Omprakash Mahato Yashwant Sinha, in the ‘United India Opposition Rally’ held in West Bengal on 19 january 2019, stated that the coming together of opposition parties is not to defeat ‘one person’. It is a fight between two ideologies. The ideologies that will uphold the constitutional ethos; that will protect secularism from the religious …
Temple entry struggles and some missing contexts
Mayur Kudupale & K Swathi Sivadas The culture of debating on social issues has always paved the way for acquiring new learnings. The recent verdict on Sabarimala row was an inevitable topic among us, students. Our friends from Kerala, especially girls, debated enthusiastically that women’s entry to the temple should be allowed. Dissenting against …
They Ask Me, “Do You Face Caste Discrimination?”
Shivani Waldekar Before starting to write my words I want to give one disclaimer here that whatever I am writing comes from my personal lived experience, so if anyone is hurt because of that, I apologise. If you are unable to digest the facts and thoughts I hereby state, please feel free to build your …
Ambedkar’s tryst with fraternity…
Shiveshwar Kundu B.R. Ambedkar has become an omnipresent character of Indian politics. He is everywhere, darling of almost every spectrum of the mainstream, local as well as student politics. The irony of the churning is that the exact forces against whom Ambedkar himself waged war during his lifetime are now trying to appropriate his …
Caste & Untouchability: Root of the Blasphemy project in Pakistan
Auwn Gurmani Babasaheb Ambedkar in his book Annihilation of Caste says: “I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mahomedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty”. I’d add, the context may be different today, but, nonetheless, there is a cruelty amongst Mahomedans that cannot be …
Crowdfunding campaign for film on Babasaheb Ambedkar
Jai Bhim!! My name is Jyoti Nisha. I am an independent Bahujan Writer/Documentary Filmmaker based in Mumbai. For the last two and half years I have been working on a feature length documentary film, ‘B. R. Ambedkar Now and Then.’ I am writing this to you to share with you a crowd funding campaign …
The Ten Percent Betrayal
Bobby Kunhu “Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle…. Goats are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.” – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Each time the DBA communities assert their political rights and manage to gain something, the savarnas find a way to subvert …
Fighting for a dog’s life
Dr. Sylvia Karpagam Animals in the domestic animal kingdom were going through an economic crisis that was putting their very survival at risk. There was just not enough food to go around, water was scarce and contaminated, the air was polluted and leading to health problems, children were just not getting what they deserved. …
Issues with 10% Upper Caste Reservation: “Politics of Presence” or “Electoral Strategy”?
Rajanikanta Gochhayat Is the latest quota move by the NDA government led by BJP an issue of group representation of the upper castes or an electoral strategy before the 2019 general election? It is both the ‘politics of presence’ and ‘electoral strategies’, bringing some inputs to the reservation debate too. The ‘politics of presence’ talks …