Investigative report by Rupesh Kumar, first published on 24th August 2016 in Narada News. Translated from Malayalam by Navami TS. The lustre of the centenary celebrations of Sree Narayana Guru’s proclamation ‘we do not have caste’ in hypocritical Kerala has been turned into a comic scene by the corrupted smog of the brutal casteist …
Round Table India Recently, on 18th July, sixteen individuals who gathered in Kannur, Kerala, to discuss the ongoing situation in Kashmir and to express solidarity with the Kashmiris were arrested by the police. In this interview, Round Table India talks with two of the arrested: documentary film-maker Rupesh Kumar, and social media activist Afthab …
Rupesh Kumar The ban on Ambedkar Periyar Student Circle (APSC) in IIT Madras, endorsed by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development and undersigned by the Minister Smriti Irani, is nothing but the operation of the Brahmanical caste system to exclude alternative voices from Indian academia and its polity. It is a new strategy by …
Rupesh Kumar Chithralekha has been on strike for the last 100 days seeking justice for the attacks on her by CPM goons. The government and district authorities remain silent on Chithralekha’s vociferous questioning and demand for justice. From October 25th, 2014, Chithralekha and her husband Sreeshkant are sitting in protest in front of the …
Rupesh Kumar The questions raised by the political struggles of Chithralekha, the dalit auto rickshaw driver in Payyannur in Kerala, against the Left male violence on her family, gender and dalit identity is a hard punch against caste discrimination and patriarchy. Payyanur is part of the so-called ‘innocent North Malabar’, also known as ‘North …
Rupesh Kumar The five month long Standing Struggle (‘Nilupu Samaram’) of the Adivasis of Kerala has just ended. The Adivasis protested by standing in front of the Kerala Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram all these months. The government has now agreed to the Adivasi demands and the movement is a historical success. This Adivasi Standing Struggle was …
Gee Imaan Semmalar In Kerala, a new political and cultural assertion is happening amongst Dalit communities, filmmakers and intellectuals that radically questions the deafening mainstream silence and denial of caste. In the field of filmmaking, Rupesh Kumar and Ajith Kumar A.S have emerged as voices who bring power to a certain kind of representational …
Rupesh Kumar Sometime back my friend Ajith posed a couple of questions about my documentary “Don’t be our fathers” in his article (Dalitizing cinema : A critique of Rupesh Kumar’s ‘Don’t be our fathers‘) on Round Table India. The nature of that text by itself needs a separate analysis. But for now, I shall …
Ajith Kumar A S Critiquing a friend’s film This time I would like to have an open dialogue with my friend Rupesh Kumar on his film ‘Don’t be our fathers‘. I think a dialogue in the public sphere would be more productive because more people could engage with it. This month I traveled with …