Dr. SPVA Sairam

Religion has played a significant role throughout the human history and its legacy is mixed. As a means of social control, it not only divided people and subjected them to the ignominies of the worst sort, but also, at times, it acted as a unifying force, unleashing the tremendous potential within humans to seek his or her spiritual ends¹.

 In this context, it is interesting to know what our anti-caste thinkers have to say about it. It will be illuminating to understand how Mahatma Jotiba Phule (1827-1890) viewed it.

Jotiba and Savitribai Phule had dedicated their lives to the cause of Bahujans. They raised the banner of revolt against the exploitation and subhuman treatment meted out to Shudras, Ati Shudras and Women by the Brahmins and allied castes².

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Prof Vivek Kumar

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris created a history of sorts by taking oath as America's first female Vice President. She is the first woman of South Asian and Afro-American descent who has received such an honor. This may be a historic moment for Americans. However, if we analyze this history a little more deeply we will find that it is not so historic a moment in American democracy as it is being made out to be.

The obvious reason is that the United States of America is the oldest democracy in the world. If we consider the beginning of democracy here since 1788, when the US Constitution was approved by the states, then we will find that in the 233 year old history of democracy, America has not yet elected a single woman to the highest office of the nation.

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Jaspal Singh Sidhu

Tragic happenings of the 1980s continue to perturb the Sikhs. Most of them want to know what actually took place behind the smokescreen erected by the power of the day. In this context, the new arrival ‘The Khalistan Conspiracy’-A Former R&AW Officer Unravels the Path to 1984” (2020) authored by GBS Sidhu, who retired as Special Secretary of India’s Intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) fits the bill. The book reveals concretely, hitherto vaguely talked about theories that ‘Indira Gandhi had created a “Third Agency” to devise dubious plans to target Sikhs and to twist the Punjab politics to suit her political requirements'. It exposes the ‘dirty vote bank politics’, the Congress and other political parties openly practice in modern the Indian nation-state in their bid to reach the corridors of power. In their pursuit for power politicians rarely bother whether their acts are causing communal disturbances, upstaging peaceful societies, and triggering loss of innocent lives.

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Anand Silodia

A few days ago, Richa Chadha shared the poster of her new movie, ‘Madam Chief Minister’, and it was immediately criticized for the depiction of the dalit protagonist. The protagonist, played by Chadha, was shown to be wearing a dirty t-shirt and holding a broom[1]. The gist of the criticism was that Savarna filmmakers can’t seem to portray a dalit character without essentializing their idea of ‘dalitness’ through some deformity, like Kachra’s hand from ‘Lagaan’, or through some other symbol of degradation, like the current movie’s poster.

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Deivendra Kumar A

It was during my post-graduation studies in journalism at the Central University of Tamil Nadu in Thiruvarur that one of my professors enquired about my view on the recent movie Asuran (2019), directed by ace filmmaker Vetrimaaran. Further, he asked me about the recent buzz that the particular film has created among the cinephiles regarding the Keezhvenmani Massacre. He kindled an urge in me to explore the nearby village named Keezhvenmani, an agrarian hamlet in Nagapattinam district, about 20 km from the university campus. This was my first journey to witness the essence of caste, which resulted in betrayal and violence, as a mode of punishment over subalterns.

As I had a prior understanding of the Keezhvenmani Massacre through literature and other scholarly works, I discerned that the flashback scenes of Sivasami (Dhanush's character) shown in the film Asuran, where the huts were burnt by the henchmen of the landlord, resembled the real episode of the massacre. Similar to the real-life incident, a group of comrades as well as villagers in the film plan, prepare, demonstrates, and execute a strike demanding the rights of the landless, downtrodden community. The flashback scenes in the film were dedicated to represent the true event of Keezhvenmani Massacre, which happened on December 25, 1968, where 44 Dalits including women, children and aged were burnt alive by the landlords.

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Dr Anuradha Bele & Dr Jas Simran Kehal

The Brahmin and Vaishya population in India is very small. Yet if we study top 1000 companies in India, it is seen that in the board of directors, 93% are upper castes including Brahmins, Vaishyas, Parsis, Ashrafs and Syrian Christians (early Brahmin converts to Christianity), with 46% Vaishyas and 44% Brahmins. The OBCs and SC/STs are meagre 3.8% and 3.5% respectively.

The Indian corporate board has nine members on an average, and 88% of these are insiders; only 12% are independent directors. The corporate board thus lacks diversity and is completely dominated by the Brahmins and Vaishyas. Decision making body is kept entangled in caste and kin web-work confining Indian corporate board to a small and closed world - a world which is impermeable to labour class and lower castes. Indeed, cronyism is built into the caste system and this system has taken India to 9th global rank in crony-capitalism index.

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Chongtham Rameshwori 

My phone records 9:21 pm with the first picture of my favourite but unfortunate black T-shirt splattered with the thick pungent tobacco remains over my neck and chest area. On 22nd March 2020, after the nationwide curfew ended at 9 pm, I went outside with my friend to buy some groceries, to restock our supplies if we could, since a nationwide lockdown was about to begin on the very next day. We bought a medium-sized cabbage, one bottle gourd and an eggplant for 100 Rs and were on our way back to our PG, passing through the same alley which I have been passing for the last seven years. Except for a few street dogs, the street wore a completely deserted look and we saw a middle-aged north Indian man driving towards us from the opposite direction.

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Tanoj Meshram

Last week, Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher from rural government Zilla Parishad (ZP) school in Solapur district, received Global Teacher Prize from Varkey Foundation. The prize which carries a very attractive cash prize of one million US dollars (about seven crore Indian rupees) and gets endorsements from famous political personalities, media & film celebrities and even the Prince Harry, Prince Williams and Pope Francis (see the video here) , naturally made huge headlines across the country. Disale Sir (Guruji in Marathi) was selected from over 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries around the world.

As expected Disale Sir received praise from all the quarters for bringing laurels not just to his home state Maharashtra but India as well. Some even saw it as evidence that government schools in India do not lack talent while others considered it as the milestone in raising the status of the teachers as the award claims, "The Global Teacher Prize was set up to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society."

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Anshul Kumar

“History shows that the Brahmin has always had other classes as his allies to whom he was ready to accord the status of a governing class provided they were prepared to work with him in subordinate co-operation. In ancient and medieval times he made such an alliance with the Kshatriyas or the warrior class and the two ruled the masses, indeed ground them down, the Brahmin with his pen and the Kshatriya with his sword. At present, the Brahmin has made an alliance with the Vaishya class called Banias. The shifting of this alliance from Kshatriya to Bania is natural. In these days of commerce money is more important than sword. That is one reason for this change in party alignment. The second reason is the need for money to run the political machine. Money can come only from the Bania. It is the Bania who is financing the Congress largely because Mr. Gandhi is a Bania and also because he has realized that money invested in Politics gives large dividends.” ~ BR Ambedkar in What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables 

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Raina Singh, Theresa Joseph & Shafiullah Anis

 
Ambedkar Reading Group met online on 10th May 2020 with the motive to read, understand, discuss and debate from an anti-caste perspective, two ideas a) Corona pandemic from Bahujan Perspective and b) Future Scenarios post-Corona pandemic. The discussion was led by Vinith Kumar (Chair) and Shafiullah Anis (Co-chair). 

Introduction

The emergence of Covid-19 pandemic has not only brought forth human precarity to natural disasters but has also unearthed the gruesome darkness of the social. When the cities and towns across the world were getting locked down, the marginalized section of the society faced another blow to their vulnerable life. Various scholars, activists, professionals and thinkers have expressed their concerns and the leading role has been played by roundtableindia.co.in and dalitweb.org in bringing in wide varieties of views and discussions focusing on Bahujan-Pasmanda concerns due to the pandemic. These accounts are of various natures: documentation of atrocious instances of human displacement and suffering of Bahujan-Pasmanda section of the society to inputs and advisories by medical professionals; thinkers conceptualizing the pandemic from Bahujan-Pasmanda lens and unveiling the unseen and undiscussed; and professionals finding unique and equitable solutions to this formidable challenge and so on.

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Dr. Md Afroz & Md Tabrez

Introduction

The formation of Jharkhand on the pretext of development and change in the life of local people was actually a political gimmick to encash the euphoric regional sentiments for power. The ruling national parties used to retreat in policy matters that threatens their political stability in the changing political atmosphere due to the rise of regional parties conditioned to regional movements. Jharkhand is one of the best examples of this flimsy politics where national parties retain their political bases through championing stands, be it preservation of regional identity or development agenda altogether rhetorically used to seduce masses and to become the region’s emerging powers. 

Rich State Poor People

Jharkhand, a tribal dominated state with 32.96 million populations scattered in 79,110 sq. Km area, has rich mineral resources. The Gross State Domestic product (GSDP) is 3.28 lakh crore in the year of 2019-20, and per capita income is 79,873 rupees as per government data. It has 40 percent of mineral resources in the country alone where it retains the position of being the sole producer of coking coal, uranium and pyrite. It ranks 1st in the production of coal, mica, kainite and copper in India. It produces approximately 25 percent of steel in the country. This is why the state becomes the vanguard of industrialization among Indian states. It has a wide range of industrial plants, both public undertakings and private enterprises. 

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Vivek Kumar

 The dust of Bihar assembly election 2020 is gradually settling town. People are discussing the performances of various coalitions viz- Mahagathbandhan (110 seats), NDA (125 seats) and five party alliance led by BSP, AIMIM and RLSP. Media houses are busy in asking politicians and the so-called public intellectuals where the political parties went wrong. Which leader has gained credibility and which leader has lost the credibility? The Mahagathbandhan is alleging anomalies in counting process.

Questioning the Opinion and Exit Poll

However, what is astonishing is that no media house or intellectual is ready to discuss: Why did opinion polls and exit polls go so wrong. Why have the opinion and exit pollsters committed such a big blunder? I call it a blunder because most of the media houses have gone terribly wrong. The margins of error are so wide that it cannot but be called a blunder. It is all the more important to discuss this because most of the media houses make this a big event and pat their backs when they come even close to the actual results. They dance and celebrate their quasi success. Then why not discuss their actions when they go terribly wrong. For instance Axis My India-India Today in their exit poll predicted 139-161 for Mahagathbandhan but they got only 110 seats, indicating approximately 32 percent point error. Similarly, the same exit poll assigned only 69-91 seats to NDA but it secured 125 seats, again approximately 37 percent point error. Can you really allow such high percentage of error at this level?

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