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…]
Natural rationalism, human engagement with natural reality, social institutions and production process are the only factors which have been playing important role in shaping the human way of way of life. But we convinced ourselves that it is religion that is prime factor. Even after agreeing that with living in the age of reason, we still believe that human life[Read More…]
In a country where almost eighty percent of population live in rural India and at least sixty of India population is illiterate and uneducated, it is quite depressing to know that at least, ninety-five percent of Indian elite are deeply religious, ritualistic, god fearing and superstitious. It is against the logic of the co-relation between reason/rationality and economically, socially and[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…]
Will there be any use in searching answer to a question like this? For me, no. There is no point at all. But then, hey, should not we discuss and debate on some speeches made by leaders invoking mythical characters? If one rejects religion and God, does it mean that they should also dismiss discussion on religion? May be not.[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…]
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…]
What is India? A question can neither be answered nor be defined easily. However, we celebrate India as a civilization, as an idea, as a nation, as a notion as a culture, as a sentiment, as an emotion and as dynamic geographical concept. We try to define in it many ways. Though everyone has the freedom of visualizing the[Read More…]
Violence has always been a tool of oppression, suppression and subordination. Though every form of violence is illegal according to the law of the land, dominant social forces (upper castes/classes) often justifies employing certain forms of violence as they believe that they are essential to keep the supposedly holy and sacred religious, social and cultural systems and customs alive[Read More…]
What is’way of life’? Till the emergence of organised religions, it seems there is no point in history where there has been a single ‘way of life’. In actuality, human in his/her struggle to survive, sustain and socialise, develops a way of life which is dominated by the reason, logic and commonsense. Imagined and incomprehensible elements play lesser role just[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…]
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…]
Forgetting the relationship between education and society and ignoring the required engagement between thinker theorists and innovators on one side and society on the other, the governments, legislators and people hypnotized by the neoliberal economy have came to an understanding that commericialisation/marketisation of education from first grade to PhD is the best way forward not for any appreciable societal transformations[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…]
In the modern democratic societies, the emergence of majoritarianism, as political ideology is a organised well thought of response of the social, religious, ethnic and racial majorities to the new progressive, democratic, secular and political philosophies/ideologies which have posed serious challenge. Afraid of losing the social and cultural monopoly, the majority invents socio-religious rituals, festivals, customs and traditions as tools[Read More…]
Melvin Krazberg who was considered to be father of History of technology proposed six laws of technology in its relationship with society know as ‘Krazberg laws’. The first law is ‘technology is neither good nor bad nor it is neutral’. There is no doubt, he was right. Yet the level and degree of good, bad and neutrality could be decided by[Read More…]
Civilised society, in India, is failing in all counts and working hard to prove that all that is so far, even it is quite minimal, acquired as positive civilisational characters such as humanism, universalism and rationalism, in actuality, are meaningless. For todays religiously indoctrinated, being religious and ritualistic is what is being civilised; rest is all peripheral and non-essential. What[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…]
Change is constant and it is what history is according to Herodotus. For Greeks, it was change and for Romans it was continuity. R. G. Collingwood saw this scientificity and humanism in Greek thought were greatest contributions of Greeks to the human civilisation while substantialism and metaphysical permanency were the weaknesses of the Roman thought. The same strands of thought[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…]
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My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
