For An Informed Ambedkar Age
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 …
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 …
Braj Ranjan Mani Jotirao Phule, and his wife Savitribai, declared war on brahmanic-casteist culture and religion. This Maharashtrian couple presented the first major anti-caste ideology and led a mass activism against the ascriptive norms and values. Their distinct brand of socio-cultural radicalism was based on uniting all the oppressed, whom they would call stree-shudra-atishudra. (Literally, …
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 …
Dr. K. Jamanadas (First published in Dalit Voice in March 2000) This has reference to the article on rivalry of subcastes Madigas and Malas among the SCs, and a frank debate welcomed by our editor (Dalit Voice, vol.15, no.21). Our editor has welcomed the rivalry among the subcastes in these words: “There is nothing …
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 …
Kanshi Ram will be remembered as someone who almost completely changed the rules of Indian politics over the last two decades. Few political analysts would disagree that his unique brand of social engineering and organisational skills succeeded in uniting India’s low caste Dalit community into a formidable political force in several states.
Kanshi Ram – founder of Bahujan Samaj Party Kanshi Ram was born to Bishan Kaur and Hari Singh at Khawapur village in Ropar district of Punjab. After completing his Bachelor’s degree in Science (B.Sc) from the Government College at Ropar affiliated to The Punjab University he joined the offices of Defense Research & Development Organisation …