A brief note on Dalit literary movements in Maharashtra Daisy Katta Revolutions are stirred on paper and are born out of pens and inks. Revolutionary movement categorically uproots the very being of an accepted thought and tries to negate, challenge, eradicate social evils, thus creating an atmosphere of non-conformity. Literature is a vehicle for …
The Rise of BJP: Bitter Fruits of Fertile Brahminical Soil
Nidhin Sowjanya The 16th Lok Sabha elections have culminated in something that anyone who looks closely at the history and functioning of this Brahminical Hindu nation could have easily expected. These elections announced the victory, however incomplete, of the right wing Hindutva party- BJP. The sheer number of seats (282 on its own) and …
The Question of Identity
Rajinder Barpagga It is an absolute pleasure to dedicate this article to the memory of honourable Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar (14 April 1891- 6 December 1956), revivalist of Buddhism in India, the first law minister of independent India and the chief architect of Indian constitution drafting committee. He had made the biggest contribution in …
Andra Pradesh Bishops launch web network for dalit youth
Some 70 Dalit Christian youth from different dioceses of Coastal Andhra Pradesh participated in the June 28 seminar organised by the Bishops in Vijaywada. Indian bishops’ office working for dalit and tribal people has launched network of dalit youth to help them share information on jobs, scholarships and other opportunities for progress. At a seminar …
Disastrous Dalit-ness
Pradnya Mangala It is important to approach the study of disaster, not as an exercise in social disorganization or pathology but as the occasion for understanding some of the more important normal structures and processes, such as communication, interactions, organization, decision making. Thus an approach which emphasizes social adaptability, not social pathology and problem …
Pandit Iyothee Thass and the Revival of Tamil Buddhism
Bala J We may say that great minds think alike when two scholars who lived in two different times and places reach a similar conclusion on the same problem. The traditionally educated nineteenth century Tamil scholar, Pandit Iyothee Thass as well as the twentieth century western educated intellectual from Maharashtra, Babasaheb Ambedkar, embraced Buddhism …
The nauseating language politics of the Indian state
Kuffir Feel hotFeel a nausea stirring in my stomachFeel like I am listening to Sanskrit Slokas ~ Madduri Nagesh Babu, in ‘A Rakshasa’s proclamation’. You might think the ruling classes want all Indians to speak Hindi, to impose Hindi on everyone. That is not the idea, they want to impose the fear of imposition …
Savarna English and the violent exclusion of Dalits
Yogesh Maitreya Language is one of the basic media to facilitate the expression of the mind. Yet, when a distinct form of it is spoken by a select group of people who are high up in the social hierarchy, it can become a tool to maintain cultural superiority. In the Indian context, it would …
Ourselves as “other”
Drishadwati Bargi “They had the power to make us see and experience ourselves as “other”” ~ bell hooks, Black Looks: Race And Representation. Narrative one: I have known a Dalit man for the past twenty four years of my existence. Like many other first generation beneficiaries of affirmative action policy, he has worked and done well …