Khalid Anis Ansari [I] The recent announcement of a 4.5% sub-quota for backward sections within minorities in the overall Central OBC quota by the UPA government on 22nd December, 2011 in the wake of elections in five states, including the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, has drawn in a number of reactions, some valid …
Buddhism and Politics in Uttar Pradesh: Recent Developments (Part II)
Shiv Shankar Das ( Continued from here) The promotion of Buddhist cultural symbols in public sphere by Mayawati led government is driven by the following three strong factors. 1. The Ideology of Kanshi Ram (1934-2006): Cultural Change is a Durable Change Kanshi Ram’s ideology to emancipate the Bahujan Samaj is very important to understand …
Caste through Democracy part-II
Prabin Dhangada Majhi Even the staunchest supporters of reservation flinch at the question of rich SC/ST students hogging the quota.The following discussion, on a request from fellow blogger Yayavar, assumes we have a similar understanding of the reservation policy which I have outlined previously. So I’ll build up on that, and in case we differ, …
Caste through Democracy part-I
Prabin Dhangada Majhi We must begin with an education in democracy. Without assuming democracy can be of just one form and can be summed up only thus, let’s define it as a process where all citizens participate in decision making and are influenced, equally. Because, most large democracies are representative democracies following an aggregation of …
Change is on cards
By Chandra Bhan Prasad Our democratic set-up is heading for a complete revamp. To decode Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill vs Government’s Lokpal Bill cry and to translate that is a phenomenon in itself. To understand this, one will have to travel the path that Britain underwent in creating their Parliament and democracy. Approximately in …
Anna’s social fascism
By Kancha Ilaiah The recent happenings in Delhi around the issue of the Lokpal Bill have been celebrated by the media as people’s victory, pinned down on Team Anna Hazare. But the majority of the “masses” of this country, living in institutional caste and class enclosures, are not yet part of the “civil society” that …
Jan Lokpal or Janvirodhi Lokpal?
By People for Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights (PCDHR, Nagpur) Recent stir by Anna Hazare (Original name unknown/ Education unknown) & Co. for an Ombudsman for corruption in the name of Jan Lokpal is an ‘extra-constitutional method’, bypassing the Parliamentary process which is at the heart of Constitutional Democracy which ‘We the People’ of India …
First feminist war of the new century
by Chandra Bhan Prasad British imperialism did help serve the Dalits’ cause. The sciences, modern institutions and democracy were attendant features of colonialism which, in turn, shook the very foundations of the Varna order. The British, however, had no such intent when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a few London businessmen on December 31, …
Ambedkar proved right
Raja Sekhar Vundru After resigning from Nehru’s Cabinet as Law Minister over the controversial Hindu Code Bill in 1951, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar spent most of his time writing at his 26, Alipore Road residence in Delhi’s Civil Lines. Fresh from drafting and the successful piloting of the Indian Constitution inthe Constituent Assembly, he …