Mayur Kadupale Undoubtedly, education as an agency has not only contributed to empower the oppressed communities but also helped rationalize their minds. This idea of emancipation can be located in the activities and approaches of the social theorists, right from Paulo Freire to Indian anti-caste activists like Mahatma Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Narayana Guru, …
Elitism among Indian Muslims: Caste, Power, Privilege and Inequality
Abid Faheem Abstract – Though the philosophy of caste hierarchy is quite contradictory to the basic beliefs of Islam which explicitly emphasizes equality and universal brotherhood, caste hierarchy exists among Muslims in India that can be divided into three broad category; the Ashraf (upper class), the Ajlaf (clean occupational caste), and the Arzal (unclean occupational caste …
Hinduism’s apartheid: Caste(in)g space
Dr. Ravichandran Bathran Introduction After India’s independence, the central government introduced different policies to increase the production of agriculture and goods, invested in industries and later opened the market for global capital. The government’s policy in improving agriculture had a major impact on the agrarian society, particularly the village structures. Caste hindus controlled the …
Rightward shift of Liberal Politics in India
Omprakash Mahato If voters have voted the way they have voted, we cannot but agree with Mill’s view that India is unfit for democracy. Prior to the exit poll report, no one in the ruling party including Modi and Amit Shah himself would have been sure of such an easy victory. The common narration that …
Criminalising Adivasi Forest Rights
Bhangya Bhukya After the 13th February 2019 Supreme Court judgment on the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006 (FRA) there was a nationwide outrage, particularly on social media. But the outrage evaporated soon as the country went into election mood. India is a huge country and things …
Ambedkar Age: Reading, Writing, Talking (April 2019 event, USA)
Sundeep Pattem The 128th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar and 10 years of Round Table India was the perfect occasion for friends to meet and celebrate with books and conversations. Phule-Ambedkar Center for Anti-Caste Thought hosted this meeting on April 20th, at Gaithersburg City Library, Greater Washington Area. Local friends and old friends …
Digital Acceleration and the uses of Muslim Literacy: A local reading of Richard Hoggart
Umar N The Malayalam speaking Muslims of Kerala, often mythically trace their lineage to Arab merchants traveling to the West Coast of India, and evangelical sojourners in the post-Islamic phase, who won royal patronage and sometimes married local women and settled down. In the course of time, the community has been buffeted by the winds …
General Elections 2019: A Short Comment on Muslim Representation
Khalid Anis Ansari In most academic and journalistic representations of the Muslim-minority space there is a persistent emphasis on the underrepresentation of Muslim legislators in various legislative bodies. The population proportion of Muslims has increased from the immediate post-partition phase of 10.4% to 14.2% in the 2011 Census. However, in the Lok Sabha Muslim representation …
A note on caste violence in colleges
Aishwarya KS This is in accordance with the recent event that has disturbed me and the amount of perturbation it has caused in my mind is quite intense and that is the reason why I am writing this. To people who have not yet known about the suicide of a medical student in Mumbai due …