Thought

Political radicals but social Tories

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by Chandrabhan Prasad The entire anti-Congress formation, including the intelligentsia, had hailed NT Rama Rao as the saviour who uprooted the Congress from the largest southern state. To be bracketed in the “progressive” club then, one had to demonstrate his or her anti-Congress credentials. Quite logically then, NTR was made chairperson of the National Front. …

Thought

Does India deserve international curbs?

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by Chandrabhan Prasad A novelist friend has just returned from Oxford. She was there to attend a Dalit-related talk where the UN-sponsored World Conference Against Racism, to be held in Durban this year, came up for discussion. She wondered why European scholars were not easily prepared to equate caste-based discrimination with that of race. Another …

Thought

The Dalits lose their mirror & Ramdhan

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by Chandrabhan Prasad Despite having been close to becoming the first Dalit Chief Minister of UP, Ramdhanji has died an unsung death. On May 23, 2001, Dalits lost the mirror which most truthfully reflected the social contradictions of the “cow belt”. Read More Ramdhanji supported Indira Gandhi to the hilt during the Congress’ first split …

Thought

Liberty, Equality, Community

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Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Vision Of A New Social Order by Gail Omvedt It is truly an honour to be given the opportunity to deliver the first Dr. Ambedkar memorial lecture of the new century and the new millennium. Though this is officially the 5th Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Annual Lecture for the Year 1999, it has …

Thought

Nation and civilisation

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by Gail Omvedt To hold that distinctions of caste are really distinctions of race and to treat different castes as though they were so many different races is a gross perversion of the facts. What affinity is there between the Brahman of the Punjab and the Brahman of Madras? What affinity is there between the …

Dr. Ambedkar

ANCIENT INDIAN COMMERCE

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ANCIENT INDIAN COMMERCE                                                           COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF INDIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST * The imperial Romans flashed their sword both in the East and the West with different results. In the East ” they conquered the world only to give it to ” *(……..) in the West however ” they either Romanised the races who …

Thought

An open letter to Bangaru Laxman

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by Gail Omvedt Dear Siri–Sami Bangaru Laxman, I would like to congratulate you on becoming the president of the BJP. (I should also preface this by explaining why I address you as Siri: Shri is Sankskritised and north Indian; most Maharashtrian Dalits prefer Ayushaman. Tamils, on the other hand, prefer Thiru. You, I understand, are …