Sumeet Samos Introduction During a conversation with a friend recently, he suggested I check out the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. Casually, I checked into LinkedIn, and immediately three to four names popped up: one Tamil Brahmin and the other three Bengali Brahmins. We smiled at each other and said, “Of course, who else?” without being surprised …
Ambedkarite Questions for Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘The Heart Skipped A Beat’
Snehashish Das Ambedkarite Questions to the Neeraj Ghaywan directed episode ‘The Heart Skipped A Beat’ in Made in Heaven Although there are indeed the portraits of Buddha and Babasaheb portrayed in the Neeraj Ghaywan-directed episode ‘The Heart Skipped a Beat’ in the 2nd season of Made in Heaven, we must examine what is really Ambedkarite …
Caste-based Discrimination and Suicides in Navodaya Vidyalayas: A Grave Concern
Neeraj Bunkar Navodaya Vidyalayas, established under the vision of the former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi, were conceived to ensure holistic development of underprivileged children from rural areas and promote social justice. Presently, there are around 700 such residential schools across India, aiming to provide quality education to marginalized students. However, instances of caste-based discrimination …
Reading Kanthapura: The Curious Case of the Cat’s Asceticism
Ankit Ramteke Raja Rao wrote Kanthapura in the 1930s when he was a twenty-one-year-old, living “in a 13th-century old castle in the French Alps belonging to the Dauphins of France” (Naik 60). It was first published in 1938, and since then, starting from E.M. Forster’s famous remark — that it was one of the finest …
Contextualising Manu as a ‘hireling’: A Critical Analysis of Chapter VII in the Manusmriti
Somnath Pati “It has an affirmation of life, a triumphing, agreeable sensation in life, and that to draw up a lawbook such as Manu means to permit oneself to get the upper hand, to become perfect, to be ambitious of the highest art of living.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (attributed) Finding Manu’s verses “inspiring” and acting …
Panchayat: Rural Dalit In Savarna Fantasy
Neeraj Bunkar The idea of the village has always been depicted through the eyes of the oppressor. Bollywood curated this in the visual culture and now ‘Over the Top’ (OTT) platforms are playing this role. A recently released web series, Panchayat, adds to this vision and imagination of the village. If you give it a …
An Era of the stooges
Part – IIIThe Chamcha Age(AN ERA OF THE STOOGES) “The Joint Electorates is from the point of the Hindus to use a familiar phrase a “rotten borough” in which the Hindus get the right to nominate an untouchable to set nominally as a representative of the untouchables but really as a tool of the Hindus.” …
4th World Atheist Conference Number – Periyar on God
4th World Atheist Conference Number – Periyar on God There is no god!; There is no god at all; He who created god is a fool; He who propagates god is a rogue; He who worships god is a barbarian. I will explain further why we say so. He who created the soul, heaven, hell, …
Mirabai Chanu – Bahujan, Brahmin or just Meitei?
Khakhlari How digital activism narratives around the athlete exposed structural racism towards the ‘chinky northeasterner’ When Mirabai made news as the first woman to score a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, people across several socio-political factions were quick to claim her. Her win evoked nationalistic pride and sentiments and celebratory posts poured in. A …