Kanika S There was a time some 5-6 years ago when feminism tried to undermine Dr Ambedkar by pointing out that he carried a penis.1 Now he is just as fantastically a carrier of feminist ideals because his work helped women achieve voting rights, property rights, divorce rights, etc.2,3,4 And that alone is a sufficient …
Chhatrapati Shahu’s Crusade against Untouchability – 2
B. D. Khane Maharaja was a champion of social justice and equal opportunities for all. He believed in protecting the weak against the strong. The aim of his measures was to raise the lower castes from their abject position in society by employing them and fitting them for hitherto closed avenues of life. For …
Crossroads of Covid: Time for Theological Transition
Dr Anuradha Bele & Dr Jas Simran Kehal Reading about Mahavir and Buddha with my son in his class VI ICSE history textbook took us back to the 6th century BC. The chapter explained state of affairs that led to rise of a new religious revolution. The causes enumerated in the textbook forced me …
Govt. of India should send One Lakh SC ST youths abroad for Higher Education
Anshul Kumar Men sitting on the pinnacle of the palace “So, I went one day to Linlithgow and said, concerning the expense of education, “If you will not get angry, I want to ask a question. I am equal to fifty [high school] graduates, am I not?” He had to agree to that. Then …
Documenting Bahujan Musical Instruments
Dr. Chandraiah Gopani The book under review entitled ‘Mula Dhwani’ (Aboriginal Sound) is edited by Jayadhir Thirumal Rao and Guduru Manoja. This book was released in 2019, both in Telugu and English with the same title. In the absence of studies on Bahujan Musical Traditions, the book is a unique work in documenting more than …
Metonymical Representation of Dalit in Ray’s Sadgati
Chandrakant Kamble Famous Hindi writer Munshi Premchand’s (1881-1936) story Sadgati (‘deliverance’ in the religious sense of the term) was picturized by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) in a 1981 movie with the same name. India is celebrating Ray’s 100th birth anniversary in 2021. In academia and curriculum, Ray’s many films are considered masterpieces and …
Beyond Dalitness: Start Annihilating Caste and Claiming Humanness
Milind Thokal The process of learning and unlearning is inevitable and will continue forever but some basic concepts must always remain at the core where we must never have any confusion, keeping it more simple, straightforward, and to the point. Let’s start with the very basic word ‘Dalit’. Dalit is a Sanskrit word that means …
How to turn a murder into suicide: Sumitra Bhave’s ‘Kasav’
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 …
Myth of Brahmin Merit: Refutation of Superiority
Pranav Jeevan P We have been hearing arguments that try to justify the superiority and monopoly of Brahmins and savarnas in the fields of education and governance based on genetics. Their argument is that generations of endogamy and access to education has created a group of people who are better at learning (Brahmins). They …