Ambedkar Memorial Lecture – 2013 On ‘Exhumation of Society and Culture in Ancient India’ Speaker: Prof. Nandu Ram (Former Dean, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University) 13th January, Sunday, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm Convention Centre, Naoroji Campus, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar had a deep sense of …
Rape and Murder of Dalit & Minority Girls in Kandhamal – Fact Finding Report
Interim Report of the Fact Finding Investigation of Rape and Murder of Dalit & Minority Girls January 10, 2013 in Kandhamal, Odisha ~ [Via Asha Kowtal] The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights with allied organizations like NAWO, Odisha Forum for Social Action, human rights activists and journalists conducted a fact finding visit to …
Contemplating the Delhi Phenomenon
Priya Chandran The rape and murder of 23 year old student Jyoti, in Delhi, which has brought out a tremendous response from the middle class Delhi public and later from similar urban categories across the country also gained considerable media attention. When the immediate affective reaction of this public varied from demanding capital punishment …
The Protests in Delhi and the Nationalist Paradigm
Jenny Rowena On a broken tar road in a rather remote area in Kerala (where I am right now), someone has scribbled this with white chalk: Sister, For You, Bad New Year(Sahodari, ninakkuvendi, bad New Year) This statement is addressed to the girl who passed away recently after being brutally raped in a bus …
National Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress
Call For Delegates National Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress Organized byTata Institue of Social SciencesCentre for Social Justice and Governancein Collaboration withInsight Foundation, Delhisupported byDalit & Tribal Social Work International ForumVenue: Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai CampusDate: 15 – 16 February, 2013 Concept Note What does it mean to be a Dalit woman, an …
Don’t cry for me
Cynthia Stephen (Cynthia shares her reflections on the recent debate over violence against women through a poem and a short note) Don’t cry for me. Don’t cry for me. Don’t cry for me. Anonymous I may be to you, but I have a name, a self. I too get thirsty But when I go …
Delhi Protests and the Caste Hindu Paradigm: Of Sacred and Paraded Bodies
Madhuri Xalxo I am a bit shaken by what outrages the mainstream media on rape. The incident is horrifying and yet so very familiar to us dalit, bahujan and adivasi women. In the same Delhi, hundreds of adivasi girls are taken as domestic slaves and get raped, and go missing. Why doesn’t the mainstream …
Students burn Manusmriti on Manusmriti Dahan Diwas in University of Hyderabad
[Via Anji Vikarabad] On December 25th, 2012, students in University of Hyderabad, led by the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), burnt a copy of the Manusmriti in the campus, which they called the ‘most notorious’, ‘barbaric’ religious text ever produced. 25th December is an auspicious day in the history of Dalitbahujan struggles because it was on …
‘Feminist movements were sympathetic, but never took up caste related issues’
– An interview with Du Saraswathi (First published in the Dalit students’ magazine ‘Insight Young Voices’ in 2005 as “Coalition is the philosophy and need of the hour”) Du Saraswathi is a Bangalore-based writer, poet, artist and an activist. Since her student days, she has been involved with women’s groups, the DSS, peace movements and …