Dr. Bhushan Amol Darkase India is a place of perverse social contradictions. A few days ago, news flashed that in the QS World University rankings, apart from IISc, eight IITs (Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Guwahati, Indore) are ranked among the top 500 globally. [1] IIT Kharagpur has an associate professor who makes casteist …
Lingayat Community’s demand for Religious Minority status
Vinay D Damodar Introduction All over India, the working of party politics bears a marked influence exercised by the caste factor. Even left parties (witness Kerala) have not escaped from the prevailing socio-political atmosphere. In Karnataka, as in several other states, the tussle for political power has evolved on clear lines. Karnataka Assembly Election is …
Lack of Mental Health Support for Bahujan Students in IITs
Pranav Jeevan P According to the ministry of education data, from 2014-2021, the IITs recorded 34 deaths by suicides of which 18 were from SC and OBC communities[1]. Dalit rights activist Anoop Kumar, in the 2011 documentary Death of Merit, said that a major section of those who committed suicides in the IITs between 2007 …
Is division and bloodbath evident in Bengal: A brief note on the demand for a separate Koch-Kamatapur state in North Bengal
Nirban Ray On June 7th, the Chief of the banned armed outfit Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO) warned Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee before her visit to North Bengal that – “Mamata Banerjee should not come to Koch-Kamatapur. She cannot interfere or oppose the formation of Koch-Kamatapur state. The situation will be horrible if force is applied. …
Slowdown in the spread of the Dalit Buddhist movement
Mrinal Kumar The Dalit Buddhist movement began after 1890s under Iyothee Thass, Anagarika Dharmapala, Col. H. S. Olcott and Madam Blavatsky. They did not get much fame in Tamil Nadu but they did the work of sowing a seed again. After 50 years, Bodhisattva Dr. B. R. Ambedkar along with 5 lakh people mainly from …
Three poems by Samkutty Pattomkary
Samkutty Pattomkary Translated from Malayalam by Sreekala Sivasankaran 1. Sea Horses in the Memories When the blue doors open Mother cries in the tender coconut shell Like a pecked out navel Novel rhythm oozes The dalit pastor screams To the bud-rotten cross Let the leaves sprout Would become the …
Asura in Postmodern Times
Dr. Y. Srinivasa Rao Nagas or Dravidians, the first migrant communities in India, are mythicised as Asuras or demons in a socio-political conspiracy of Aryan Brahmins. The word ‘Asura’ has many synonymous words such as Rakshasa, Rakshasi, Shankini, Dakini, Yakshi and Pisachi. Some of these have acquired everydayness as words of abuse and insult. Rakshasi …
Caste based structural exclusion in Azim Premji University
Ankush Uttam Helode When I hear these two words—‘Mother and Father’—it pains me a lot. This is drawn from my personal experience: my mother was so determined to pursue education when she was young, but couldn’t get one owing to her parent’s socio-economic status which made her cry many times. When I asked her what …
What of the Ukrainian working class?
Vinith Kumar This war that has now seemingly become normalized, thanks to all the noise on news channels, has had all of us wondering what it means for the world at large. Whether it would result in another world war, or if Russia will resort to using nuclear weapons, and so on. The inhuman …