For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Ajinkya Sanjay Khandizod Introduction The political landscape in Maharashtra has been characterized by ongoing turmoil, with each passing day bringing new episodes of drama. In the midst of this chaotic environment, the regional party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has a chance to find a silver lining. Founded in 2019, just ahead of the General Elections, …
Mahipal Mahamatta If we look at the history of more than 100 years of Indian cinema, we will find that Caste has been blatantly sidelined from it. Kancha Ilaiah had staid that mainstream history of India, is a history of the upper castes and there is no space for Dalits and Bahujans in it. …
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 …
Vaibhav Wasnik Some years ago, my uncle in Bhayander and some of his Ambedkarite friends decided to open a small office so that meetings of like-minded Ambedkarites etc., could take place. Just the next day the Congress party representative came to make enquiries. This too, without any advertising of any kind about this endeavour. …
Yogesh Maitreya The ideology of Hindutva, or the revival of the Vedic dharma or Brahminic religion, represents the starkest contradiction to the Indian constitution, in Maharashtra and throughout India. Its infusion into the soil of Maharashtra can be traced back to the reign of the Peshwas, the period during which untouchability had attained its worst …
Yogesh Maitreya Progressive, radical and democratic movements in Maharashtra, have been people’s movements essentially led by Shudra and ex-untouchable leaders. Mahatma Phule and Dr. Ambedkar were the major proponents who contributed profoundly to building up the consciousness of revolt among Dalits against the injustice of caste hierarchy, and especially the brutal practice of untouchability. …
(Report first published in November 2003) Continued from here. Violence against Dalits in Marathwada A Report by the Fact Finding Team comprising Dr. Anand Teltumbde, Akram Siddiqui, Subodh More, Hashim Mohamma November 2003 Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Mumbai 2. Murti incident Murti is a relatively bigger village with a population of about …
Karthik Navayan [Karthik Navayan wrote this article ten years ago, in 2002, after visiting Gujarat as a relief volunteer seeking to offer aid to the victims of the 2002 carnage. The one persistent thought on his mind after the experience was: how to stop Andhra Pradesh from becoming Gujarat? How to stop any other state …
(This interview with Manyawar Kanshi Ram Saheb was first published in The Illustrated Weekly Of India on March 8, 1987) Question: Why are you so hostile to all the national parties, especially the communists? Kanshi Ram: To my mind, all parties represent the forces of status quo. For us, politics is the politics of …