Be critical and self-introspecting for progress of Ambedkarite movement
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…
Annihilate Caste
Remembering Baba Saheb’s historic Satyagrah for water rights at Mahad
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…
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…
How ‘Shudra’ And OBC Categories Differ?
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…
State And Annihilation Of Caste
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…
Caste System in India: from the eyes of a Retired IPS Officer turned Social Activist
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…
JatiIndia Flag of the Week
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,…
Colonial Past of hatred against Criminal Tribes community
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…
Revisiting Keezhvenmani after 50 years; The Smoldering coal-Then and now
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…
An attempt to revive the “Self-Respect movement”
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…
The Shudra Civilization
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…
Caste and Abnormality
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…
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…
Dalits V/S Bahujan
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…
Why did I accept Buddhism?
"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…
No caste for Dalit woman victim? Politics of rhetoric in responses to Hathras gang rape and murder
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…
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…
In conversation with Swati Kamble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW7o0tT1ioo&feature=youtu.be 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…
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…
Requirement Of An Independent Constitutional Body
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…
Strengthen National Commission of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
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…
Speak against the caste violence against Dalits
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…
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…
C N Annadurai on Dr.Ambedkar’s conversion
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…
Ambedkar is more relevant to Africa than Gandhi says Dr Obadele Kambon
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…
Safai Karmcharis and the alternatives for their betterment
Dr Hemangi Kadlak in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e3DBi9PAkU&feature=youtu.be Dr. Hemangi Kadlak is a native of Maharashtra, India. She did her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.…
Manual Scavenging in India: Caste Privileges and the Continuing Search for the ‘Ideal Bhangi’
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…
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…
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…
Commemorations of the Bhima Koregaon Battle Are a Reminder that Colonialism in India Predates the Arrival of the British
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…
Criminalization of Dalit Thought and Action
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…
Dalit Politics needs a New Radical Direction
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…
India’s Illegitimate Daughter
"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…
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…
Ambedkar’s radical moves beyond Dewey’s pragmatism
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…
Caste Atrocities in Tamil Nadu in the wake of Covid-19 Pandemic
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…
Should Shudras And Dalits Suffer In The Age Of George Floyd?
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…
Treacherous Road to Make Manu History
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,…
Why Dalit Lives Do Not Matter?
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…
Let us not forget the atrocities of racism in our country
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…
Dalit Lives Matter, Dalit Rights Matter !
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,…
Demand Justice For Devika’s Institutional Murder
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…
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…
Social Inequality in a Political Democracy
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…
COVID-19 lockdown and the pandemic of caste
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…
The Lockdown of Caste
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…
Operation Eklavya in Action at Premier Institutes
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…
How to be a Good Buddhist?
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.…
Shall We Change The Status Of Safai Sainiks Now? | Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
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…
COVID19 and Issues of Basic Amenities in Dalit Hamlets of Odisha
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…
For India’s untouchables social distancing has always been the daily reality of their lives
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…
Ignored Plight of Dalit Muslims
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…
The repressive caste-inequality within India’s public administration: A threat to political democracy of India
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,…
Corona Crisis and Dalit Scenario
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…
Muzzled by sympathy
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…
Uttar Pradesh leads nationally in Dalit oppression
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…
Lessons That Amrutha Taught Society
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…
Social Boycott, a powerful oppressive tool to perpetuate caste hierarchies in Gujarat
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…
Equality Labs Chases The Mother Of Inequality (Brahminism) In America | Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
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…
Centenary of Mook Nayak: Young Ambedkarites Should Take Charge of New Media
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…
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