Joby Mathew [Today marks the 150th birth anniversary of Ayyankali. On 18th June this year, which marks his 73rd death anniversary, Kerala University instituted a chair in his name and invited Arundhati Roy to deliver the keynote address in which she reduced the ‘Ambedkar-Gandhi debate into a Gandhi-Arundhati debate’ and ‘deliberately ignored’ Ayyankali] The …
Guja-raatri, the unending night of terror
Kuffir GujaratIs an experimentTo see if a state would growWhen you sow blood ~ Netala Pratap Kumar Not just Gujarat, but the whole of India has been an experiment, in essence, since its formation as a state herding together disparate pieces of political, cultural and social geography into a make-believe nation. In the process …
Kambalapalli Carnage
Written By Oruvingal Sreedharan &R. Muniyappa Published by Babasaheb Dr.B.R. Ambedkar Adhyayana Kendra, Bangalore-9 Dedicatedtolate Sriramappa and other Six Dalits who were burnt alive at Kambalapalli We sincerely acknowledge the support given by the following DSS/BSP activists for bringing out this small booklet O. Rajanna, N. Shivanna, Krishna Chinthamani, Dr.L. Hanumanthaiah, Marasandra Muniyappa ~ Will …
Stop The Undermining Of Reservations
An Open Letter on the recent recruitment at Goa University [Via Amita Kanekar] This open letter is intended to express our concern at the improper implementation of the national policy of reservations at Goa University (GU). In June 2014 it was reported that there had been serious violations of the system of reservations in …
On what we eat
Nidhin Shobhana In this essay, I am re-reading two stories from my life. I think such an exercise is meaningful – especially when we are debating the protocols of food. I will try to weave an argument with the help of my stories. My argument is not original. It simply plays a supportive role …
Mary Kom: Nation in Priyanka Chopra
Thongam Bipin Racism is a form of discrimination that is based on race, physical features and region. Like any other form of discriminations, whether, gender, caste or sexual orientation, racism is deeply rooted in our psyche, in our national collective imagination. Collectivity implicates homogeneity, common feelings. Racism involves power and dominance. Any difference or …
The Cross Thread Virus
Sylvia Karpagam Subramanya Sankara Sastry had been living in Boston for the last seven years with his eldest son, a neurologist who had a roaring practice. He had been living there with some degree of discomfort but since the last week his discomfort had multiplied thanks to a painful lump under his left nipple. …
Dalits and mainstream media in Maharashtra
Sunil Dudhe The elections are over and we have a reactionary, nationalist and totalitarian believer as our ruler. And soon after the elections we had an outburst of caste atrocities all over the country. And particularly in Maharashtra, which has a tradition of reporting bias in events of caste atrocities, such incidents have been …
“Dalits have been waiting for 200 years for justice, another 20 years won’t matter”
Dalit Camera: Through Un-Touchable Eyes Today, August 6th, marks the 23rd anniversary of Tsunduru massacre of Dalits in Andhra Pradesh. When the case finally reached the Andhra Pradesh High Court, all the accused (including those who had been convicted by the lower court) were acquitted on April 22, 2014. Several Dalit and human rights …