Braj Ranjan Mani किसकी चाय बेचता है तू ~ ब्रजरंजन मणि अपने को चाय वाला क्यूँ कहता है तू बात-बात पे नाटक क्यूँ करता है तू चाय वालों को क्यों बदनाम करता है तू साफ़ साफ़ बता दे किसकी चाय बेचता है तू ! खून लगाकर अंगूठे पे शहीद कहलाता है और कॉर्पोरेट …
The Crisis and Challenge of Dalit-bahujans
Braj Ranjan Mani There is no competing cultural vision from below for the mind and heart of India. Dalit-bahujans are still absent in the contest of ideas, policies and visions—the fundamentals on which democratic competition takes place.This paralysis of the mind is linked totheir systemic cultural, intellectual and spiritual destruction. Without reference to history …
Gaddar, Universal Poet-Singer-Performer Of Our Times
Kalekuri Prasad (Foreword to Dr. P. Kesava Kumar‘s forthcoming book Gaddar: Mahakavi of Our Times, written by Kalekuri Prasad) Gaddar with the author Kalekuri Prasad ( poet, writer, critic and activist who passed away recently) At last an effort to assess the great poet-singer of our times, Gaddar, is being made. It is not …
Reflections: National Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress 2013
Prachi Beula The National Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress 2013 was something that was long overdue. I am yet to absorb the ‘explosion of knowledge and power’ that I experienced and when Anoop bhai said we could share our experiences I was glad to sit down and reflect. Many people asked questions like why …
A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram
Kancha Ilaiah [This article was first published in two parts, ‘A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram’ and ‘Dalits and the horizontal ladder’, in 2003; we have combined the two parts into one single piece of writing. We, along with our readers, celebrate the memory of Manyawar Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary- Round Table …
Neobrahmanism, human rights and social democracy
Braj Ranjan Mani (First published in 2009) The image of India is that of a democratic, multicultural, inclusive society. But more often than not, appearances are not reality. India is a republic—a secular, socialist, democratic republic—where millions of children, women and men remain demoralised, enslaved to the powerful, crying out for fundamentals of life. Fragmented …
Jotirao Phule: Shetkaryaca Asud (Part 7)
Translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar After that the Arya Brahmans began to treat with disdain all the Kshudra peasant slaves who had come under their control. They completely stopped giving them education and brought their condition below the level of animals. And since they became illiterate and completely without access to knowledge, the Arya Brahmans plunder …
Hindu nationalism & women
Gail Omvedt Dalits have reason to be worried, with the RSS in control of the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Not only is it in a position to impose its cultural agenda on the nation, but it also seems to be moving to cut off the development of a Dalit intelligentsia which has been one …
Jotiba Phule and Tilak and the question of education for Women and non-Brahmins
—Anoop Kumar I am posting a few extracts from a paper written by Parimala V. Rao (“Educating Women and Non-Brahmins as ‘Loss of Nationality’: Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the Nationalist Agenda in Maharashtra“). This was published as an ocassional paper by the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi. She is also the author of …