For An Informed Ambedkar Age
In recent weeks, the Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who works as a Tamil Professor at the Government Arts College in Namakkal, has been the target of vicious attacks by some casteist forces due to the alleged ‘controversial’ content in his book ‘Madhorubagan’ (English translation: One Part Woman). Protests by some people (not identified as …
Hugo Gorringe & D. Karthikeyan, University of Edinburgh Speaking at a memorial to honour the memory of Dalits killed by casteist fanatics in Melavalavu last month, Thol. Thirumavalavan, the leader of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) called for ‘a mass movement’ to protect the rights and dignity of Dalits in the state. A catalogue …
Kuffir Feel hotFeel a nausea stirring in my stomachFeel like I am listening to Sanskrit Slokas ~ Madduri Nagesh Babu, in ‘A Rakshasa’s proclamation’. You might think the ruling classes want all Indians to speak Hindi, to impose Hindi on everyone. That is not the idea, they want to impose the fear of imposition …
Sinthujan Varatharajah He sat down in the crammed living room of a flat in a low-income suburb in Toronto, Canada. Every weekend he would travel to the other end of the city to enter the 12th floor of a high rise complex in the immigrant area. He would arrive at 11 AM and sit …
Understanding caste formulations after 1990s: Review of ‘No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South India’ (This review is a part of the theory course taught by Dr Bhangya Bhukya, Department of Social Exclusion Studies, English and Foreign Languages University) Karthik Navayan Caste is interpreted in different schools of thought in different ways; …
P. Dayanandan Sixty years ago I learned to write Tamil alphabet on sand, in a remote Dalit village. It was at Bertram Hall, Loyola College, that I wrote my TOEFL (English test) in 1970 before I went on a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the US. It was a great privilege indeed to participate in this celebration …
‘As a writer I can’t help being objective about myself or the workings of caste’ P.Sivakami. ( This interview was published in The Hindu in August 2009) Subash Jeyan She stands at the confluence of many personal interests and currents in contemporary public life. One of the pioneers of Dalit writing in Tamil, she published …
by Thamburaj Dharmaraj The assignment is of performing the story of Ambedkar in a folk art form, shadow puppetry. Shadow puppet theatre is widely held in the southern districts of Tamilnadu. Though it is prevalent in most of the South Asian countries it is habitually getting ostracized in the villages and performance opportunity is on …
Karukku enabled me to build my confidence and hope, Bama Faustina tells Tulsi Badrinath. Excerpts from a conversation. In Karukku you described yourself thus ‘I am like a bird whose wings were broken’. Twenty years later, in the second edition of the English translation, you describe yourself as ‘a falcon that treads the air, high …