For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Vishal Parmar There are countries that wear crowns, and others that wear commandments. Some rule with flags. Others with silence. The symbols change—the sound of the anthem, the color of the cloth—but the language of power rarely learns a new tongue. It only adjusts its accent. It always knows how to be obeyed. Across oceans, …
Kuldip Chand Dobhetta The day-by-day deteriorating conditions of Dalits living in India, who have been given the names Ati-Shudra, Untouchable, Ad-Dharmi, Moolnivasi, etc. have become a matter of concern. Dalits were identified as oppressed groups during British rule and have been classified as Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in the Indian Constitution. According to the Manuvadi system, …
Shogun Gaikwad On 14th October 1956, Dr. Ambedkar accomplished what no one else could—perhaps the only comparable figure is the Buddha. He liberated those considered lesser than animals, stripped of their humanity and left destitute for 2,000 years. Exactly 68 years ago today, the world witnessed the largest mass conversion event in history, as millions …
Vaibhav Kharat The conversion of the Mahar community to Buddhism under the leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was a significant socio-religious movement aimed at escaping the oppressive caste system entrenched in Hinduism. However, as a student of Sociology, my recent observations suggest that certain practices within the converted Mahar Buddhist community reflect a form of …
Ashutosh Singh Boddh (Vidrohi) Recently there was a news that, Delhi University’s Faculty of Law was planning to introduce the Manusmriti, the ancient Sanskrit & Casteist text, in its undergraduate programme under the paper called Jurisprudence (Legal Method), prompting a certain section of faculty members in the varsity to raise concern over the move. In …
Kartik Boudh Ideas of great personalities have influenced the masses and have dealt with great injustices and inequalities in the world. Progressive thoughts shaped and nurtured by great minds of the world are still alive. Ideas have become such powerful tools to overcome the oprressive structures. They have turned into mass revolutions for the greater …
Raja Dhale (In an interview first published in the Marathi journal Khel, Raja Dhale (1940-2019) recounted the history behind his surname ‘Dhale’: soldiers that were historically the standard bearers and advance guards at forts. True to this personal history, Raja Dhale stood at the vanguard of the Dalit consciousness and articulation in Maharashtra in …
Harish S. Wankhede The International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) has organized the “Global March against Caste Discrimination” in Washington DC on the 21st June 2014. In solidarity with the march, many community organizations, American Dalits and anti-caste social activists took independent initiatives and joined the march in New York, San Francisco and Los …
– An interview with Pushpa Balmiki [This interview was first published as “My restlessness grew and started taking form quite early” in the March-April 2005 issue of Insight magazine. R. B. Rawat conducted the interview] Pushpa Balmiki is the founder of Adharshila, an NGO working in the Tarai Region of UP. She has represented Dalit …