Abu Dhabi :The spotlight was once again on India at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, courtesy a British filmmaker. Kim Longinotto in ‘Pink Saris’ depicted the evils of child marriage and the caste conflict in the interiors of northern India – and a woman’s fight to bring about change.
Dalit Feminism
M. Swathy Margaret (First published in the March-April 2005 issue of Insight Young Voices magazine) I am a Dalit-middle-class, University educated, Telugu speaking Dalit-Christian-Woman. All these identities have a role in the way I perceive myself and the worlds I inhabit. I, as a Dalit woman, primarily write for Dalit women to uphold our …
Shampoo & social equality
Ila Patnaik Economists have tended to focus on expenditure patterns, consumption and income to assess poverty and inequality in rural India. Within these categories, the debate among economists normally focuses on the average consumer or the one living below the poverty line. This approach fits well with methods for studying changing inequality in most countries. …
Dalit woman thanks nun for newfound courage
CATHNEWS A dalit woman has thanked a Catholic nun for helping her to overcome the prejudice and corruption that could have cost her livelihood.Upper caste parents voiced opposition to Teju Bai’s job as a school cook in Madhya Pradesh, asserting that her former “untouchable” caste status would render the food impure and inedible.“But I did …
‘Names of women folk poets wiped off’
INDIA BLOOMS New Delhi: Names of several women folk poets were systematically wiped off, said Vishnu Khare, well-known poet, translator and critic.He was speaking at the 11th Friday Seminar Lecture series organized by the School of Gender and Development Studies, IGNOU. The topic of the lecture was “The Daughters of Punna and Mutta: Contemporary Women …
Tamil Dalit literature: an overview.
THE FREE LIBRARY Dalit studies in Tamil has its foundational stage. Historically, Dalit literature witnessed a rather late start in Tamil as compared to its counterpart in Marathi or Kannada. As a result, theorization of Dalit writing or a systematic critical corpus has not been developed yet. The author urges the literary critics to start …
Untouchable: Dalit women in India
Laura Smith-Gary (First published Equal Writes website in September 2009) Earlier this summer, in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and the home of over 190 million individuals, fury and small-scale violence erupted when a Brahmin (upper-caste) political opponent of the state’s Chief Minister appeared to suggest the Chief Minister, a Dalit woman …