Translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar After that the Arya Brahmans began to treat with disdain all the Kshudra peasant slaves who had come under their control. They completely stopped giving them education and brought their condition below the level of animals. And since they became illiterate and completely without access to knowledge, the Arya Brahmans plunder …
Notes on Forbesganj Violence
by Ashok Yadav & Khalid Anis Ansari The police firing and subsequent killing of five OBC Muslims in Bhajanpur village in Forbesganj of Araria district in Bihar on June 3, 2011 has been analyzed in most reports in the public sphere through the frame of ‘communalism’ and there has been little effort to grapple with …
Why do we choose to forget our past?
Mallepally Lakshmaiah Is there a single village in India which has no Dalit? There could be a few exceptions but we do find Dalits in most parts of India – who have fought the system relentlessly. Every village has produced its very own Dalit social revolutionary but is there any Dalit reformer with a …
Hindu nationalism & women
Gail Omvedt Dalits have reason to be worried, with the RSS in control of the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Not only is it in a position to impose its cultural agenda on the nation, but it also seems to be moving to cut off the development of a Dalit intelligentsia which has been one …
First feminist war of the new century
by Chandra Bhan Prasad British imperialism did help serve the Dalits’ cause. The sciences, modern institutions and democracy were attendant features of colonialism which, in turn, shook the very foundations of the Varna order. The British, however, had no such intent when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a few London businessmen on December 31, …
Jotiba Phule and Tilak and the question of education for Women and non-Brahmins
—Anoop Kumar I am posting a few extracts from a paper written by Parimala V. Rao (“Educating Women and Non-Brahmins as ‘Loss of Nationality’: Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the Nationalist Agenda in Maharashtra“). This was published as an ocassional paper by the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. She is also the author of …
Our women must either be a wife, widow or a Devadasi
by Olutosin Oladosu -Adebowale In our community, there are only three roles for women; a wife, widow or Devadasi…… Please go to my village and rescue other girls who are about to be initiated too… I was told that I was dedicated to our god when I was three months old and was taken to …
Krishna and Narmada
by Gail Omvedt THE KOYNA, built high in Satara district of the Sahyadris on one of the major tributaries of the Krishna, is a big dam, a ”major irrigation project” in the terminology of the Indian Government. Its reservoir has a storage capacity of 98 tmcft and the dam generates over 900 MW of electricity. …
An Open Letter To Arundhati Roy
by Gail Omvedt Dear Arundhati, I’m sorry to have to write a critical letter to you. I very much liked The God of Small Things. I also appreciated your intervention on the nuclear issue. I was impressed on reading in Indian Express that you had decided to donate some royalties to the Dalit Sahitya Academy. …