For An Informed Ambedkar Age
P Kesava Kumar (First published in February 2010) The cultural sphere has its own advantage over politics in terms of pulling people into its fold. Through his songs and cultural performances, Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as “Gaddar”, the Telugu poet singer, maintains the historical continuity of people’s lives and their struggles. He brings politics into everyday life situations and …
Desecration of Ambedkar statues: Truth is the first casualty (Part II) Continued from here. In this concluding part on the issue of desecration of Dr Ambedkar’s statues in Andhra Pradesh, G Jhansi, of Dalit Sthree Sakthi, maps for us the morphing forms of atrocities on dalit assertions. In her analytical narrative of the complex caste …
Gail Omvedt (First published in February 2003) The antagonism to conversion rests on an ideological foundation which takes ethnicity, that is a presumed community of blood and heritage, as central. IN 1996, during a six-month employment in Bhubaneshwar, fascinated by the beauty and antiquity of the area, I travelled with friends to Konarak and to …
Truth, they say, is the first casualty in any war. Was it a caste war which triggered the series of desecrations of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statues in Andhra Pradesh, starting with the destruction of four statues in Amalapuram on the night of 22nd January? Was it the result of inter-group rivalry among State Congress leaders? Was …
Jharkhand Human Rights Movement (JHRM) writes to the National Human Rights Commission on Killing of Mr. Rohit Prajapati by the Police in an alleged fake encounter To, Mr. Satyabrata Pal, Hon’ble Member, The National Human Rights Commission, Faridcourt House, Copernicus Marge, New Delhi-1 Sub: For investigation and necessary action on a case of killing of …
Cynthia Stephen (Book Review) [Debrahmanising History : Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society By Braj Ranjan Mani, Manohar, New Delhi, 2005, pp.456, Rs 895 (Hb), Rs 395 (Pb), ISBN 81-7304-640-9 (Hb) ISBN 81-7304-648-4 (Pb)] In recent years, Indian Historiography has had its share of controversies. The ‘saffron’ rewriting of the history textbooks and the stoppage of the publication …
Chandra Bhan Prasad (First pubished in April 2003) “How could Maya do it, without the cow-belt having undergone a cultural revolution?” the ecstatic D Shyam Babu, a new age Dalit scholar, exclaimed. We were analysing the BSP’s triumph in the UP Assembly elections and, sitting glued to the news channels, watching Brahman/Rajput/Bania MLAs pay obeisance …
Braj Ranjan Mani (First published in 2009) The image of India is that of a democratic, multicultural, inclusive society. But more often than not, appearances are not reality. India is a republic—a secular, socialist, democratic republic—where millions of children, women and men remain demoralised, enslaved to the powerful, crying out for fundamentals of life. Fragmented …
Gail Omvedt (An excerpt from the book ‘Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste’) While Nandanar has become well-known only in Tamil Nadu and has had no recorded influence on other bhakti sants, the Chamar or leatherworker, Ravidas, who lived in the 15th century, is one of the most famous of sants in north India and has …