For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Nidhin Shobhana This book review can be divided into three sections. The first part would briefly try to situate the book and the author in the social and political contexts of Colonial South India (esp. Madras Presidency) in early twentieth century. The second part would discuss the major arguments in the book1. The final …
Nidhin Shobhana (Paper presented at the India International Islamic Academic Conference held on 8-9 October, 2016, at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi.) Abstract: By late 19th century and early 20th century, one finds the emergence of an ‘upper-caste’ Christian public sphere comprised of theologians who identified themselves with the values of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hindu Nationalism’. …
Dhurwa R. Anand Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade is one of the best examples of how brahminical powerplay makes a farce out of the most hard fought battles put up by Dalits, and does that rather patronizingly. Before I even watched the film, the title itself (and the media hype with one of its first …
Purnachandra Naik & Vinod Kumar In this country, all the oppressed communities have been victims of the oppressive Brahmanical fascist religio-cultural hegemony. The inequality and oppression of the marginalised communities is sanctioned by the Brahminical religious scriptures. And the Sangh Parivar (RSS, BJP, ABVP) make a concealed yet concerted attempt to perpetuate and reinforce …
Rekha Raj (This speech was delivered by her in the ‘People Against Fascism’ gathering, also known as Manushya Sangamam, on 19th December 2015 at High Court Junction, Ernakulum. The following transcription is based on the YouTube video uploaded by Kerala Freethinkers Forum on 21st December 2015. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLUsUklBqF0) I have a lot to say …
Jyotsna Siddharth When Dalits are beaten up mercilessly with an iron rod in broad daylight, it shakes but doesn’t break us. When an 11-year-old Dalit girl is gang raped repeatedly by the same men, it doesn’t question our morale; it disturbs us, but doesn’t leave us sleepless at night. What do we do? And …
Jay Prakash Faqir Historian Aditya Mukherjee in one of his essays has accused western historians like Eric Hobsbawm of being Eurocentric. He finds Hobsbawm’s characterization of the 20th century as an Age of Extremes to be an ill-informed opinion as far as Asia and the Asian perspective are concerned. And no doubt, his opinion …
Vinod Kumar Of late, uniting Ambedkarism and communism has become a matter of discussion among intellectuals and students across India. As far as the emergence of this discourse is concerned, it is because of the increasing assertion of the Ambedkarite forces to alter the politics of the most prominent institutions, in particular HCU, JNU, …
Periyar Bhim Vemula I had an interesting conversation on Facebook, triggered by a small LinkedIn post that I shared on the social media website. The article was related to how Tina Dabi, the first rank holder in India’s qualifying exam for its civil services, was a beneficiary of ‘reservation,’ a mode of positive discrimination …