For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Vivek Kumar BJP is very, very weak in Delhi elections? This can be proved on the basis of the fact that it has inducted individuals who do not have any party experience and who have crossed over from other political parties. Kiran Bedi has no political experience. However she has been declared as CM …
In recent weeks, the Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, who works as a Tamil Professor at the Government Arts College in Namakkal, has been the target of vicious attacks by some casteist forces due to the alleged ‘controversial’ content in his book ‘Madhorubagan’ (English translation: One Part Woman). Protests by some people (not identified as …
Mohammad Sajjad On 18 January 2015, in the Ajitpur-Bahilwara, near Saraiya, in the district of Muzaffarpur in north Bihar, violence broke out. It killed nearly five people and almost all the 56 Muslim (Pasmanda) households in the village were looted and burnt. The immediate provocation was an inter-faith love affair: to the Hindutva zealots, …
Vivek Kumar This is with reference to ‘When the Elephant disappears’ (The Hindu, 5 January, 2015). A very general principle in research methodology is that generalizations are not possible if the sampling in a research is purposive. In this context to argue that, ‘one party which could benefit the most from the decline of …
The Silence on ‘Reservations in Promotions’ in a caste-based social polity Bobby Kunhu In a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court of India, Justices Chalameswar and Sikri have held that: “to carry out promotions from Scale-I upwards upto Scale-VI, reservation in promotion in favour of SC/ST employees has to be given” in the Chairman …
Chithralekha Punaradhivasa Committee Kannur 2 Since 25th October 2014, for the last 77 days1, Chithralekha and her family have been on a constant day-and-night strike in front of the Kannur collectorate for her right to work and earn her livelihood, and demanding that social justice be dispensed. This legitimate strike has garnered the support …
Inspired by a fakir who collected sunflowers and shone like the Sun, many other fakirs followed the footsteps of this hero of the voiceless. Namdeo Dhasal was one such giant poet. Namdeo has injected the attitude of militancy, rebellion in his poetry and the legacy of his poetry has nourished three generations of …
Yogesh Maitreya Somewhere in 2012, back in Nagpur, I had read an article on Sambhaji Bhagat, poet, balladeer and a rebellious playwright from Maharashtra. He is also a vigorous Ambedkarite activist, in his own words, “main Babasaheb ka baccha hu” (‘I am the descendent of Babasaheb’). While living in Nagpur I had hardly heard of …
Rupesh Kumar The questions raised by the political struggles of Chithralekha, the dalit auto rickshaw driver in Payyannur in Kerala, against the Left male violence on her family, gender and dalit identity is a hard punch against caste discrimination and patriarchy. Payyanur is part of the so-called ‘innocent North Malabar’, also known as ‘North …