Rahul Sonpimple (His reply to an open letter addressed to him by Umar Khalid, student leader of JNU) I am new to this culture of open letters, I wonder if I will get one after my every speech. At the outset, let me state that I am not writing this reply to defend myself, …
Caste, Friendship & Solidarity
Christina Thomas Dhanaraj The practice of caste in India and the rest of South Asia is indisputable. The 3000-year old oppressive structure has its footprint in pretty much everything that is remotely Indian or South Asian. And no, 60 years of being a Republic, or the Mandal commission couldn’t do much to erase it. …
Appropriating Guru Ravidas – Ignorance is bliss for Hindu Education Foundation, USA
Pardeep Attri In its recent demands of edits to the Instructional Quality Commission (which acts as an advisory body to the State Board of Education. California), the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) sought that the Bhakti saints like [Guru] Ravidas and the Alvars be added to the list of examples. As per HEF, this was …
Afterlife of a Dalit film star
K K Baburaj When a great personality dies, people feel helpless and the country ceases to function. But, after one week, if this great personality returns, he won’t find the job of a city porter. The famous German poet Bertolt Brecht wrote such a poem. Kalabhavan Mani, a Dalit film star and popular singer …
Open letter to the writers attending Vedanta JLF London 2016
Open letter to the writers attending Vedanta JLF London 2016 from Niyamgiri mountain to the river Kafue calling Vedanta to justice 12th May 2016 Dear All, We are deeply shocked and dismayed to hear that you have agreed to participate at the Jaipur Literature Festival claiming to be “The Greatest Literary Show on Earth” …
‘Rohith can die but no Dalit will be a hero’
Rough translation of Rahul Sonpimple‘s (BAPSA, JNU) powerful speech outside SSS1, JNU on 10th May, on the hypocrisy of JNU left during the Academic Council Meeting, undermining the issues of social justice – like OBC relaxation and reduction of Viva voce – for the HLEC (high Level Enquiry Committee set up to probe the events of …
Why Manjule succeeded where the Benegals have failed
Vaibhav Wasnik Now for starters, I have not seen this movie Sairat. But as will be obvious, everything I have written below will remain the same after I see the movie. The fact that the director Mr Manjule is from our Ambedkarite community, working in a medium with hardly any representation from us dalits, …
Can we organize against caste atrocities?
Dharmaraj Kumar The brutality of the incident of rape and murder of the 29 year old law student belonging to a poor dalit family from Ernakulam in Kerala, has once again brought the festering wound of history of rampant caste atrocities in light, before the case of Delta Meghwal would have faded away from …
Sanctions Against Sanity
Ezhilan Naganathan The history of mankind can be described as a legacy of struggles of the oppressed against the oppressor. In this subcontinent, the struggle is of a unique nature because of a unique form of oppression, caste. Caste is a human construct based on religious foundations. The discriminative plot of the oppressor is …