For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Rahul Bhalerao Recent controversies, both local and international, have sparked a series of discussions and debates in media and social networks about the Hindu holy book Bhagvad Gita. When the Karnataka Education minister decided to saffronize the education system by proposing Gita teachings to be made compulsory, the left, liberal and secular voices attacked …
APPENDIX A So-Called True Maratha Just while I was taking up some other work after finishing the second part of Asud, a gentleman with a wide Brahman turban, seating himself upon a bolster in front of me, started intensely inspecting everything around him. I was wondering whether to call this gentleman a Marwari, but he didn’t have three …
Translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar Chapter 5 Our suggestions to the Arya Bhat-Brahmans regarding the Shudra farmers and the remedies which the current government should follow: — Before beginning this final chapter, I would like to make some suggestions to the greatly cunning Arya Bhat-Brahmans of the country, with the aim that they should not obstruct …
Dr. Udit Raj (First published in October 2002) If you had visited Badshahpur, Akhlimpur, or Tikli with me on October 22 and seen what I saw, you would have decided right then and there to give a call to all the Dalits of the area to convert to Buddhism, Christianity or Islam. Anything but Hinduism. …
Gail Omvedt (First published in February 2003) The antagonism to conversion rests on an ideological foundation which takes ethnicity, that is a presumed community of blood and heritage, as central. IN 1996, during a six-month employment in Bhubaneshwar, fascinated by the beauty and antiquity of the area, I travelled with friends to Konarak and to …
[On the occasion of Periyar‘s death anniversary (24th December), we remember him through some select quotes from his speeches and writings– Round Table India] ‘I, E.V. Ramaswamy, have taken upon myself the task of reforming Dravidian Society so that it shall be comparable to other societies of the world, in esteem and enlightenment, and I …
Kuffir As the court in the Siberian town of Tomsk deliberates on whether the Bhagvat Gita is ‘extremist’ literature, the Indian government and parliament seem to have forgotten their own sanctimonious injunction of ‘non-inteference in the internal affairs of other countries’ (used traditionally to defend such obnoxious pratices as ‘untouchability’ and ‘caste discrimination’) to …
by Abusaleh Shariff There is nothing in the Constitution which bars identification of beneficiaries of public programmes based on religion. Of late, there has been a debate on whether public programmes such as school education, scholarships, health-care delivery and access to microcredit can be targeted at beneficiaries based on religion; some consider this ‘unconstitutional’ and …
by Rajshree Dhali In recent years there has been a qualitative and progressive change in Dalit consciousness. This has resulted in Dalit assertion. Apart from mobilizing masses for political power, Dalits are now trying to reconstruct Dalit culture, literature and history so that they can claim for their identities. The present article intends to trace …