Kumar The Republic of Caste: Thinking equality in time of Neoliberal Hindutva by Anand Teltumbde, Delhi: Navayana, (2018), pp 432, Rs,600. Anand Teltumbde is a prominent public intellectual and civil rights activist. He is presently general secretary of the committee for protection of democratic rights. He is also associated with the All India forum for[Read More…]
We the following Adivasi organisations hereby express our deep concern on the recent developments and controversies about the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The social, political and economic interests of the upper caste communities on Sabarimala Temple are well noticed by us.We hereby wish to express our need to retain our following rights that have been denied for generations: Many Adivasi[Read More…]
It is interesting to see how the victim card is being played by many of those who should have been speaking against the order of privilege. Long back, our friend and Editor of Dalit Voice, V T Rajshekar theorised Aryan-Zionist relationship. Rajshekar has been blunt and clear about his theory but perhaps he was too bold and open to be[Read More…]
What is the status of Shudras who constitute the largest social bloc in India? In the North India, the Yadavs, Kurmis of Bihar, Yadavs and Jats of Uttar Pradesh, Gujjars of Rajsthan, the Shudras of Bengal, who are still outside the bracket of Bhadralok, the Patels of Gujarat, Marathas and Kumbis of Maharashtra, Lingayats, Vakkalingas of Karanataka, Nairs and Menons[Read More…]
‘ A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society’ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Scholars, journalists and writers analysed and critiqued on the life and works of Dr. Ambedkar in many ways. One of his great character to appreciate others irrespective of caste or religion. Though he despised[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar is said to be the father of Dalit politics because he was the first person to fight for the political rights of Dalits. He was the person who during the Round Table Conferences (1930-32), called in connection with the framing of future constitution of India, got the Dalits (Depressed Classes) recognised as a minority distinct from the Hindus[Read More…]
This is the Preface of the just released Autobiography of Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd entitled “From A Shepherd Boy To An Intellectual–My Memoirs”. Published by Samya/Sage (Select) New Delhi. Countercurrents reproduces the introduction. PREFACE I never intended to write a memoir. My two books Why I Am Not a Hindu and Post-Hindu India, generated debate and controversy among the Brahmin-Baniya[Read More…]
The nation concept is 18th century phenomenon. The ‘state’ and ‘nation’ are not synonimous terms. According to one definition, “ the state is a political and geopolitical entity, while the nation is a cultural and ethnic one.’ Thus, nation has a racial tone. But not all accept this definition. Some say it consists of merger of state and nation. Dr.Ambedkar on[Read More…]
The meeting of the Delhi University Standing Committee for Academic Affairs was held on October 24, 2018 and it has recommended dropping edification of three books at Post-Graduate level. And, those books have been in MA Political Science’s syllabi for the past few years. The three books are ‘Why I am not a Hindu? – A Sudra Critique of Hindutva[Read More…]
The meeting of the Delhi University Standing Committee for Academic Affairs, according to media reports, in its meeting on 24 October, 2018 has recommended to drop teaching of my three books for M.A. Political Science course. The three books are ‘Why I am not a Hindu’, ‘God as Political Philosopher: Buddha’s Challenge to Brahminism’; and ‘Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in[Read More…]
Mahisasura! Just like everyone I heard this name for the very first time when I was a child and was being introduced to religion (mostly through books and partly through songs and TV shows). It was an exciting event to learn about the different Asuras and their battles with Gods. Constant battle with luminescent arrows flying from one side to[Read More…]
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the agitation to prevent entry to women of all ages to Sabarimala temple as per the order of Supreme Court of India is an ‘upper caste conspiracy’. No one has made more truer statement and realistic assessment about the situation in Sabarimala than the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister also categorically stated[Read More…]
The Nair Service Society (NSS) is supporting the most destructive anti-women Anti-Shudra Manuvadam in the name of Shabarimala temple’s sanctity . The Nair men for centuries surrendered the Nair women’s self respect to the Brahmin males in worst Manuvadi system called Sambandam. The Brahmin men exploited the Nair women worse than the slave masters exploited the African American women[Read More…]
I have been impelled to elucidate some inevitable, unarguable, factual events of our Indian society. It’s well known & believed that the another name of ‘Bharat’ is Hindustan. However, the term ‘ Hindu’ is not used in any scripture of Hindu mythologies. Indian history proves that Aryans migrated to India from from middle east thousand of years ago. Today ,they[Read More…]
The only code of law for Hindus is Manu Smriti. IX.3 of Manu Smriti says “Na stree svaatantryam arhati” (a woman does not deserve freedom). Manu Smriti is the code of the four fold Varna system, namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Shudra. Hinduism is in fact is rooted in this pyramidal varna system, Brahmins being at the top. Manu Smriti[Read More…]
I appeal to all the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs to celebrate the Indian English Day on 5 October, 2018 as we have no significant place in the world of English even after 201 years of English education in India. The first ever Indian English school was started in 1817 in October by William Carey and Rajram Mohan Roy. But the Shudra/OBC/SC/STs are excluded[Read More…]
She is a senior journalist from NDTV. Got many awards and is known for ‘fair’ reporting from Andhra-Telangana states but one tweet actually said so many things which she might have been trying to hide under the pretext of ‘progressive’. Problem in this country is that ‘progressive’ have enjoyed patronage of power for long and how they are compelled to[Read More…]
After the Bharatiya Janatha Party came to power and ruled the nation for two terms from 1999-2004 and 2014 to present a lot of propaganda by the Brahminic pundits belonging to that ideology clamour that all modern sciences, originated in Europe, America and China and Japan is no match to the Vedic science that the ancient Brahminism has built. Particularly[Read More…]
‘Democracy day’ was being celebrated yesterday on social media where political leaders ‘greeted’ their ‘bhakts’ and hailing India as one of the ‘biggest’ democracies of the world. Things are moving so fast these days that it has become too difficult to focus. The power of information sharing has reduced the power of ‘thinking’. Visual world is so attractive[Read More…]
The recent ghastly murder of young man in Miryalaguda of Nalgonda district (Telangana) has once again proven that the scrouge of caste based racism still has its vice like grip on our society. This remorseless thought process of entitlement and percieved distinctions of superior and inferior castes has once again snuffed the light out of a bright young man. It[Read More…]
Chandra Shekhar Azad ‘ Ravan’ has been released from the jail by the Uttar Pradesh government. The police says that the cases were not pursued because his mother has requested. Some says that the state government would have faced criticism in the Supreme Court while other says that it is a political move given the nature of situation emerging in[Read More…]
A curious case ( though those who know the reality understand it well) of a person being posted as a senior functionary in Uttarakhand under the ST category happened to be a Brahmin. Nautiyal in Uttarakhand are brahmins and that is a well known and established fact but then if Nautiyal Saheb is an ST on a piece of paper[Read More…]
In my earlier article “Shudras Built The Indus Valley Civilization!” I argued that the Agni and Vayu worshipping Rigvedic Aryans might have caused the destruction of 1500 years of Harappan and post-Harappan civilization. My broad thesis that the South Indian names and spiritual cultures match with the productive and spiritual cultures of Harappan civilization is confirmed by the DNA analysis[Read More…]
The reason India’s Dalits hate Gandhi is that, to the Dalits, he helped preserve the caste system, or Varna, in post independence India. To understand India you must understand caste, or what the real word is for this religious practice, Varna. To start with in the Indian language of Sanskrit, Varna literally translates into the word “color”. Your varna, your[Read More…]
The archaeological evidence shows that the first ever city—Harappa– was built in the Indian Sub-continent around 2850-2900 Before Christ in the world. The name Harappa sounds like a South Indian divine man’s name among agrarian and cattle herding communities. For example, Mallappa, Beerappa, Veerappa are very famous names in South India. In Kannada and Telugu regions the names that end[Read More…]
Co-Written by Snehil Kunwar Singh & Bhaskar Kumar In a latest move, the Supreme Court (SC) has agreed to revisit the issue of Quotas in promotion which it held not mandatory for the state to make reservations for SC/ST in promotions in the M. Nagraj judgment delivered in 2006. The fundamental contentions against the reservations in promotions are that the[Read More…]
Today is a historic day and must be celebrated by all those who believe in social justice. On this day in 1990, the then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, accepted the recommendations of the Mandal Commission Report in Parliament. The hero of the nation, a man of great integrity in his own personal life, V P Singh became the biggest[Read More…]
As election results are almost declared, Pakistan is entering new phase of governanc under a new premier. Hindus comprise about 1.85% of Pakistan population ( wikipedia.org and as of 2010, it had fifth largest hindu population in the world. Pakistan census separates scheduled castes from the main body of hindu population who constitute a further 0.25% of national population. Thus,[Read More…]
Today, Indian politics is going through a particular kind of change, especially in the area of politics of uprising. Indian politics has long history of uprising, better to say, India emerged as an independent nation with the Naval Uprising of 1946, a forgotten page of Indian history. Indian democracy has sustained for more than 70 years, with riots and[Read More…]
The BJP government’s continuous assault on reservation policies in the higher educational institutions must be exposed and opposed tooth and nail. The current leadership has given clear indication to its brahmanical chums to hit at the heart of these communities and their intellectual leadership that emerge from these institutions. It is important to understand why the government has chosen to[Read More…]
Dalit movement has produced great writers who expressed the pain of being discriminated in poignant prose and verse. Among those inspiring writers is Shahir Shantanu Kamble who was known as ‘ vidrohi kavi’ passed away.(maharashtratimes.indiatimes.com). He was only 39 years old. His passing away is a jolt to ambedkarite movement. He belongs to the tradition of ‘ vidroh shahiri’ ([Read More…]
Three minor Dalit boys were allegedly stripped, beaten and paraded nude in a village in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district for allegedly swimming in a village well. The incident occurred on June 10, but came to light only after some videos of the boys’ being paraded in Vakadi village went viral. Maharashtra social justice minister Dilip Kamble told media persons that two[Read More…]
India is a nation of BROKEN PEOPLE who were made the prisoners of the Caste System. The Bramhinicle social order set up an invisible prison where aborigines-the erstwhile rulers of Pax-Indica thrown to rot for thousands of years. They were deprived of their basic human rights. They were robbed off their self-respect and honor. The caste system ghettoized the Indian[Read More…]
Name of my father’s mother was ‘Kochadima’ (Little Slave). I was ashamed to say my grandmother’s name. I used to think who will give a name like ‘Little Slave’ to a person. Yesterday, when activist Mrudula Devi told me about the ‘Illam’ (family names of dalits) stories I went through a pang. When there was slave trade of dalits,[Read More…]
A leading social reformer Savitribai Phule is hailed for her contribution in the field of education. Savitribai was a crusader for women empowerment as she broke all stereotypes and spent her life promoting the noble cause of women’s education. The deprived of India’s exclusion was made to be a slave for thousands of years. Savitribai Phule has made education the[Read More…]
The death of Kevin became front page news in national as well as international media. Death; nowadays has become a very cheap commodity for news channels and papers to mint money. News of Rapes, Murders, Genocide, Riots, Sexual Affairs, Violence, Gang-wars attract people to the media. Kevin did not die in accident nor did he die due to some physical[Read More…]
Two dalits were killed in Tamil Nadu’s Kachanatham village near Manamadurai on Monday night in Sivaganga district for not respecting a uuper caste Hindu. It is alleged that during a temple festival at Kachanatham on May 25 when Dalits denied temple honours to a caste Hindu family. On the next day, Chandrakumar (45), a caste Hindu, objected to Shanmuganathan and[Read More…]
Swami Vivekananda Kerala a ‘lunatic asylum’ 125 years ago because of its stringent caste system. It seems it holds true in more than one sense after the ‘honour killing’ of a young dalit bridegroom, Kevin P. Joseph, in Kottayam. Kevin and Neenu, a second year B.Com student had got married at a civil marriage ceremony on May 24. Neenu’s family[Read More…]
Dalits or the untouchables in India, as the Hindu social order placed them in the category of outcastes or people with no caste have taken up Buddhism, Islam and Christianity in the long course of their history and emerged into multi-religious community. Their conversions into other religions have not delinked their low social status. Perhaps, in other religions, the degree[Read More…]
Government or the bureaucracy doesn’t consider Adivasis as a community/social group and not even as a citizen with their own social and cultural identity. Renowned writer and Dalit intellectual Sunny M Kapikkad has stated, “ The government considers Adivasis as state subjects. What government does is to feed its subjects. First of all these projects have to be withdrawn.” When[Read More…]
After I wrote Why I am Not a Hindu and Post-Hindu India the Brahmin- Banias ( the castes that control Hindu spiritual system and the whole business system of India) communities of Telugu states threatened to kill me. Several cases were filed against me. The intellectuals from these two most wealthy and most educated communities ask me: What is your[Read More…]
On 16th May 2015, Sagar Shejwal, a young nursing student, in temple town Shirdi, Maharastra, was beaten to death for keeping Bhimrao Amedhkar song as ringtone, Chandra Sekar Azad ‘Ravan’ has been charged with sedition charges for wrong reasons while the real reason was that he has started a social solidarity action group called Bhim Army in the name of[Read More…]
Rajendra Trivedi, speaker of the Gujarat Assembly while speaking at the ‘Mega Brahmin Business Summit’ in Gandhinagar on 29 April added himself to the hall of infamy with his comments that Ambedkar was a Brahman. He thought that he was making a profound comment but it is as brain-dead as any of the loud-mouthed comments of the galaxy of[Read More…]
A few months back, I was introduced to an Indian settled in the United States who worked with the American military and wrote extensively against Gandhi. One thing that I don’t like is that writing against Gandhi does not mean somebody has become an Ambedkarite. We met in Delhi and there were lots of discussions. He was quite ‘rational’ till[Read More…]
It is a well known fact that Hindu religion has deep caste divisions. This is one of the major cause of dalits and other backward caste people willing to convert into other religions like Christianity. The disgust with caste system can be assessed when Dr. Ambedkar said that though he was born a hindu, he would not die as[Read More…]
The other day a friend of mine said “What India is witnessing is a rule of radical Hinduism, like radical Islamic, radical Christian and radical Buddhist rule in the world at different phases. In any radical religious party or organization’s rule democracy does not survive”. I did some research on this question of radical religion ruling the state and its[Read More…]
The recent verdict relating to atrocities on SC/ STs and dalits has sparked much debate and controversy. Scores of dalits and their supporters called for ‘ Bharat bandh’ to express their dismay and disappointment over the Court’s judgment. Though the Court has not reviewed its earlier stand, it should have considered facts before delivering its ruling on such sensitive[Read More…]
Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad Raavan has launched hunger strike from Saharanpur district jail, where he is currently lodged. He launched his hunger strike in the aftermath of the nation-wide protests by Dalits on April 2nd against the dilution of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) ACT. Bhim Army defence committee convener Sanjeev Mathur said that Azad had begun[Read More…]
Dalit activists held a demonstration in solidarity with the organizers of an April 2 Bharat Bandh in India, at Holland Park in Surrey on Sunday afternoon, April 1. Braving cold weather, more than two dozen people showed up at the rally, held under the aegis of Ambedkar International Social Reform Organization (AISRO) of Canada. AISRO has intensified its activities over[Read More…]
It has again come up prominently in National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) “Crime in India-2016” Report that BJP ruled States outdo other states in atrocities against Dalits (Scheduled Castes). The same scenario was during 2015 also. At present BJP ruled states are Gujrat, Rajsthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhatisgarh, Goa and Jharkhand where Dalit atrocities cases are more than non-BJP[Read More…]
For the last few years the study on Dalit cause has been increasing widely in Pakistan. Many of the people who were unaware of the work on Dalit enthusiastically tried to know maximum of Dalit and started reading Dalit literature. Whereas there are two sides of a coin on the discussion of dalits in Pakistan. The one who are Dalits[Read More…]
Why was the Aadivasi youth Madhu belonging to Chindakki ooru of Attappadi in Kerala was killed? Was it becayse Kerala society’s loss of sense of justice ? Was it a case of mobocracy on a poor alleged thief ? Was it a case of hunger or poverty? Was it because of the erosion of the values of the much celebrated[Read More…]
Dear friends from the media, This is to inform you that, on the advice of my lawyer, I have decided to accept the cheque of Rs. 8 Lakh from the University of Hyderabad as compensation for the death of my son, Rohith Vemula who died after being harassed by Vice Chancellor Apparao Podile, BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, Ramachander Rao and[Read More…]
While women in general face exploitation socially and economically, some of them face ‘ more’ exploitation than others. A UN report released late Wednesday night says that the average dalit women dies 14.6 years younger than women of upper castes. The risk of exposure to mortality of dalit women increases due to poor sanitation and health care ( India[Read More…]
Nature of Majority Though every nation in the world is multi-religious and multi-cultural, in every nation, at least, there is one majority community that is based on religion, language, ethnicity, race and language. However, in the long historical process, it does not remain as it is because the supposed cultural and religious singularity is a myth. In large geographical landscape,[Read More…]
08.02.2018, Kochi, Kerala: Kerala Police unleashed brutality against the Dalit Atmabhiman Convention organized by the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani (Dalit Land Rights’ Organisation) in Kochi on 4th February. The convention was taking place peacefully while it was suddenly attacked by the police in the morning. As the police broke-in, many activists including the Chairman of Samara Munnani, C.S. Murali[Read More…]
Social activists, writers, film makers, academicians and members of the civil society have condemned the police brutality unleashed by the Kerala Police against the Dalit Atmabhiman Convention organized by the Dalit Bhoo Avakasha Samara Munnani (Dalit Land Rights’ Organisation) in Vadayampadi, Kochi on 4th February. Prominent signatories include Aruna Roy, Prafulla Samanthra, Kavitha Srivasthava, Teesta Setalvad, K. Sachithanandan, Paul Zakharia,[Read More…]
After the end of Peshwa – Brahmin rule in today’s Western Maharashtra, English rule began and it was through a war in 1818 at a place near Pune – Bhima Koregaon, Peshwa army was defeated by English army unit the Mahar regiment. Thus Peshwa rule was defeated through Mahar Caste (Untouchables) regiment by the British. In a way it was[Read More…]
The protest against the ‘Caste Wall’ at Vadayampady, near Kochi in Kerala took an ugly turn when the police and RSS/Sangh Parivar goons attacked dozens of protesters gathered for a dalit ‘Self Respect’ march. Hundreds of dalits and progressive activists had gathered at Vadayampady today morning shouting the slogan ‘Jai Bhim’. Sangh Parivar goons numbering around fifty attacked the protesters.[Read More…]
The Dalit land rights movement in Vadayambady, Kerala, against a ‘Caste Wall’ built by the Hindu temple run by the upper caste Nair Shudras and their organization called Nair Service Society (NSS) is one movement that needs to be reckoned for its close relationship with the trajectories of the socio-political and economic history of anti-caste struggles in the region.[Read More…]
Since social memory and myth are used as tools of social dominance, they have a very significant role in politics of assertion. Different sections of society have diverse kinds of memories and myths related to their caste and prescribed indentures, sentimental remembrance of their past as well as their ancestors’ tales of heroic deeds. These social reminiscences have been manipulated[Read More…]
The newly formed organization popularly called T-MASS is a registered organization under the Telangana Government’s Registration Act with a name “Telangana Mass and Social Organizations”. Under its broad umbrella many Ambedkarist, Phuleite, communist, humanist, women organizations are working with a broad philosophical framework of Mahatma Phule, Ambedkar and Karl Marx. Its banners always carry the portraits of these thinkers[Read More…]
Let me at the outset profoundly thank Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation, Lahore for giving me opportunity to participate and speak on this very relevant issue, ‘DrAmbedkar’s mission of annihilation of castes and present situation’. Sir Ganga Ram’s story is that of hard work, success and then philanthropy. In fact, many of us had just known about Sir Ganga Ram[Read More…]
Progressive Kerala ruled by a communist government is witnessing a protest by dalits against a caste wall built by upper caste Hindus, in Vadaympadi near Kochi. On sunday the police unleashed its brutal force on the protesters and destroyed their protest tent injuring many protesters. Two journalists covering the police atrocities were arrested branding them as Maoists. Abhilash Padacherry, Editor[Read More…]
In a tragic turn of events the sensational October 10 kunduli gang rape victim, dalit minor girl, committed suicide at her house frustrated over the police inaction and investigation into the case. The victim girl was rescued in a critical condition from her house in Musaguda village and taken to the Kunduli Community Health Centre where the doctors declared her[Read More…]
Recently, there was violence in Maharashtra on 1st January 2018 as persons carrying saffron flags attacked people at Bhima Koregaon. In the violence a person died, many injured and vehicles were damaged. The propaganda by rightwing media is to attribute the violence to ‘instigating speeches’ by younger activists who had gathered. The saffron attempt at depicting violence in Bhima Koregaon[Read More…]
Kamal Haasan has called for strengthening a Pan Indian Dravidian identity and asked the chief ministers of all the South Indian States : Tamilnadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to have a join front so that they can have regional autonomy as well as act as a front against the north Indian Aryan dominance. As per a report[Read More…]
Open letter to Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India 200 ANNIVERSAY OF THE BATTLE OF BHIMA- KOREGAON AND CONTINUING ATROCITIES AGAINST DALITS AND MINORITIES IN INDIA This open letter by UK organisations listed at the end call on you, the Prime minster of India, to take action against the perpetrators of violence against Dalits. We also call on you[Read More…]
On January 1, 2018, thousands of Dalit families that had gathered at Bhima Koregaon to pay homage to the Dalit Mahar martyrs of the Anglo-Maratha war of 1818, were targeted and attacked by members of extreme right wing Hindutva groups. The saffron goons not only pelted the Dalit gathering, where there were thousands of women and children, with large stones,[Read More…]
From past few days we have been witnessing on our television channels or social media news portals debating over just and unjust forms of protest. But the moot able theme that underlies all these debates and news reporting is how we construe, what is Resistance? And what is Violence? A common dictionary meaning of Resistance is: the act or power[Read More…]
The incidences of Bhima Koregoan have come up as yet another battleground of Dalits’ liberation movement against a Hindutva fascist state run by caste system. The incidences and the videos have been rolling around is just shocking. The symbol of yester-century’s valiant and brave battle and victory over the atrocious ruling Peshwas by a small unit of 500 Dalits (Mahar’s),[Read More…]
Whether we are aware of it or not, we stand to witness now what will be history tomorrow. A history that will do its provenance proud, in fact, leaving it a lot more glorious. Even the xenophobic right who asked for this new chapter in the first place, are left with no ‘foreign conspiracy’ theory to tout. For ‘Bhima Koregaon[Read More…]
Ambedkarites are agitated all over the country as the despicable attempts of the Hindutva affiliated organisations in Pune attacked the massive assembly of people who had come to pay their respect to 800 brave Mahar soldiers who with the help of British had defeated the then powerful army of the Peshwas which numbered around 30,000 at the battle of Bhima[Read More…]
The Bicentennial celebration “Elgaar Parishad” of the Battle Koregaon by the Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Bahujans, both by organizations and individuals, at the Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, followed by a march toward Bhima Koregaon 40 km from Pune, have seen opposition from the right-wing organisations. These organizations had the audacity to call the event, and the organizations[Read More…]
Akshay Kamble, an IIT Kanpur third year Computer Science student, hailing from Badlapur,Maharashtra, has been missing from campus since November 29, 2017. The 20‐year old dalit student had gone missing after he reportedly left the campus on 29th to catch a train for Mumbai. But he did not reach home at the expected time. His father rushed to IIT Kanpur on 30th. He received almost no help from the IIT administration in making inquiries about his son’s whereabouts and the circumstances of his stay on campus. The police at Kalyanpur police station refused to lodge an FIR until very recently and also made insensitive comments. The lack of cooperative behaviour of various authorities has caused additional mental stress for the father who has been looking for his son relentlessly. The matter of missing becomes even more disturbing if we note that even after nearly four weeks since his disappearance, news of the incident has had poor coverage in print and social media. Akshay was a bright student who was doing academically well in IIT Kanpur. He is from an economically modest family and grew up in predominantly Marathi speaking locality. Akshay’s father, Bhimrao Kamble, a school teacher, sees the missing of his son connected to the ragging and mental harassment that his son has been facing from some students in the campus. Akshay had been the target of mockery over different matters ranging from his simple life style, regional [Read More…]
It seems most of the people among the oppressed masses of this country have forgotten the Chapter 21- The Revolt of the Untouchables documented and written by Dr.BabasahebAmbedkar himself. It documents the most historical event in the modern history of our Indian subcontinent. Though, for the liberal intelligentsia and many so-called mini-ambedkar’s and their associations or organizations or parties[Read More…]
The Tirupur Principal District and Sessions Judge Alamelu Natarajan yesterday announced death penalty for six accused convicted in V Shankar murder case last year in Coimbatore. This include her father and other conspirators but her mother and distant uncle has been acquitted. It was perhaps the first cases where the judge has handed out six persons the capital punishment[Read More…]
It was a little late when I reached the Mandi House round about where the march was supposed to be to Parliament Street yesterday, To my surprise, I did not find many of the Delhi’s usual participants but mostly from Tamilnadu. Interestingly, the slogans and the placards were in Hindi. Later, I realise that it was a group of protesters[Read More…]
Every year Ambedkar is celebrated and remembered across the globe, at least twice a year, on his birth and death anniversary by the political parties, social movements, NGOs and committed individuals at different venues. Of late, the dates are being observed in various international forums. For very first time, in the history of United Nations he was remembered last[Read More…]
Aam Admi Party leader Kumar Vishwas’s video of blaming ‘reservation’ in jobs for ‘destroying’ his age old ‘sanskriti’ is in the air. Actually the full video is about 45 minutes and is available on youtube. I thought to watch it to understand fully what he wanted to say. It is clear that Aam Admi Party’s foundations are shaky as[Read More…]
Mahatma Jotirao Phule was born into a lower caste Mali family in a Brahmin hegemonic society, about a decade after the British defeated the Peshwas in 1818. This may explain his lifelong resistance to caste and gender hierarchy, which was fuelled and given shape by his exposure to Western radical literature and missionary writings and his involvement in contemporary Indian[Read More…]
As the debate on the Arya-Vysya attack against me was taking place at the national and international level two things have happened. One, the Chandrababu Naidu Government in alliance with BJP in Andhra Pradesh arrested me in my home on 28 October, so that I would not go to Vijayawada (Amaravathi) and attend the public meeting. This public meeting[Read More…]
Mr. Chandrashekhar Ravan, the founder of the Bhim Army remains in custody despite the Allahabad High Court granting him bail in all the cases registered against him. Ravan is in custody because of the Government of Uttar Pradesh has registered a case against him under the provisions of the draconian, National Security Act, 1980. The NSA provides for ‘preventive detention’,[Read More…]
Co-Produced by C.S. Sharada Prasad & Isha Ray November 19th is World Toilet Day. Enormous progress has been made in the global effort to provide safe and affordable toilets for the world’s poorest citizens since World Toilet Day was first declared in 2001. Significant strides have been made in “reinventing” toilet designs for low-income, water-short, un-sewered urban zones; celebrities such[Read More…]
Prime Minister does not leave an opportunity to quote Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. RSS has been calling him ‘pratahsmarniya’ and Amit Shah has been going to have food at the ‘Dalit’ localities. BJP has been going wild on its Dalit outreach programme and there is nothing wrong in politics to strengthen its outreach but the question is how would[Read More…]
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses its deep concern over the inhuman and degrading treatment being meted out to Dalit rights activist Chandrashekhar Ravan by the government of Uttar Pradesh. Last reported, Mr. Ravan, was rushed to the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College from Saharanpur on Nov 8, 2017 for ‘stomach infection’. Mr. Ravan, completely healthy at the[Read More…]
This week, the California Board of Education will sign off on the final updates for textbooks used in the state’s middle schools, including how those books depict India’s caste system. Even though I live in Seattle, I plan attend the meeting in Sacramento and have been asked to say a few words. In speaking out about caste — that complex[Read More…]
Dr Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd whose book “Smajika Smugglerlu: Komatollu’’ angered the Hindutva forces posted threatening posters in front of his house. According to Dr Kancha Ilaiah these posters which appeared on 4th November night is a warning to attack or kill him. He has filed a complaint to The Station House Officer, Osmania University, Hyderabad. Here is the full text[Read More…]
The Sangh Parivar elements that worked hand in glove with Arya Vysyas, who wanted to lynch me at Parkal on 23 September, after the TDP Parliament member T.G Venkatesh issued a threat on 17thSeptember came with true colours. They caught hold of just 22 year old Dalit boy, who sported big saffron tilak on his forehead and said that[Read More…]
The Socialist Party demands immediate release of Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’, Bhim Army chief, from prison and removal of National Security Act (NSA) imposed on him. Chandrasekhar is lodged in Saharanpur jail from 9 June 2017. He is an accused in the four cases of inciting violence and property damage in the incident of Saharanpur Dehat Kotwali on 9 May 2017.[Read More…]
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights strongly condemns the imposition of the National Security Act (NSA) against Bhim Army’s founder leader Chandrashekhar Azad by Yogi Adityanath’s government, on 3 November 2017, a day after he was granted bail by Allahabad High Court. Chandrashekhar had been arrested on 8 June 2017 on charges of inciting violence and destruction of property, in connection[Read More…]
Janhastakshep strongly condemns the persecution of the Bhim Army Chief, Chandra Shekhar Azad by the UP government in no uncertain terms. As is well known by now that in May this year in the caste riot between Dalits and the dominant upper caste, Thakurs, in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur District, many houses of the Dalits were gutted down and the[Read More…]
Looking at the strengthening negative attitude of people towards positive ideologies, cultivation of which has given the opportunity to India to stand tall among other civilisations, anti-Periyarism not only throughout the country but also in the land of Periyar itself is quite natural and that is quite visible now. At the moment, Periyarism is surviving among very few Periyarists and[Read More…]
Two incidents were reported from Meerut and nearby places yesterday shows the brutality of the social structure in India. One was that a woman from Balmiki community was mercilessly beaten and later she succumbed to the injuries at the hospital. That this woman Savitri Devi had gone for her regular safai work at the house of a family whose woman[Read More…]
The educated and intellectual who have acquired the required radicality in opposing the domination and in questioning or challenging the ahistoricality of the classical culture which is executes itself or kept alive in different means and methods (Hindu orthodox customs, traditions, ritual and festivals) have been, from the last decade or so, building counter narratives to the classical culture. These[Read More…]
When Yadu Krishnan (22) entered the sanctum sanctorum of Keecherival Shiv Temple in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala an age-old Indian Belief was shaken. People of the village welcomed him with the garland of flowers and traditional Drums that were once reserved for the Brahmin Tantries and Priests. The rank list available in the website of Travancore Devaswam Board places Yadu[Read More…]
One of the recurring accusations of the recent Arya Vysya agitators and their associate Paripurnanada Swamy, a hater of St. Mother Theresa and Christian human service, against me is that I have a Christian agenda behind my writing. This is absolutely false. I have some academic association with an organization called the Good Shepherd Society that established an English medium[Read More…]
In the Caste ridden Indian Society, the role of priest has long been considered a preserve of the Brahmans. This is purely determined by birth. Only a person born in a Brahmin family is considered eligible to become a priest, if the person acquires grip over religious rituals and mantras. Any non-Brahmin and more particularly a Dalit becoming a priest[Read More…]
Will BSP nurture budding young Ambedkarite or become a family party ? Today we remember a great social scientist of India who changed the nature of politics and political movement in India. Whatever the brahmanical elite may say about him, late Kanshiram influenced the Indian polity more than anyone else in mid 1980s and the impact is still felt but[Read More…]
A collection of quotes From Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd’s Speeches SC/ST/OBCs are nationalists, What About Narendra Modi’s Big Brothers’ Capital. How many jobs they get in that capital?—-Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd Minorities are nationalists, What about Amith Shaw’s Industrialists? – Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd How many minorities get jobs in his private empire?—Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd Foot Soldiers Are Nationalists, Why their brothers and sisters[Read More…]
One seldom hears any of the persons..saying, “Let us do something to change the Touchable Hindu.”- Dr. B. R Ambedkar. “Frankly Prashant, if I weren’t an exceptional student, I would have committed suicide long ago.” His statement chilled my bones; having been known him for years, I knew he was not given to exaggeration or needless drama. He was serious. [Read More…]
Lokesh Sori who protested the Mahisashur vadh during Durga Puja and filed an FIR against puja committee members has been arrested. Saturday night the members of the organising committee filed an FIR against him to which the police acted quickly. His whereabouts are unknown. One source says that he has been sent to Kanker jail. Another source says that he[Read More…]
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it Evelyn Beatrice Hall Durga pooja and Dussehra may be a day of celebration of Brahmanic Hindus of India. But not for the Adivasis. It is also the day when their ancestors/gods are killed and their killing is being celebrated. But not anymore.[Read More…]
That the Asuras or Daityas or Rakshasas were the people who ruled this land is evident from the texts of the Aryans and memoirs of the Bahujans. Bali is remembered in various festivals throughout India – the Bihu festival in Assam, Balipratipada across central and north India, and Onam in south India The rivalry between Asuras, the original inhabitants of India,[Read More…]
Dear friends This comes as an urgent appeal to you seeking support and solidarity for Mr. Prabhakar Gwal. Gwal has been a well known people’s judge from Chhattisgarh. Gwal a Chief Judicial Magistrate who was known for his integrity was dismissed in April 2016. He was last posted as Chief Judicial Magistrate in Sukma where from he was dismissed[Read More…]
The concept Social Smuggling I coined in my book Post-Hindu India (Sage 2009) has generated a law and order issue, created by the Arya Vysya organizations of the two Telugu States. The Vysya Associations have issued a death threat to me for applying this concept to the Vysya model of caste based business historically leading to a massive amount of[Read More…]
It is important to recognize how gender injustices underpin the caste, class and social inequities. “I did start going to school. But as I am a Dalit (untouchable), I was made to sit away from the rest of the children. If I touched some upper caste child, even by mistake, I would be thrashed by the teachers – who were[Read More…]
Co-Written by V. Ramaswamy & V. Srinivasan “Few object to liberty in the sense of a right to free movement, in the sense of a right to life and limb. There is no objection to liberty in the sense of a right to property, tools, and materials, as being necessary for earning a living, to keep the body in a[Read More…]
I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about attending the play ‘Untouchable’ by Peter Oswald as part of the [R]evolution in Theatre at the RADA Festival in London last night. My main concern was how the subject might be treated. The promotion material describes the play as “the story of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, born ‘Untouchable’, who led his[Read More…]
When Siddharth Varadrajan informed me that his The Wire had run a response to my piece [https://thewire.in/143238/bhim-army-mayawati-bsp/] in the Indian Express, I had not read it as I was traveling in Kerala without proper access to the net. He said he would be willing to publish my response. In reply, I wrote that if it was worth responding to,[Read More…]
Fifty five Dalit houses were burnt down during the afternoon of May 5 in Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur in northern UP. Attackers belonged to the dominant Rajput community of the area. They were armed with swords, spears, and lathis, and numbered about three thousand. Several other houses were looted, and fifteen motorcycles were burnt. Twelve Dalits received serious injuries. One[Read More…]
2014 marked the 70th anniversary of the victory of democracy over fascism. And it was the year in which Hindutva forces unequivocally gained political power over India that emboldened the obscurantist elements to flog people publicly for skinning dead cows. When I see the less privileged and the downtrodden are terrorised by the might of our ‘democratic’ state, when I[Read More…]
A report on the murder of of Dalit Youth Prithviraj by making him go down to clean a Sewage Tank at the housing complex (Jatti Dwarakamayi Villa) owned by family of India’s former Vice-President Shri B. D. Jatti On the basis of the media reports that appeared on 01/06/2017 in Vijay Karnataka newspaper and Public TV titled “Death of a[Read More…]
The Madras High Court comprising of Hon’ble Justices S Nagamuthu and N Seshasayeerecently laid down alandmark judgment wherein they strongly questioned: the prejudice that people belonging to aparticular community will traditionally indulge in commission of particular type of crimes and the same could be inherited like family trade. The Division Bench went on to observe that;“Judiciary cannot afford to[Read More…]
The Hindutva winds of Gorakhpur are being stopped by Dalit walls in Saharanpur. The wind had attained significant force through installation of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. This is being stalled by Dalit led Bhim Army at Saharanpur. Goraknath has been a center of Political activity, particularly the Hindutva brand of politics. Gorakhpur has attained the[Read More…]
To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. And as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest. Above quote by Nelson Mandela forces us to think if we are really free and if[Read More…]
Buddhism as a religion owes its origin to present day UP as ‘Buddha after attaining knowledge’ , he gave his first sermon at Sarnath, near Banaras. He and his pupils travelled widely in and around UP and Bihar, and propagated his ideas and philosophy before finally attaining Mahaparinirvan (death) at Kushinara (current Kushi Nagar, UP) in c483 BCE. Since[Read More…]
Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule (1827 to 1890) fought throughout their entire life for • Decreasing the working hours from 12 to 8 • Special leaves for pregnant women • Abolition of the child labor • First leader to unite the labourers and farmers • Land to the tillers • Special protection for the tenant labors etc. Savitribai[Read More…]
Anand Teltumbde is a civil rights activist, political analyst, columnist and author of many books. He has a long association with peoples’ struggle spanning over three decades backing his theorizations on various issues. Trained in technology and management from the top institutes in the country, he marshals his insights of the modern techno-managerial world to sharpen strategies of struggles. In[Read More…]
Today is Ambedkar Jayanti. It would be appropriate to take a re-look at Ambedkar’s idea of nationalism in the face of virulent Hindutva nationalism in India and also on the global context
Despite a great threat to their own existence inside the JNU campuses which is being ‘cleaned’ to maintain Brahmanical purity and hegemony ( it was always there but in a better ‘coordinated’ and sophisticated way) the young Ambedkarites of Birsa Ambedkar Student Association ( BAPSA) today protested against the killing of a young Dalit boy in Telangana a few days[Read More…]
JNU has been celebrated for critical thinking, political activism and regarded as one of the premier institutions for higher education and excellence in research. Students also strongly believe that campuses like JNU would be a ‘cultural mechanism’ for interactions within the student community, who are from diverse social groups, and a resourceful platform for academic learning. For some months now[Read More…]
Just a year after the shocking suicide of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University, another dalit scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Muthu Krishnan (28) committed suicide in a friend’s home. He was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his friend’s house in the national capital on Monday. Muthu Krishnan had been at the forefront of the[Read More…]
..The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. ..My birth is my fatal accident.[Read More…]
Muthanga struggle was a milestone in the Adivasi land struggles in Kerala. Fourteen years have passed since ‘Muthanga’ became a lesson for people’s movements in Kerala. Today, the Adivasi land movement initiated under the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) is split between two factions, with C.K. Janu, the iconic leader of the Muthanga struggle in the 1990s joining hands[Read More…]
Rajvir Diler belong to Valmiki community and fighting on BJP ticket from one of the constituency in Hatharas, Uttar Pradesh. A report in several newspapers including Times of India suggest that he has been campaigning in such a way to get the big Jat votes which are decisive in his constituency so he does not enter the houses of[Read More…]
This book by G. Srinivas is an attempt to analyse the formation of the Dalit middle class which offers wide range of facts that are important in understanding the formation of Dalit middle class in India today. The book is definitely going to have a scholarly impact on the students and researchers who are interested studying the Dalit middle class
Consequent upon the central Government’s move to bring an ordinance on Jallikattu, the traditional bull-taming sport of Tamil nadu following statewide protests, A chorus has begun in the neighbouring state, Karnataka. A social media campaign to save Kambala, the traditional buffalo racing held in the costal districts of Karnataka started a few days ago. There is an attempt to project[Read More…]
Ayyankali, the Dalit firebrand in Kerala who fought Caste apartheid through innovation and resistance that inspires even till today. A contemporary of Ambedkar he was born into the Pulaya community in Thiruvananthapuram. He burned with the injustices his community faced. Dalits were landless and exploited, punished for crossing into caste hindu areas, and both men and women were targets of[Read More…]
Rohith Vemula’s suicide a year ago shook the country. The circumstances of his death left no doubt that it was an institutional murder committed through continuous harassment, and not a simple suicide. It exposed how the culture of caste discrimination was alive and kicking in Indian campuses despite being outlawed by the Constitution. Though it was no secret even before[Read More…]
Hyderabad / New Delhi, January 17th 2016 : It’s a year since Rohith Vemula gave up his life in the struggle against caste discrimination and Brahminical prejudices and practices dominating spaces of Higher education in the country. His death caused a major uproar in the country and gave strength to students coming forward resisting the same and to various ongoing[Read More…]
Bahujan Revolutionary Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, The King of common people. Rajarshi Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj was a true visionary social reformer. His simple living, remarkable efforts for the welfare of backward classes and his genuine contributions to educational, social and even agricultural reforms like water harvesting will always guide us towards doing better things for our nation. Shahuji Maharaj’s contribution[Read More…]
What follows is not meant to be an academic analysis of caste and its operation in India. Such an analysis has been done time again by experts who have studied the operation of caste in India in great depth and are thus qualified to engage in a worthwhile discussion in the matter. What follows is, thus, my personal understanding of[Read More…]
We salute Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule on her 186th Birth anniversary (3 Jan 1831 – 10 Mar 1897). EDUCATIONIST, REFORMER, POETESS A WOMEN OF THE PAST, WHO PAVED WAY FOR THE PRESENT, BY EMBODYING THE FUTURE. Savitribai Phule a true feminist who worked towards abolishing discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on Religion, Caste, Race and Gender. She who became[Read More…]
An interview with MuslimPress Why did you choose the name “Jatiindia” for your work? What’s the significance of this name? Inequality exists in societies all across the globe. Designed by Brahmanism (which came before Hinduism), the caste system is a uniquely cruel and immutable version of this phenomenon because it has been conveniently sanctioned by the Hindu religion. The Indian[Read More…]
Mr Arun Kumar, General Secretary, Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations ( FABO), UK and Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford in conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat VB: When did you arrive in UK? What were the reasons of coming to UK? AK: I came to UK in 1977. In India, after Matriculation, I joined government service in the Punjab Civil Secretariat[Read More…]
Floral tributes to Mahatma Jyotirao Phule on his 126th Death Anniversary Mahatma JyotiraoPhule the father of social revolution in Modern India. Among other things, he was the Originator of the protective policy of reservations Progenitor of the concept of right to compulsory primary education Founder of the first-ever schools and libraries for Sudras, Atisudras and women. First leader to unite[Read More…]
NAPM condemns state and ‘expert’ apathy on deaths of hundreds of adivasi children in Malkangiri: Demands immediate medical relief and justice Apex Court must intervene urgently: State must declare medical emergency 23rd Nov, 2016: The National Alliance of People’s Movements is extremely pained and concerned about the rising number of deaths of adivasi children in the tribal district of Malkangiri,[Read More…]
Vidya Bhushan Rawat In Conversation with Chakma MK from CHT, Bangladesh Chakma MK is a Human Rights activist working with indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh since 1980s. He has been working with Human Rights organizations on the issue of Indigenous People. He has spoken at various national and international forums on the issue of[Read More…]
The festive season in India begins with Nag Panchami. Ganesh Chaturthi follows. A few weeks later come the ten-day festivities of Dussehra, culminating in Ram Leela where effigies of Ravana are burnt in public functions in towns and cities across north India. Finally, there is Diwali, the festival of lights. Almost all Indian festivals – from the ever popular Diwali[Read More…]
Another major state election has come up in the Hindi heartland of the country. The last time we had one, namely in Bihar exactly one year back, we finally ended up happy because social consciousness prevailed in the minds of the people of Bihar rather then religious consciousness. Issues of Ram Mandir, Love Jihad, Ghar wapasi, Beef ban, Pro-Pakistani accusations[Read More…]
The worst sufferers of social discrimination in today’s India are the Other Backward Castes (O.B.C.) This is because, after the exit of the British, instead of equal opportunities, their share, in both the political and administrative power, had been almost entirely eaten by the higher castes, especially the Brahmins. As per the Mandal Commission Report, O.B.C.s are 52% of the[Read More…]
India is a country of villages. Accordind to 2011 Census it has got 6,40,867 villages. According to the same Census out of a total population of 121 crores 83.3 crores live in villages and 37.7 crores live in cities. As such nearly 70% population of this country is rural and 30% only is urban. Out of the total 24.39 crore[Read More…]
The Central government’s decision to conduct a socio-economic caste census (SECC) was a ray of hope for many marginalised classes, especially for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as it is the most populous among them. This work was completed about two years ago and it is being released in dribs and drabs. So the main question over which we have to[Read More…]
If there’s one overwhelming sign that numbers mean nothing and organization means everything, it is the plight of Dalits and Muslims in India. Dalits and Muslims are officially 17% & 13% of the population. That means that together one in three Indians is a ‘Dalim’ – Dalit Indian Muslim (my coinage today – in case it ever makes it to[Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdC3iS1kGkI I am 16 years old, a student of a government school in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. For the last few days, everyone wants to know why I was beaten so mercilessly and why I kept silent for so long. Well, I am exhausted and frustrated from repeating my story time and again – for the cops, for my classmates, for[Read More…]
Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873 to unite all oppressed, Sthree-Shudra-Atishudra, Adivasis, Muslims and other minorities under one banner of Bahujans to fight against discrimination based on birth. The highly successful Satyashodhak Samaj was however, after the death of Phule and Savitribai Phule, disintegrated. Most Shudras joined the Congress, Atishudras joined the[Read More…]
The ongoing Mahishasur movement in North India has stirred up the Dravidian subconscious in south India. This year, on the day of Dussehra, effigies of Ram, Sita and Lakshman were burnt in Chennai. Eleven Periyar supporters who dodged a large police presence to burn the effigies were arrested. These Periyarites have been demanding a ban on the practice of burning[Read More…]
We the members of Ambedkarite Women Against Atrocities’, India (AWAA) condemn the wording of the report by retired judge K. Roopanwal, which indicates an attempt of defamation and character assassination of Radhika Vemula. Under the garb of fact finding the committee has done all efforts to find out the cast of Radhika and Rohit as the remarks were made by[Read More…]
Dr. Ambedkar in his speech delivered on Oct 13, 1935, in Yewala, in Nashik district had thundered that although he was born as a Hindu, he would not die as one. He advised the Depressed Classes to abandon all agitation for temple-entry privileges; instead, he advised that they should leave Hinduism entirely and embrace some another religion. Vexed by the rampant[Read More…]
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MoHRD) of the Government of India (GoI) is in a tussle with the boards of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) over several proposals in the Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2015, but the fiercest debate has been over reserving faculty positions. The government insists on a quota system, but the IIMs say the[Read More…]
Conversation : S V Rajadurai, V Geetha & Vidya Bhushan Rawat on Periyar’s ideology, self respect movement and opportunism of political parties S V Rajadurai is one of the leading intellectuals from Tamil Nadu who has written, in English and Tamil, on a range of issues to do with Marxism and literature; with Tamil politics and modern history, including Periyar[Read More…]
We pay our tributes to Mahatma Jothirao Phule, the founder of Satya Sodhak Samaj, on this 143rd year of its foundation, namely September 24, 1873. Mahatma Jothirao Phule, and his wife Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, declared war on brahmanic-casteist culture and religion. This Maharashtrian couple presented the first major anti-caste ideology and led a mass activism against the ascriptive norms and[Read More…]
Vijoo Krishnan recently led a team of CPI(M) and its mass organizations to the historic Dalit Asmita Yatra (culminating in Una on 15-Aug 2016). In the light of this, and participation of the party in various anti-caste uprisings in the country, Dalit Camera poses a few questions to Vijoo about the party’s role in Annihilation of Caste and their effort to bring about a Left-Ambedkarite unity.
Erode Venkata Ramasamy Naickar(17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), commonly known as Periyar also referred as E. V. R. or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist, freedom fighter and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. Biography Born in 1879 into a rich family of Balijas (traders) in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district, Periyar was a pious[Read More…]
I thought of giving the more provocative title of—Are you a racist or casteist, here is a simple test for you—but decided to go with the more sober title that you see. Most of us do not want to be painted with a racist or a casteist paint brush and would not express such brash opinions even if we harbor[Read More…]
In Social Media one regularly comes across shared postings with originations from communities such as Índia against Reservation’, Índia against Caste based reservations’, Índia against Caste and Reservation’. The logic of their argument goes like this. India does not have respect for merit. As a result, a lot of the meritorious positions are lost to non-meritorious. The meritorious are hard[Read More…]
The ABVP activists are hopeful that their “achievement” of having the library renamed after Dr Ambedkar will help them woo lower-caste students, particularly Dalits. With the JNUSU elections approaching, the Hindutva organization is desperate to broaden its social base by such acts of appropriation and tokenism This is the latest ABVP’s poster put up on the wall of SIS building[Read More…]
(Note: This is Dr. Ambedkar’s historical speech (18th March, 1956) in which he had put forward his experiences and the future strategy. In this speech he had addressed different sections of society. In fact it was a guideline for future Dalit movement but it is quite agonising to say that Dalits have forgotten it. It is reflected in a sharp[Read More…]
When I was born I was not a child I was a dream, a dream of revolt that my mother, oppressed for thousands of years , dreamt. Still it is untouched in my eyes Covered with wrinkles of thousand years, her face her eyes, two lakes overflowing with tears have watered my body….. – SahilParmar* Well known Gujarati poet[Read More…]
The African-American community has long suspected that they have been profiled, unjustly pulled over and killed by the police for the most ridiculous reasons. The typical response of the police and the authorities has been that the cops acted in self-defense and the broader community of whites and other privileged sections of the society supported the cops. Things began to[Read More…]
Amongst Greats like Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, BabaSaheb Ambedakar , Periyar , OBCs should not forget the contribution of another Crusader of Backward classes V.P Singh who gave reservations to Backward classes by implementing the Mandal commission report. 1990 was a crucial time when even after 43 years of Indian independence OBCs did not get their due which[Read More…]
Today is 25th August, the day a champion of the rights of the oppressed , Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal was born 98 years back. Today, he will be remembered for his many contributions to the cause of upliftment of the downtrodden, but particularly for his role as Chairman of the Second Backward Classes Commission, which released in 1980 what later became[Read More…]
Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal (1918–1982) was an Indian parliamentarian, social reformer of the country who served as the chairman of the Second Backward Classes Commission, popularly known as the Mandal Commission. The commission’s report mobilised a segment of the Indian population known as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and affirmed the affirmative action practice under Indian law whereby members of underprivileged castes were[Read More…]
Very successful press conference at the Press Club of India, New Delhi by Jignesh Mevani, lawyer and Dalit activist from Gujarat. Very good attendance. Lot of questioning by journos’ almost amounting to interrogation, which Jignesh tackled very well. Jignesh Mevani was at the same time fire and brimstone lashing away at Mr. Modi and the BJP, and also Captain Cool[Read More…]
It is not surprising that the recent protests by dalits, especially the vigorous one in Ahmedabad following the Una incident in which four dalits were mercilessly beaten for skinning dead cows have evoked global attention: this is the first time in living memory that dalits have spontaeneously come together in large numbers to protest an atrocity committed over performing a[Read More…]
There comes a time when one needs to speak; I speak of the Una Independence Day Rally of Dalits, at the end of a 10-day 400-km Dalit Asmita Yatra following a massive Dalit congregation at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on July 31. Whatever one’s political, social or religious preferences, inclinations or beliefs, anybody who has respect for the Constitution of India[Read More…]
The Dalit march from Ahmedabad to Una has emerged as an important social revolt of the Dalits in Gujarat.This mass up-surgence is challenging the very base of the caste system. It is questioning the logic of division of work based on clean and unclean tasks among upper castes and Dalits respectively. On the basis of this division of labor, traditionally[Read More…]
Thousands of Dalits gathered in Una, Gujarat on Independence Day pledged never to do sanitation work and never to dispose off dead cattle ever again. Radhika Vemula, mother of late Rohith Vemula who committed suicide at Hyderabad university hostel in January this year due to harassment by university authorities, unfurled the national flag in the massive rally. It was the[Read More…]
This book “The Actual Cost of Caste: MGNREGA On The Ground” seeks to examine the lives of rural Dalit women in private as well as public spheres. A theoretical framework of poverty, shame and social exclusion has been used to explore the objectives. The study goes further and analyses one of India’s biggest social security programs, the Mahatma Gandhi National[Read More…]
Kiran Bedi, Ex IAS officer, an active member of a political party and Puducherry Lt Governor, has insulted and condemned de-notified tribes by tweeting on 2ndAugust: ”Ex-criminal tribes are known to be very cruel. They are hardcore professionals in committing crimes. Rarely caught and/or convicted”.
Adivasis Janajati Adhikar Manch (AJAM) in collaboration with Adivasi Adhikar Manch (AAM) and other local sangathans have observed “International Day of World Indigenous Peoples” today on 9th August 2016 in various states across India. In Odisha, the day is being observed with gatherings of more than 700 adivasis with traditional music and dance at Umerkote Block head quarters, Nabarangpur District[Read More…]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ‘honoring’ a safai karmchari from Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for his ‘commitment’ to the duty. NDTV’s Uma Sudhir reported that the said ‘civic worker’ always come before time and has not taken leave for a single day even during emergencies. He is the leader of his team of safai karmcharis and work day and night to[Read More…]
The term ‘criminal tribe’ was introduced by the British in the legal system. It was definitely a racial profiling or clubbing of communities. It is not strange therefore most of the ‘criminal tribes’ were either Dalits, OBCs or aadivasis. Based on crime committed by one or two individuals, an entire community was placed as criminal tribe by the law which[Read More…]
But don’t talk about revolution That’s going a bit too far —Phil Ochs Everyone is buoyed by the recent Dalit uprising in Gujarat, as we should be. Much as the struggle of the Hyderabad university students taught us to fight against all odds despite the grief that we carry in our hearts, the recent incident of Dalits in Gujarat refusing[Read More…]
The simmering anger of Dalits of Gujarat over the flogging of Dalit youths by Gau Rakshaks (cow protection squad) in Utna boiled over into a massive rally in Ahmedabad and they vowed not dispose of animal carcasses, clean sewer lines, two dirty jobs which the dalits do as a centuries old practice since the upper caste people refuse to do[Read More…]
PUDR condemns the incident of flogging, stripping and parading of seven men belonging to the chamar caste by vigilante gaurakshaks on 11 July 2016 in Mota Samadhiyala village, Una taluka, Gir Somnath District Gujarat, which has brought the Brahmanical character of Hindutva cow politics and the caste character of the state to centre stage. It has been widely reported that[Read More…]
According to the Gujarat CID, a lion killed Najabhai Ahir’s cow in Bediya village. Najabhai informed Balu Sarvaiya of Mota village on the morning of July 11, 2016 to come and dispose the dead cow. Whereupon, the sons of Balu Sarvaiya, a SC by caste who traditionally skin and dispose off dead cows, brought the dead cow to their village[Read More…]
It was a solidarity protest against atrocities on Dalits in Gujarat and other parts of the country. Numerous organisations came. Jantar Mantar, during the session of Parliament, was crowded as usual with diverse group. On the left hand side of our protest was the MRPS, the biggest organisation representing Madiga community in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Madigas are one of[Read More…]
It has now become a pattern for RSS to disown its own actions which emanate from its divisive Hindutva mindset. The RSS plays the game of association and disassociation. It associates with masses and its own saffron network and spreads hatred through multiple ways till an event occurs. It continues to promote a divisive mindset till then. However, as protests[Read More…]
It was good to see Ms Mayawati in her strong way taking on the Sangh Parivar. She need to return to her old self. There is no need to read from written text in Parliament. It is time for her to now go back to cader and ask them to go for full blow. BJP’s attempted over enthusiasm to defame[Read More…]
Gujarat is simmering again. Dalits are agitating over criminals indulging in criminality. These criminals, who are fondly referred to as “cow vigilantes” by the mainstream media, have recently stripped and flogged four Dalit youth in Una. The resultant protests have claimed two lives: a policeman has reportedly been killed in stone pelting in Amreli and a youth consumed poison in[Read More…]
Gujarat is witnessing widespread protests following the incident at Una where seven Dalit youths were beaten up for skinning a dead cow on July 11. 16 members of the Dalit community, including local Congress leader Anil Madhad, attempted suicide in Saurashtra on Monday and Tuesday as a form of protest. Several suicide attempts were reported on Tuesday from Junagadh, Gondal,[Read More…]
Dear Ravish Kumar ji, Namaskar. This is a season of open letters. Recently you wrote one to Journalist-turned-minister M. J Akbar and then your colleague in NDTV Barka Dutt wrote one to Smrit Irani. Now, before you think this is coming in defense of them, let me tell you I’m neither writing about it nor do I belong to the[Read More…]
“In Bastar, a man dies once, but a woman dies twice, once when she’s stripped of every ounce of her dignity, paraded, brutalized by a gang of uniformed mercenaries; and later, by a bullet. And yet these Adivasi women and girls, prefer to go out and face the consequences rather than sending their menfolk out to die like an[Read More…]
The PUCL is deeply concerned at the growing caste atrocities on dalits by the upper caste communities in the state, particularly in the rural areas. Of more concern is the deliberate inaction by the government machinery in providing protection to the dalit communities and making a mockery of the Prevention of Atrocities Act (1989). The recent incident in Kamagarh is an example of this. On 3rd June, 2016, eleven dalit houses were burnt down allegedly by the upper caste (Sabarna) of the village Kamagarh of the eponymous Panchayat in the Aska Block of Ganjam District.
In 2014 Narendra Modi rode a massive campaign promising Acche Din for the people of our country. After suffering for 2 years from the witch-hunting of the minorities, murders of Dalits and fund cuts for marginalized students, the country has realized that the rule by the Sangh led government is not going to have any favorable impact on their lives.[Read More…]
(A Speech delivered in the seminar on “Dr Ambedkar’s Relevance today and in the future” on 16 June 2016 to mark the centenary of Dr Bhimroa Ramji Ambedkar’s arrival at the London School of Economics) Mahatma Gandhi once observed that Dr Ambedkar would never let history ignore him. For nearly a decade after his death, history did try ignoring him.[Read More…]
The Karnataka police have arrested BP Mahesh Chandra Guru, a professor in the journalism department of Mysore University and a well-known Phule-Ambedkarite writer. Professor Guru had made some sharp comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union HRD minister Smriti Irani at a function organized in the university recently to pay tributes to Rohit Vemula. He had also allegedly insulted[Read More…]
Bhagwan Das is one of the most prominent faces of Ambedkarite movement. He worked with Baba Saheb Ambedkar and brought out the unpublished work of Baba Saheb : Thus Spoke Ambedkar. An excellent narrator, Bhagwan Das wrote numerous books including his famous ‘ main bhangi hoon’, narrating the conditions of person from manual scavenging community. In this conversation with Vidya[Read More…]
It is hundred years since Dr B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) wrote, CASTES IN INDIA: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, a Paper he presented on 9th May 1916 at an Anthropology Seminar at Columbia University. That was one of his earliest significant works, a scholarly work ; written by the scholar when he was 25, much before he became a politician. In[Read More…]
Paper presented at the 2016 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences – Sessions: Caste Oppression Today, University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) By Dalit Assertion, I mean: The right to influence, assert, demand, express frustration, offer alternatives, and strategically align actions to achieve the overall objective of creating an inclusive society where caste is not a barrier or a discriminatory factor[Read More…]
This is a monograph of an organization which is involved in reclaiming the Bahujan’s historical legacy of resistance and struggle for right to dignity for all Bahujans and creating knowledge, based on Buddha, Charvak, Kabeer, Basavanna, Phule-Ambedkar, Shahu and Periyar’s ideology. Predominantly it is talking about Bahujan Rashtra and countering the concept of Hindu Rashtra. The organization consistently following the[Read More…]
A presentation made at London School of Economics on 16th June 2016 in the conference organised by Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhists organisations, UK in collaboration with London School of Economics to commemorate 100 years of Dr Ambedkar’s association with London School of Economics. It is a privilege to be able to speak to you on this historic occasion to[Read More…]
I woke up the next morning to the atrocious news of gangrape and murder of Madkam Hidme, an Adivasi girl in Sukma district’s village Gumpad. She was picked up from home, gangraped and then shot in cold blood by a gang of bloodthirsty, estrogen shooting men, dressed in an attire given by government that miraculously shields them against all legal shenanigans. Two days before this, a 12 year old child was similarly raped by a policeman in the same district. This is happening everyday in these villages. Every single day.
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