Exhibition and Events 16th November – 3rd December at School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). [Via Shaheen Ahmed] The topic of gender, gender-based violence, fetishization, and casteism in contemporary works of art by twenty artists launches in a few days in New Delhi. Including video, performance art, photography, painting and drawing …
The roots of rape in India
Kancha Ilaiah Rape has, of late, become an acute disease in the Indian society. Prima facie, this is a problem arising out of a mental disorder, but there is also a larger cultural context that, to an extent, explains how the Indian male became so brutal. Our cultural upbringing conditions male minds to behave …
Medium of Instruction in Goan Schools: Mother Tongue or Multilingualism?
Open Letter to the Goan government’s Advisory Committee on Medium of Instruction Jason Keith FernandesR. Benedito FerrãoAlbertina AlmeidaAmita KanekarDale Luis MenezesAnjali ArondekarNandita de SouzaAnibel Ferus-ComeloSujata NoronhaChrissie D’Costa This letter is pursuant to an email that was dispatched to the Advisory Committee on Medium of Instruction on 12 October, 2013. Before we proceed, however, we …
The politics of “our” failure
Sudha K. F. Walter Benjamin, the famous Marxist critic, in an essay on Franz Kafka wrote that there is “plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope—but not for us”. Benjamin, a Jew, took his own life fleeing from the Nazis, when he lost all hope of survival, by swallowing a handful of morphine …
Slips between the cup and the lip: The sorry state of reservation in Central Universities
Hany Babu M.T. A massive recruitment exercise is just about to get under way at the University of Delhi. The University has recently advertized for 665 teaching positions with the break up as follows: Professor: 99, Associate Professor: 206, and Assistant Professor: 360. This round of recruitment, however, raises a grave concern with respect …
Rajendra Yadav: Defying Dominance in Life and Letters
Rajendra Yadav (1929–2013): Defying Dominance in Life and Letters Braj Ranjan Mani Rajendra Yadav, the leading Hindi writer and public intellectual, remained creative and combative till his 84-year-old body snuffed out his life. Irrepressible— editing (a popular monthly Hans), writing, dialoguing with friends and adversaries alike— till the very end, his name evoked a …
Jyoti Lanjewar, a rebel
Bhupali Kusum Vitthal Caves* Their inhuman atrocities have carved cavesin the rock of my heartI must tread this forest with wary stepsEyes fixed on the changing timesThe tables have turned nowProtests sparkNow hereNow there.I have been silent all these yearslistening to the voice of right and wrongBut now I will fan the flamesof human …
Atrocity in Beed: Are we safe in this country?
Are we living in our own state? Are we safe in this country? Yogesh Maitreya Today in the morning, at my desk in the office of the internship agency where I work, I wrote the brief story of an atrocity on a nineteen year old (SC) girl who was raped by two Maratha boys …
This Diwali, think why we celebrate death
Kancha Ilaiah There are two prominent stories around the celebration of Diwali. One, this is the day on which Ram returned to Ayodhya and coronated himself as king after killing Ravan. It is also the day when Krishna and his wife Satyabhama killed Narakasur, known as the evil rakshasa. It’s the death of the …