An excerpt from ‘Courting Disaster: A Report on Inter-Caste Marriages, Society and State’, a People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) report published in August 2003. Talao in Jhajjar district of Haryana retains the appearance of a village despite being situated only three kilometers from the district headquarters. The village has a population of about 4000, with 600 …
Why I Decided To Convert The Dalits Of Jhajjar
Dr. Udit Raj (First published in October 2002) If you had visited Badshahpur, Akhlimpur, or Tikli with me on October 22 and seen what I saw, you would have decided right then and there to give a call to all the Dalits of the area to convert to Buddhism, Christianity or Islam. Anything but Hinduism. …
Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – An Appeal
Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – An Appeal 17/02/2012 To Shri Kiran Kumar Reddy Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Subject: Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – an appeal for a two days discussion on this subject in two houses of the Andhra …
Modernity and Its Margins: A Critique
CREST National Lecture in Memory of Shri. K.R. Narayanan, former President of India delivered by Gopal Guru The above title contains four fairly loaded terms. These terms also look as if they are standing alone in isolation without making any coherent meaning. Still worse, they might look vague if we fail to forge connectivity between them. They need to …
Popular Culture and Ideology: The Phenomenon of Gaddar
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 …
‘We will do a Chunduru on you!’
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 …
Hindutva and ethnicity
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 …
Desecration of Ambedkar statues: Truth is the first casualty
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 …
Killing of Rohit Prajapati by the Jharkhand Police in an alleged fake encounter
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 …