Yogesh Maitreya Pedagogy of the past I consider the post-1990 era as the age that tied up nationalism with Indian academia, not only through the syllabus but also through restructuring daily affairs of our student life. I was a student who entered school in 1990. From the days of my schooling, I can clearly …
Guja-raatri, the unending night of terror
Kuffir GujaratIs an experimentTo see if a state would growWhen you sow blood ~ Netala Pratap Kumar Not just Gujarat, but the whole of India has been an experiment, in essence, since its formation as a state herding together disparate pieces of political, cultural and social geography into a make-believe nation. In the process …
On what we eat
Nidhin Shobhana In this essay, I am re-reading two stories from my life. I think such an exercise is meaningful – especially when we are debating the protocols of food. I will try to weave an argument with the help of my stories. My argument is not original. It simply plays a supportive role …
The nauseating language politics of the Indian state
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 …
Savarna English and the violent exclusion of Dalits
Yogesh Maitreya Language is one of the basic media to facilitate the expression of the mind. Yet, when a distinct form of it is spoken by a select group of people who are high up in the social hierarchy, it can become a tool to maintain cultural superiority. In the Indian context, it would …
Ourselves as “other”
Drishadwati Bargi “They had the power to make us see and experience ourselves as “other”” ~ bell hooks, Black Looks: Race And Representation. Narrative one: I have known a Dalit man for the past twenty four years of my existence. Like many other first generation beneficiaries of affirmative action policy, he has worked and done well …
On how Arundhati Roy introduces AoC without losing her upper hand
Murali Shanmugavelan In 1936, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, fondly called as Babasaheb, wrote an un-delivered lecture called Annihilation of Caste (AoC) for a Hindu reform group called Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (Society for the Abolition of Caste system). The group rejected Ambedkar’s text as too radical as it made the case for the fundamental destruction of …
Brahmanical Courts and the Death of Justice
N. Sukumar and Shailaja Menon “Though justice is depicted as blind-folded, as popularly said, it is only a veil not to see who the party before it is…. and not to ignore or turn the mind/attention of the Court away from the truth of the cause or lie before it, in disregard of its …
Remembering Babasaheb: Ambedkar Jayanti Celebrations At CSSSC
On 23rd April, 2014 1.00 pm onwards at CSSSC campus, Baishnabghata Patuli, Kolkata This April 14 is the first time that Government of India declared a national holiday to mark Babasaheb’s birth anniversary. This act must be seen not only in the context of the elections underway in the country but also as part …