C.K Janu and M. Geethanandan (Written in May 2003) The Adivasi decision is to return to Muthanga. The Adivasis had become victims of untold brutalities. Yet there is no other way but to return. And the Adivasis have been made refugees in their homeland. There are the spirits of the dead in the forestlands of …
The ‘Precariat’ Strikes
Anand Teltumbde The occupation of the Indu Mills near Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai by dalit youth demanding that an Ambedkar memorial should come up there is a heartening development. In neo-liberal India, dalits are a significant part of the “precariat” – a section of the people with no job security, indeed, with no prospect of employment, …
Authorities must ensure justice for victims of Kalinganagar shootings six years ago
Amnesty International Public Statement [AI Index: ASA 20/001/2012 1 January 2012 (embargoed for release at 0001 GMT on 1 January 2012)] Authorities in Orissa should no longer delay justice for the victims and survivors of the Kalinganagar police shootings six years ago when 12 adivasis (Indigenous people) were killed and 37 others injured, Amnesty International said today. …
Reforming Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) / Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP)
Recommendations on Reforming Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) / Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) — National Advisory Council [The Working Group of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on Dalit Issues have prepared a set of Draft Recommendations to be considered by the National Advisory Council on the reform of the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan. These Draft Recommendations are …
Caste in India
Gail Omvedt [Written in the year 2008] (A Reply to the Hindu Council of UK essay on “The Caste System”) * I owe thanks to Michael Witzel for his note citing Vedic references on caste and his careful reading of an earlier version of this essay. Introduction The essay submitted by the Hindu Council of …
Janeu, The Cat’s Cradle
Gopal Guru (First published in Outlook magazine in March 2009) Brahmins are fashioning new political rhetoric from old stereotypes Let me begin this piece with a dramatic question: what are Brahmins doing in political parties? Let me make it even more dramatic: what are they doing in non-Brahmin, Dalit or Dalit-led parties? If these questions …
Janlokpal bill: a brahmanic and patriarchal script (part 2)
Anu Ramdas Continued from here Myth making traditions are uncannily similar in wars and movements of the dominant classes, even before the enemy has been clearly identified, weapons get fashioned. That the JLB is a weapon against the national ‘enemy’ is very clear. But who is this enemy? In other words, who are the …
Janlokpal bill: a brahmanic and patriarchal script
Anu Ramdas The Jan Lokpal bill is under 35 pages. The creators of this document successfully manufactured a ‘revolution’ out of this. The corporate media sold it as such, and some academics called it a ‘movement’. Media and academia largely did not comment on the contents of the document. Their preoccupation was with the …
Manusmruti Dahan Din
Dr. K. Jamanadas Today is Christmas, 25th of December. It is celebrated all over the Christian world as the birth of Jesus Christ. But for the whole world of Dalits, it is an important day as “Manu Smruti Dahan Din”, as it was on this day in 1927 that Manusmruti was publicly burned by …