(First published in September 2005) A Preliminary Fact Finding Report By N. Paul Divakar, National Convenor, NCDHR, Dr. Vimal Thorat, National Co-Convenor, NCDHR, Ms. Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD, Dr. Umakant, Secretary-Advocacy, NCDHR And Others ~~~~ Dalit Houses Burnt Down at Gohana in Haryana Gohana is a small Tehsil, a local administrative unit, in Sonepat District in the State of Haryana. It is situated about …
Road To Conversion: The Chakwada Detour
Dr. Udit Raj (First published in October 2002) Hindutva organisations are outraged over conversions, and their outrage prevents them from entering into negotiations with Muslim and Christian leaders. But have they ever bothered to understand the plight of Dalits? Dalits and backwards consider themselves Hindus, but Hinduism does not respond to them; otherwise, there would …
Mirchpur Carnage Against Dalits
Fact-Finding Report Of Mirchpur Carnage Against Dalits On 21 April 2010 That the Hindus most often succeed in pulling down Untouchables is largely due to many causes. The Hindu has the Police and the Magistracy on his side. In a quarrel between the Untouchables and the Hindus the Untouchables will never get protection from the Police or justice …
What is wrong with Bhagvad Gita? (Part II)
Rahul Bhalerao Continued from here. Coming back to the justifications given by the supporters of Gita, one finds that they are merely based on a few ambiguous individual verses scattered around the Gita. They certainly lack the holistic understanding and message that Gita preaches; let alone the interpretations that have evolved in practice since the …
On Reservation Policy for Private Sector
Sukhadeo Thorat (First published in June 2004) Given the range of economic discrimination against marginalised groups like SCs, STs and OBCs the reservation policy for the private sector ought to cover not only employment, but also markets, agricultural land, capital, consumer goods, education, housing, government contracts, etc. Faced with caste related discrimination against and deprivation of marginalised …
What is wrong with Bhagvad Gita?
Rahul Bhalerao Recent controversies, both local and international, have sparked a series of discussions and debates in media and social networks about the Hindu holy book Bhagvad Gita. When the Karnataka Education minister decided to saffronize the education system by proposing Gita teachings to be made compulsory, the left, liberal and secular voices attacked …
Loot of SC/ST funds in last year’s Union Budget
Karthik Navayan A February 2011 press release of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan says: * Once again UPA Denies SCs Rs.Cr. 24,570 in Scheduled caste Plan and STs Rs.Cr. 10530 in Tribal Sub Plan * Together for SCs & STs, allocates only 4.03% for in both Plan and Non-plan budgets *The …
An Egyptian evolution
Kancha Ilaiah (First published in February 2011) The Egyptian revolution, perhaps, would be to the Islamic world what the French Revolution was to the Christian world. The Western intellectual predilection that the Islamic world is trapped in feudal Islamic dictatorships is likely to be disproved with this revolution. In fact, Western thinkers forget that the …
Jotirao Phule: Shetkaryaca Asud (Part 11)
APPENDIX A So-Called True Maratha Just while I was taking up some other work after finishing the second part of Asud, a gentleman with a wide Brahman turban, seating himself upon a bolster in front of me, started intensely inspecting everything around him. I was wondering whether to call this gentleman a Marwari, but he didn’t have three …