For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Asian Human Rights Commission Statement There is no doubt that security to life and property is a fundamental right of every Indian. It is equally the duty of the state to protect it. The safety of a nation is directly proportionate to the collective notion of security of every citizen of that country. The single …
A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Vigil India movement The ‘Made Snana’ practiced at the Kukke Subramanya temple, near Mangalore attracts severe criticism and equal amount of support in India. The practice involves devotees allowed to roll over plantain leaves; reportedly after dominant caste Brahmins have eaten from the leaves. …
A Statement from the International Dalit Solidarity Network forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission We, over hundred Dalit activists and social movement leaders from the caste affected countries of Bangladesh, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Senegal and Yemen, solidarity networks from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, members of International Organizations, …
Vicky Nanjappa A report of the National People’s Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of ‘torture’ under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. According to the tribunal, …
Prof. Raj Kumar Hans Exploring histories of Dalit literature in different languages of India is to encounter the deserts of neglects, silences and exclusions. The ‘Progressive Punjab’ is no exception to this sub-continental reality despite claims that Brahmanical ideology and its resultant social structures had considerably weakened in the Punjab due to the impact …
Asian Human Rights Commission Statement Orissa is one of the states in India that has failed to assimilate the spirit of the 73rd amendment of the Indian constitution, which provides a constitutional framework to the Panchayat Raj. The state has also failed to appreciate the Right to Information Act, 2005. The state’s bureaucracy behaves as …
2 Oct 2011 The ‘Saranda’ literally means a forest of seven hundred small hills is also known as the largest Sal Forest in Asia, situated in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Approximately, 10,000 Adivasi families with the population of 1 lakh 25 thousand Adivasis live in the forest. The Adivasis depend on agriculture, forest produces …
Barbara Crossette [From The New York Times archives] A brown washcloth in hand to mop his brow under the fiery Indian sun, Kanshi Ram stepped up to the microphones to start a revolution. Tens of thousands of India’s most disadvantaged people – the poor, the powerless, the untouchables – sat along the capital’s stately …
Steven R. Weisman [From The New York Times archives] Anyone who finishes third in a local election in India can usually start thinking about retirement. But the recent third-place showing in a parliamentary race by Kanshi Ram, a fiery champion of the rights of untouchables and other low castes, was strong enough to shake …