Casteism Archives | Countercurrents

Seattle’s ban on caste discrimination has created history in America: Indian American Coalition

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…]

by Indian American Muslim Council — 22/02/2023 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

Social Justice in words, Brazen Casteism And Slavery in Practice , in Tamil Nadu

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…]

by Ramakrishnan — 07/01/2022 — 3 comments — Annihilate Caste

Salute to an anti-untouchability crusader within the Catholic Church

Today I write to celebrate the full life of a Roman Catholic Dalit priest, Rev. Dr. P. Antonyraj SJ who passed away on 10th May. I was nineteen years old studying in St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli and staying in the hostel in Room No. 101, when I had several common mentors who moulded me in my college days like Fr. P.[Read More…]

by Henri Tiphagne — 14/05/2021 — Comments are Disabled — Life/Philosophy

Untouchable

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…]

by Neha Mundhra — 18/03/2021 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

A Dalit and a Brahmin

“I hear the lower castes are finding this lack of monsoons rather difficult for their crops,” droned Aashka’s father at their lavish supper (as usual), in the midst of her father’s normal dull conversing with the other Brahmins. The table was long and elegant and filled every night with rich Brahmins, such as Aashka’s family. Most of them were reserved[Read More…]

by Sophie Michel — 29/12/2020 — 1 comment — Arts/Literature

So You want to ally with the Dalit Rights Movement?

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…]

by Shivani Waldekar — 28/10/2020 — 1 comment — Annihilate Caste

Government must ensure our elite institutions free from caste prejudices

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…]

by Vidya Bhushan Rawat — 12/10/2020 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

Who all among you is a “Srivastava”? Why Education Cannot be the Only Answer to Annihilation of Caste

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…]

by Nidhi Prabha — 08/10/2020 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

Why is Bengal still Caste-less?

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…]

by Anamika Das — 21/09/2020 — 4 comments — Annihilate Caste

Understanding The Dalit Struggle For Identity In Gujarat

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…]

by Abigail Shannon Kellogg — 20/08/2020 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

I was born a bad person and my fellow savarnas, so were you all

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…]

by Akshat Jain — 14/08/2020 — 3 comments — Annihilate Caste

Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go

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…]

by Subhash Gatade — 15/07/2020 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

Are Casteism and Racism Blood Brothers?

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…]

by Izza Ahsan — 09/06/2020 — Comments are Disabled — Annihilate Caste

No Court Of Law Can Stigmatise A Community

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…]

by Monica Vincent — 05/06/2017 — 3 comments — Annihilate Caste

An Honest And Simple Test For Racism And Casteism

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…]

by Dr Subramani Mani — 07/09/2016 — 1 comment — Annihilate Caste, Human Rights

Social Icons

Post Tagged with: "Casteism"