For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Rahul Gaikwad Every now and then one comes across some or the other celebrated so-called progressive leader/writer/activist who turns out to be absolutely shallow, superfluous and even hypocritical upon closer examination. This has been the case with Vijay Tendulkar and his Kanyadaan drama; or Pandit Anand Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade where he portrayed Ambedkarite assertion …
Ravikant Kisana As I paced around my house at 1am in the night, I realized I didn’t own any ropes. I wondered if ripping out the straps of my backpack and tying it together with horizontal strips cut from my towels would make a strong enough noose to hang myself with. Then in …
Nidhin Donald (നിധിൻ ഡൊണാൾഡ്) (Translated into Malayalam by Abhijith Baawa) ആമുഖം: സർവ്വകലാശാല എന്ന ‘ആശയ’വും ജനാധിപത്യം, ദേശ നിർമ്മാണം(nation building), വിജ്ഞാനോൽപ്പാദനം എന്നിവയുമായുള്ള അതിന്റെ ബന്ധവും സാമൂഹ്യശാസ്‌ത്രജ്ഞരും നയരൂപീകരണ വിദഗ്ധരും പലപ്പോഴും ആഴത്തിലുള്ളതും ചരിത്രപരവുമായ വിശകലനങ്ങൾക്കും സംവാദങ്ങൾക്കും വിധേയമാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്‌.1 എന്നാൽ അത്തരം വിശകലനങ്ങൾ പലപ്പോഴും സർവകലാശാലകൾ സ്ഥാപിക്കുകയും രൂപവൽക്കരിക്കുകയും നിലനിർത്തുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നതിൽ അടങ്ങിയിരിക്കുന്ന സാമൂഹിക ഘടനകളുടെയും അതിന്റെ പ്രവർത്തനത്തിന്റെയും വ്യക്തവും (perceptive) ചരിത്രപരവുമായ പരിശോധനയായിരുന്നില്ല. മറ്റൊരു തരത്തിൽ പറഞ്ഞാൽ, യൂനിവേഴ്‌സിറ്റികൾ എന്ന ആശയം പലപ്പോഴും …
Nidhin Shobhana In the name of the Nation: Historicizing Caste in Indian Universities (with special reference to Jawaharlal Nehru University) Setting up the Stage The ‘idea’ of a university and its connections to democracy, nation-building and knowledge production have been historically discussed and debated by several social scientists and policy-makers in great depth1. Such discussions have …
Tejas Harad When Rahul Pandita, a Brahmin, writes about Naxalism, does his scholarship benefit the Adivasis for whom Naxalism is a lived reality or does it benefit Pandita himself? When Anand Patwardhan, a Brahmin, makes documentaries about Dalits, does his work benefit the Dalits or Patwardhan himself? When Arundhati Roy, a Syrian Christian, writes …
Mahitosh Mandal “‘What is it Kusum’, I said, ‘What are you thinking of?’ ‘Saar,’ she said, wiping her face, ‘the worst part was not the hunger or the thirst. It was to sit there helpless and listen to the policemen making their announcement, hearing them say that our lives, our existence, was worth less …
Harshada Vinaya With an intention to build a constructive dialogue and build a support network amongst the Dalit Bahujan students in the UK, a meeting was organised on the 20th of July 2015 in London. The objective of this meeting was primarily to form a network of the Dalit Bahujan students in the UK …
Yogesh Maitreya When I reached the 7th Grade, my parents admitted me into a school that was run by a Hindu nationalist trust. Sanskrit, which was foreign to my tongue till then, became the compulsory language for my 7th grade curriculum. The teacher who was to teach us Sanskrit was a traditional Brahmin- a …
Free Kashmiri Political Prisoners, an online campaign to release Kashmiri political prisoners from various Indian jails, has attracted endorsement and support from academics, intellectuals and filmmakers from around the world. Eminent intellectuals and scholars like Judith Butler (Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School and Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature, …