Pardeep Attri Recently, an Australian radio host, Kyle Sandiland called India a “shit hole” and Ganga a “junkyard” and Indian groups in Australia are seeking an apology from the radio station as the Indian community is quite angry with such remarks from the Australian media. I was reading this news online and there were hundreds …
Elite Responses: Constructing ‘Hinduism’
by Gail Omvedt ( An excerpt from the chapter ‘Colonial Challenges, Indian Responses and Buddhist Revival‘ from the book ‘Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste‘) The response of the Brahmanic elite to colonial challenges was to emphasise the question of foreign rule and regain independence. The challenge of industrialisation and India’s material backwardness was …
Religion: Untouchable Lincoln
“Hinduism is not a religion; it is a disease.” One of the few men who have risen from the malodorous sink which is below the lowest caste of India is Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, No. 1 Untouchable. This plump, cheery, bespectacled man of no caste, whose very shadow would outrage high-caste Hindus, managed to get …
Muslim-Catholic dialogue in India: Is caste the main problem?
Jason Keith Fernandes Introduction Sharing his experiences on Christian-Muslim dialogue in the March ’09 issue of Jivan, Fr Paul Jackson was unusually reticent on the challenges that face the Catholic aspirant on this route. To say that this route is a path of thorns would not be an exaggeration, since there are quite a …
Muslim-Dalit Relations
Gail Omvedt Islam is a religion of egalitarianism and brotherhood. After the defeat of Buddhism, it maintained these values in India for centuries. Not only did those who became Muslims benefit by escaping from caste restrictions, but Muslim rule also provided a social and political context for the growth of Bhakti movements. Within these, to …
Political career of Dr B.R.Ambedkar
In 1935, Ambedkar was appointed principal of the Government Law College, a position he held for two years. Settling in Mumbai, Ambedkar oversaw the construction of a large house, and stocked his personal library with more than 50,000 books. His wife Ramabai died after a long illness in the same year. It had been her …
Castes in India
Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development~Anthropology Seminar of Dr. A. A. Goldenweizer at The Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. on 9th May 1916~Source: Indian Antiquary, May 1917, Vol. XLI ~ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Many of us, I dare say, have witnessed local, national or international expositions of material objects that make up the sum total …
Why Dr. Ambedkar renounced Hinduism?
Dr. Ramendra (First published in January 2001) Dr. Ambedkar’s role as a prominent constitution maker of India is quite well known. However, his views on religion, particularly his reasons for renouncing Hinduism, the religion of his birth, are not as widely known. Ambedkar who was born in an “untouchable” family carried on a relentless …