For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Yogesh Maitreya The Sun that was leaked, Being dimmed Into the bosom of the night, Then I was born On footpath… ~ Namdeo Dhasal It was a nippy and brooding winter of 2011 in Nagpur; I was in second year of Bachelor’s degree. Books, especially poetry and novels became the sole escape from material …
Yogesh Maitreya It isn’t an accident that the inventors and propagators of the concept of Hindutva, which later helped shape the consciousness or discourse of Hindu Nationalism, were all Brahmins. All hailed from the state of Maharashtra: V.D. Savarkar, Hedgewar, and M.S. Golwalkar. Golwalkar was born in a brahmin family in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and …
Yogesh Maitreya As part of my fieldwork, I had been assigned to spend a year studying one of the prisons in Mumbai. To study the criminal justice system more closely and to know its nuances, I had to attend court trials, visit police stations and localities where mostly Dalit-Bahujans reside. Wherever I went, I came …
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 I had started to read texts on Buddhism during my four years at one of the Buddhist orders. It was first conceptualised in a western country, i.e., England, and then started its operation in India in the late 1980s. I read several texts. I found the classical ones to be unclear but …
Yogesh Maitreya Somewhere in 2012, back in Nagpur, I had read an article on Sambhaji Bhagat, poet, balladeer and a rebellious playwright from Maharashtra. He is also a vigorous Ambedkarite activist, in his own words, “main Babasaheb ka baccha hu” (‘I am the descendent of Babasaheb’). While living in Nagpur I had hardly heard of …
Yogesh Maitreya Let me first declare before proceeding any further that this piece of writing is based on my experiences, observations, and reflections on caste (something that has been infused into religions other than Hinduism in South Asia) and its trajectories. These are my thoughts on how caste works and manifests itself spontaneously at …
Yogesh Maitreya 6th December every year means a lot to Dalits all over the world, many of whom have converted to Buddhism as well. Some of them are also a part of the Indian diaspora abroad and are forming a struggle against caste from their host countries. This day has significant importance in their …
Yogesh Maitreya In an idyllic Nagpur winter in 2011, a friend of mine who had spent a few years in England learning Buddhism and living like a Buddhist (now back in India), had recommended ‘The Romantics’, a novel by Pankaj Mishra, to me. The way he spoke about this novel, it was evident that …