For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Chanchal Kumar Before we come to the question of religion, we must first contend with the issue concerning our knowledge of history. History as a means to self-definition and a way to place ourselves in society and the larger world. Religion and history (by which we mean not just knowing our past but also …
Chanchal Kumar The concept behind Bigg Boss is simple, and the title is borrowed from the George Orwell novel 1984. A group of random (mostly) savarna celebrities inhabit a house for a short and fixed period of time, wherein they are expected to interact with each other, follow certain rules and perform “tasks”. …
Chanchal Kumar “Tumko maine bataya AK called me? He is releasing his second book at India Habitat Centre and he wants me to read at the event. Unkey doosre poet friends will read their poems too.”“So talented boy! Kab hai ye?”“Next week. Sunday, 7th.”“Arrey yaar!”“Kya?”“Uss din hamara welcome party hai, Arunachal Bhawan mei. I …
Chanchal Kumar “An ideal society should be mobile, should be full of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts. In an ideal society, there should be many interests consciously communicated and shared.” — Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Indian society will always prop up those mythologies, figures, personalities that …
Chanchal Kumar Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet was among the first artists to popularize the idea of the homeland as the distant, absent lover. Writing from exile for most of his life and spanning a career that covered more than four decades, he achieved widespread acclaim with poems that both celebrated and mourned …
Chanchal Kumar Anybody who has tried reading ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ will accede to the fact that it is a text rooted in the academic discourse. Perhaps that’s the reason why the ideas propounded therein are still considered to be unchallenged, or at least impossible to ignore. I am undertaking the task to bust …
Chanchal Kumar Our parents shielded us from any candid discussion on caste while growing up, perhaps believing that if the monster was not mentioned, it would simply cease to exist. Another way to look at it could be that they tried to warn us but we were too busy to pay attention and too …
Chanchal Kumar The entire intellectual development of Rahul Roushan, the author of the memoir Sanghi who never went to a Shakha, who is a Bihari bhumihar and presently, CEO of the BJP/RSS news portal ‘OpIndia.com”, can be summed up in the following sentences: His father, an English literature teacher and a liberal Hindu, tried …
Chanchal Kumar What makes great literature? Or, to be more precise, great poetry? Mark Yakich, the American poet believes, “Reading a good poem doesnt give you something to talk about. It silences you. Reading a great poem pushes further. It prepares you for the silence that perplexes us all: death.” I share this idea. …