Ankush Bicka Rahul was studying in 11th standard in a good private school. Like many of his friends and classmates, he wished to prepare for the IIT JEE. For those who don’t know, it is among the most challenging entrance examinations. However, Rahul’s struggle began even before he began preparing for the exam. The struggle …
EWS Quota is not in the Constitutional Spirit
Santhosh J The controversial EWS quota for the savarna people is not true to the Constitutional spirit. The constitution guarantees justice to the socially discriminated groups and to ensure their adequate representation in the administration and educational institutions so that they can be made part of social life of the country by providing reservations to …
Claiming Space In History To Live, Love, And Heal
Krishna Kumar James H. Sweet’s article Is History History? in the president’s column of Perspectives on History attacked the histories concerning the issues of ‘racism, gender, sexuality, nationalism, capitalism’; It extends and does harm to the issue of caste in the histories of South Asia in this globalized world, where it is still struggling for …
Reform Was Necessary: Gorbachev’s Quest for A Socialist ‘Alternative’
Pranveer Bharti On 8 December 1991, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the USSR, was in Moscow when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Union Treaty at Belovezhskaya Pushcha, declaring the USSR ceased to exist and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States. It was the …
Kerala’s Right Wing Atheism And Caste Blindness
Arjun C “Dr. Ambedkar didn’t talk about atheism, it’s because atheism is so easily absorbed by Brahminism in India. Atheists in India do not get rid of brahminical hierarchy and caste conditioning” ~ Prof. Gail Omvedt I am often reminded of this quote while watching speeches of many popular atheists from Kerala. The rise of …
Siddaramaiah: ‘They created the caste system and then they ask us, Why reservation?’
Siddaramaiah This is a translation of a speech made by Mr. Siddaramaiah on the topic of caste, reservation and EWS quota. The video link was shared on his Facebook page on 26, June 2022. They ask, “more, how many years of reservation?” After 72 years, even now we don’t have representation equal to our proportion …
De-Casteing Love: Pa Ranjith’s ‘Natchathiram Nagargiradhu’
Jitendra Suna Separation of love and Indian cinema is an impossible task. On one hand, our society abhors love; on the other hand, Indian cinema exploits the conditions of lovelessness that exist in our society. A critical study of 2013 on the judgement of various rape cases in seven district courts of Delhi by Rukmini …
Dr. Gail Omvedt: A scholar who links theory to the fight for change
Sampat Desai Reconstruction of the world is the basic function of philosophy; philosophy should not spend time analyzing the origin of the world. Dr. Gail Omvedt used the above principle and contributed significantly to this theory. She gave a new insight to the research field putting forth a new theoretical framework with special reference to …
Contextualising Manu as a ‘hireling’: A Critical Analysis of Chapter VII in the Manusmriti
Somnath Pati “It has an affirmation of life, a triumphing, agreeable sensation in life, and that to draw up a lawbook such as Manu means to permit oneself to get the upper hand, to become perfect, to be ambitious of the highest art of living.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (attributed) Finding Manu’s verses “inspiring” and acting …