BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association) The Hindu Indian state once again reiterates its Brahmanical agenda by trying to scrap reservation for the oppressed. For the brahmanical state apparatus and its civil society the marginalized have always only been their slaves, cheap workers, manual scavengers, house cleaners who deserve to live and die in …
Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi: Path-breaking Change in Politics
Sudam Rathod Indian politics for a long time was under the unilateral rule of Congress party because of which other democratic and secular parties could not expand and develop themselves. Secular politics or secularism had been considered the sole property of Congress. Therefore, other such parties with a secular progressive ideology had no space …
“Their Seats of Power Are Shaking in the Face of Oppressed Unity”
Shabana Ali (This is a rough transcript in English of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association’s Presidential Candidate for JNUSU elections 2017 Shabana Ali’s almost 33-minute long speech at BAPSA’s pre-election General Body Meeting (GBM) at the Mahi-Mandvi Mess, held on the 2nd of September, 2017.)
From Brahmanisation to Privatisation: The Case of Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Arun Mahanand From Brahmanisation to Privatisation of Education, at the Cost of Dalit-Bahujan Students: Case of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Until the last semester, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) would provide financial support to students from SC, ST and OBC categories, who were eligible for Government of India’s (GoI) Scholarships. Students …
Bahujan Students’ Front (BSF) on HCU Elections
Bahujan Students’ Front (BSF) The recently concluded HCUSU elections generated a lot of discussion and debate both in social media and offline as well. Innumerable questions were raised and allegations were made against the Bahujan Students’ Front-UoH in particular and United Front for Social Justice (UFSJ) in general. In this pamphlet, Bahujan Students’ Front …
Kabali has roared: Why BAPSA was the real winner of the JNU student polls
Dhrubo Jyoti I have never been a big fan of presidential-style debates or Jawaharlal Nehru University. The former almost always reduces social justice to grandstanding and the number of hunger strikes while the latter takes itself too seriously as the citadel of equality, never mind the festering casteism, sexism and homophobia. Therefore, when I …
Education as an instrument against Caste: Contemporary challenges
Rajesh Chandra Kumar “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world” ~ Nelson Mandela. “For want of education their intellect deteriorated, for want of intellect their morality decayed, for want of morality their progress stopped, for want of progress their wealth vanished. All their sorrows sprang from illiteracy”. ~ Mahatma Jotiba …
‘Lal Salaam aur Nila Salaam’: A call for new pathways to social movement
Suhas Bhasme Comrade Kanhaiya’s last words in the speech given at JNU before he was arrested under the sedition act were ‘Lal Salaam aur Nila Salaam’. The slogan denotes a significant ideological shift that the country has been witnessing in the last few years and in particular, the last few months, after the incident …
Unequal rights: Freedom, Equality, Life, and Liberty of citizens and “others”
Hany Babu Introduction The way in which certain classes of people including Dalits, Adivasis, Minorities and the disabled persons are made invisible or marginalised in the mainstream discourse has been often talked about. Mainstream discourse also pays scant attention and there is hardly any public outrage when Dalit students are driven to suicides in …