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…]
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…]
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…]
In an interview sometime back, Chandrashekhar Azad alias Ravan had said that the present is the golden period of Dalit politics. By the way, if the condition and direction of Dalit politics is seen today, then it is not visible from anywhere its golden period, but it is its downfall. On one hand, while Dalit leaders have taken refuge in[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…]
Recent crime statistics released by the NCRB for the year 2020 shows that the rate of atrocities on Dalits in Uttar Pradesh is much higher than the crime rate at the national level. It is to be known that the population of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh is 21% of the total population of the state, while the crime of atrocities[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…]
According to the 2011 census, the total Scheduled Caste (Dalit) population in Uttar Pradesh is 4.13 crore, which is about 21% of the total population of Uttar Pradesh. According to the same census, there are 61.91 lakh families of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, which is 23% of the total families of Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, the total population of Scheduled Tribes[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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
In a recent interview, Chandrashekhar Azad alias Ravana has said that the present is the golden age of Dalit politics. By the way, if we look at the tenor and direction of Dalit politics, then it does not show its golden age from anywhere but it is its downfall. While Dalit leaders have taken refuge in anti-Dalit parties, the remaining[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…]
The Zameen Prapt Sangharsh Commitee has played the most defining role ever in determining the destination of the upsurge or emancipation of the dalit community of Punjab from enslavement. The movement it has inaugurated in 2014 has virtually written a new chapter or defined a new epoch in the history of struggle of Dalit agricultural labour. With detailed or incisive[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…]
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…]
Does anybody still remember the Dalits of Chakwara, a village around 50km from Jaipur in Rajasthan, who had launched a struggle to gain access to the pond in their village? It is more than 18 years since the Dalits, supported by human rights organisations, won that fight for water. Their undertaking had echoes with the historic struggle launched by Dr[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…]
Calamities are the occasion when nations and societies unlearn many things and build bridges in the greater interest of humanity. Corona crisis would have turned into a great opportunity for countries like India to overcome historical baggage of deep rooted prejudices and respect the dignity of the work and contribution of those who have made our homes, offices, cities and[Read More…]
The outlawed Ranvir Sena—the private army of upper caste landlords of Bihar—is in the news again. It recently threatened the Bihar chief of the Bhim Army, Gaurav Siraj, and one of its activists, Ved Prakash, through a Facebook post. The so-called army has “ordered” its “sainiks” to “arrest” him dead or alive. The sena is apparently peeved over how the[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…]
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…]
“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…]
One doesn’t often see a respected international media house asking a democratic republic’s prime minister to break his silence in an editorial. Even more rare is it to see this “silence” tagged with the adjective “shameful”. The New York Times did exactly that today, 4 August 2016. The editorial forewarns Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, of the bleak[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…]
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…]
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
The Contemporary Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg 
Does Court Judgement on Rahul Gandhi Breach Human Rights (Freedom of Expression) 
From Oslo to Sharm el-Sheik 
Is Washington now Khan’s Buddy? 
Nord Stream sabotage was to undercut Germany, says Seymour Hersh It Will Be Hard And Cost A Lot Of Blood For Ukraine To Kick Out Russians, Says Top U.S. General 
Saudi – Iran rapprochement: A chance for peace 
Day 30 of the NREGA Protest: Students and Activists Detained by the Delhi Police An Irrational Verdict? 
Trump Rot at the EPA 
AUKUS, the Australian Labor Party, and Growing Dissent 
Palestinians Don’t Exist? 
The Long Arm of Washington Extends Into Africa’s Sahel 
Radio Fatherland!! 
Bellies of the Rich Swell Further on the Back of Hunger 
The Big Picture And The Small – Part II 
2500 people urge Chief Minister of Karnataka to protect farmers, pastoralists and Dalits from Supreme injustice 
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
