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…]
“In these four years, I also saw with, some disquiet, forces of divisiveness and intolerance trying to raise their ugly head. Attacks on weaker sections that militate against our national ethos are aberrations that need to be dealt with firmly. The collective wisdom of our society and our polity gives me confidence that such forces will remain marginalized, and India’s[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…]
Narendra Modi’s high octane poll campaign was littered with the promise of Development, with a capital D. Big business, in India and abroad, had bought his promise too. And now, after a little more than 2 years old premiership, the developments under his watch have rattled most of them. The ‘developments’ were not the “development” they were looking for. Further,[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…]
Thousands and thousands of Dalits have come out on streets in different parts of the state, gheraoed government offices, damaged government property, enforced state-widebandh and tried to bring the government to its knees, demanding severe punishment to the guilty and strict action against the police and government officials who failed to act upon their complaint when they were being publicly brutalised.
Dear Gau Rakshaks, I am happy to see your anxiety in connection with the protection of the members of my species. I have heard that you stripped, flogged, and paraded some poor men for skinning a dead cow. You flogged them tethering their hands together and fastening them to the backside of a posh vehicle! If you are[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…]
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…]
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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…]
