For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Subal Meher Babasaheb said, “They cannot make history who forget history”. The term ‘Shudra’ is very difficult to understand. Who are/were they; how did they come to be known by this name? How did they become the fourth varna in the Indo-Aryan society? Many questions like this come up when one tries to understand the …
Chanchal Kumar “We lived happily during the war”, the first poem in Ilya Kaminsky’s book Deaf Republic begins. It continues, And when they bombed other people’s houses, we protestedbut not enough, we opposed them but not enough. To better fit this poem to the India of 2019 (the results of general elections announced, with …
S. M. Dhabarde Once upon a time there was a Brahmin journalist. Let us call him Happy Sage. Happy Sage was extremely happy with his own life. Why wouldn’t he be –he was born with knowledge! As a journalist, Happy was extremely pained and distressed to see the ‘degraded’ status of his caste fellows …
Rahul Sonpimple “The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves” Marx wrote in 1864 as the first principle of the self-emancipation of the proletariat. He was convinced, however, Indian upper caste Marxists are still not. When Ambedkar pushed for the Poona Pact in 1932, demanding separate electorates for …
Prateek Khobragade Dr. Suraj Yengde’s recent book Caste Matters has triggered myriad debates across the class and caste circles the book has reached; an outcome any author would desire and expect. The responses are mixed and important criticisms of the book are making way. An interesting trend I observed in my own peer circle, of …
Dear Arvind Kejriwal, In the workshop organized by Delhi Jal Board on 15/7/2019 at Talkatora Stadium1 you said that you feel “dejected to hear about the deaths of sanitation workers” and that “we are concerned about the lives of sanitation workers and will give free safety kits to those working in Delhi so that …
Raja Dhale (In an interview first published in the Marathi journal Khel, Raja Dhale (1940-2019) recounted the history behind his surname ‘Dhale’: soldiers that were historically the standard bearers and advance guards at forts. True to this personal history, Raja Dhale stood at the vanguard of the Dalit consciousness and articulation in Maharashtra in …
Ram Dayal Ahirwar Guru Ravidas needs no introduction. He is a well-known figure, who took birth in 15th century in Varanasi to parents working in leather processing. In modern India, Ravidas is revered by the Ravidasia community for the virtues he possessed. His denouncement of the brahmanical values holds immense significance in the history of …
Ratnesh Katulkar Following its election manifesto, Modi led NDA government finally revoked Article 370 which gave a special status to Kashmir. Most of the parties supported this move while Congress seems to be divided on this issue until party leadership gave a statement against this move. The Hindu-nationalists forces are celebrating this decision as …