Round Table India
It is our pleasure to invite friends in Kolkata to the book launch event to be held on:
Date: Saturday, February 27
Time: 5:30 PM in UTC
Place: Earthcare Books, 10 Middleton Street, Kolkata, India, 700 071
Organised by: Ambedkar Age Collective; Calcutta Research Group: Earthcare Books, The Shared Mirror Publishing House
Key Speakers:
* Pasupati Prasad Mahato, anthropologist & activist;
* Manoranjan Byapari, writer;
* Manohar Mouli Biswas, writer, President, Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha & Editor, Dalit Mirror;
* Dr Nandini Saha, Professor of English, Jadavpur university
* Mahitosh Mandal, Assistant Professor of English, Presidency University;
* Naren Bedide (Kuffir), Contributing Editor, Round Table India
The Roy-Navayana project of ‘introducing’ the seminal text of Dr. Ambedkar’s ‘Annihilation of Caste’ through Navayana Publications’ annotated edition with a preface/introduction from Arundhati Roy triggered a series of nationwide debates.
The debates revolved around knowledge production, dissemination and preservation of Brahmanic hegemony in the context of the Roy-Navayana project which was blatant commerce and Brahmanism packaged as anti-caste literature. The debates, which featured in the Dalitbahujan portal Round Table India, culminated in the book ‘Hatred in the belly: Politics behind appropriation of Dr. Ambedkar’s writings.’
This event would mark the launch of the book in Kolkata and further the discussions and struggle against Brahmanical hegemony.
All are Welcome. Jai Bhim!
About the speakers:
Dr Pasupati Prasad Mahato is an anthropologist, folklorist, singer and social activist. He is the author of the seminar work, “Sanskritization Vs Nirbakization: A Study on Cultural Silence and Ethnic Memocide in Jharkhand”.
Manohar Mouli Biswas, a Dalit literary activist for over three decades, is President, Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, and editor of the Dalit journals, Chaturtha Duniya and Dalit Mirror. “Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal”, the English translation of BIswas’ book, was published in 2015.
Manoranjan Byapari, a self-educated man, is the author of 11 novels, 5 books and about 100 essays. In 2014 he was awarded the Paschimbanga Bengali Akademy award for his autobiographical work, “Itibritte Chandal Jibon”.
Dr. Nandini Saha is Professor, Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Apart from her interest in British postmodern fiction, she has worked in the fields of Indian Writing in English, Women’s Writing, and Dalit Studies. Insofar as her interest in Dalit studies is concerned, she is interested in the interface of gender and caste, and in the writings of Dalit women. She has recently finished her translation of the short stories of the Bengali Dalit woman writer Kalyani Thakur. She has presented a number of papers in international seminars on Bengali Dalit literature, Ambedkar’s writings, and the need to include Dalit writings in the syllabi of Indian universities.
Mr. Mahitosh Mandal is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Presidency University, Kolkata. Mahitosh Mandal’s research interests include Dalit Studies, Hinduism, and Psychoanalysis. He wrote his MPhil dissertation on the interface between Freudo-Lacanian psychoanalysis and the novels of John Fowles. He has presented papers and taught courses in the field of psychoanalytic literary criticism. As a Dalit studies scholar, he is interested in the lived experience of, and the representational violence done to, the Dalits. As a critical student of B R Ambedkar and Antonio Gramsci, he is interested in the possibility of a transformative structural change for the Dalits and the Subalterns on the lines of cultural counter-hegemony and political activism. In his recent research projects he is engaged in an Ambedkarite critique of the religious question in colonial India. He has written a number of articles and delivered a number of talks on the sufferings of the Dalit in contemporary India.
via Rama Sangye
