by Chandra Bhan Prasad British imperialism did help serve the Dalits’ cause. The sciences, modern institutions and democracy were attendant features of colonialism which, in turn, shook the very foundations of the Varna order. The British, however, had no such intent when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a few London businessmen on December 31, …
Krishna and Narmada
by Gail Omvedt THE KOYNA, built high in Satara district of the Sahyadris on one of the major tributaries of the Krishna, is a big dam, a ”major irrigation project” in the terminology of the Indian Government. Its reservoir has a storage capacity of 98 tmcft and the dam generates over 900 MW of electricity. …
An Open Letter To Arundhati Roy
by Gail Omvedt Dear Arundhati, I’m sorry to have to write a critical letter to you. I very much liked The God of Small Things. I also appreciated your intervention on the nuclear issue. I was impressed on reading in Indian Express that you had decided to donate some royalties to the Dalit Sahitya Academy. …
Wealth in the Bhopal meet
by Chandrabhan Prasad The Dalits constitute one-fourth of India’s population – about 250 million people – equivalent to the combined populations of four European nations (255.10 million): France (58m), UK (58.30m), Germany (81.60m) and Italy (57.20m).
Village deities
Siddalingaiah, a major Kannada poet and activist, was a founder of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti, which launched a powerful Dalit movement in Karnataka in the mid-1970s. He obtained a doctoral degree from Bangalore University for his research on village deities. His publications include Gramadevathegalu, a study of village deities in Karnataka, Ooru-Keri, an influential autobiography, …
Intro Dalit Poetry in Malayalam
by K M Sherrif Dalit poetry as a distinctive mode arrived in Malayalam literature at the end of the Eighties of the last century. Not that poetry with a distinct Dalit sensibility by Dalit writers was absent in Malayalam literature before that. Pandit Karuppan’s Jathikkummi (Caste Songs) were written in 1904. Karuppan, a Dalit from …
A Study on Dalit Women Movement in Tamilnadu
by Dr. R. Sivakumar Even as we are in the 21st century, caste discrimination, an age- old practice that dehumanizes and perpetuates a cruel form of discrimination continues to be practiced. India where the practice is rampant despite the existence of a legislation to stop this, 160 million Dalits of which 49.96 percentage are women …
Disturbing Aspects of Kerala Society
Gail Omvedt Arundhati Roy’s prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things, focuses on the most socially explosive of all relationships in India, a love affair between a dalit man and a high-caste woman. It ends with the brutal murder of the man by the police, “history’s henchmen,” and the woman’s banishment — punishments for …
And thus spoke Gama Ram
by Chandrabhan Prasad The other day, I was pleasantly surprised to have Gama Ram at my home. He is thought of as a “living legend” among senior Dalits. He became a Sub-Inspector with the UP Police in February 1948. “At the time, becoming a Sub-Inspector was a lot bigger than becoming an IPS officer today,” …