For An Informed Ambedkar Age
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 …
Gail Omvedt [An excerpt from the chapter Navayana Buddhism and the Modern Age from her book Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste] Apart from Gandhi, another strongly seductive opponent to the fascination for Buddhism emerged in the 1930s. This was Marxism, which was increasingly gathering strength as an ideology among the younger and militant …
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 …
Thenmozhi Soundararajan “A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.” — Malcolm X Story. Story. Story is the shortest distance between two people. This piece of wisdom has stayed …
QUESTION: Why are you so hostile to all the national parties, especially the communists? KANSHI RAM: To my mind, all parties represent the forces of status quo. For us, politics is the politics of transformation. The existing parties are the reason for the status quo. That is why there has been no upward mobility …
To, Hon’ble Shri Kapil Sibal Human Resource Development Minister Government of India Subject: Regarding OBC quota implementation in Delhi University. Sir, We wish to draw your attention to the news item that appeared in different newspapers on October 7, 2011. The headline in The Hindustan Times says – HC asks DU to convert 50 vacant …
A Joint Statement by Vikas Samvad and the Asian Human Rights Commission Despicable it might be, yet it is a relatively irrelevant incident in India. The latest is the case of Firoz, a 12-year-old boy who is now reportedly suffering from serious psychological trauma after being forced by a Head Constable of the Railway Protection …
by Prakash Holayar, Chamarajanagar [Pronouncement of Court verdicts in cases pertaining to Dalit’s murders, massacres and atrocities often takes several years. In this article Prakash recounts the Badanavalu Caste Clashes and the final verdict; we invite writers to share their experience and memory of such caste clashes and participate in the documentation of delays and …
by Ajmal Kamal Premchand (1880 – 1936) can be counted as a sympathetic voice against caste discrimination, although in recent times the Dalit circles in India are reported to have severely criticized him for being less than sensitive to the miserable life of the lower castes in the rural North India. However, in his writings …