Round Table India brings together perspectives from Dalit and Bahujan communities.
Beyond the Gold Controversy: Appropriation and the Historical Making of Sabarimala
Why Kali is not my Qween?!
John Ramachandran In shallow mainstream and pseudo-progressive narrative, Kali is described as fierce and embodiment of power, femininity and even queerness. But, none of those narratives analyses to whom she was fierce and over whom she was powerful. Before going into the analysis let’s see who Kali is and what was the outcome of her …
Karukku and Patricia Williams in a Private University: A Futile Exercise in a Savarna Space
Bhartrhari Srinivasan The idea of reading Karakku was inspired by anger and, to a large extent, a feeling of suffocation in a system that erased caste and appropriated it depending on what was convenient. However, I soon realised that there does not exist as of yet, or at least I am not aware of, a …
The Savarna Bhaskar politics
Deepali Salve We recently saw Swara Bhaskar’s public display of ‘grihapravesh’ rituals following the norms and traditions of Hinduism. They were presided upon by a Brahmin priest, upholding the systematic exploitation of caste, class and gender. There is nothing wrong with this religious display – it has been kept alive for the …
So you want to ally with the Dalit Rights Movement?
Shivani Waldekar On 25th May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis, USA. A video showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was pinned to the floor went viral. Following this, large anti-racism protests took place with many white …
The twice born parasite
Dhamma Darshan Nigam The COVID-19 pandemic has made clearly visible the deep chasm of inequality in the Indian society: it is our Bahujan folks who are suffering the most. However, for the Brahminical media and academia (BMA), their suffering is just a “poverty” issue, they portray that people are suffering just because they are poor. …
RSS’s Hogwash on Ambedkar
N. Sukumar and Shailaja Menon (The following article is in response to Arun Anand’s (CEO of Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra, an RSS affiliate) write-up in The Print (online 14th April 2020). We sent a mail on the same day to contest the false claims but there has been no response a week later.) In the …
Who does Rohith belong to?
Ravikant Kisana On 28th January 2020, standup comedian Kunal Kamra walked up to BJP-ally & news anchor Arnab Goswami on the Mumbai-Lucknow Indigo flight and heckled him for a minute on camera. For many a sufferer of Goswami’s bombastic bullying on prime time, this was a moment of apt retribution and karmic justice. For …
The power and the danger of personal stories
Anand Silodia Babasaheb said, “Ours is a battle, not for wealth or power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of the human personality.” What does it mean, the reclamation of human personality? You reclaim something that you have lost. How does one lose one’s human personality? The caste …