For An Informed Ambedkar Age
by Rupesh Kumar Indian films mass mediate stereotypical images of marginalized communities like dalits and adivasis; something that is rarely challenged by anyone. The producers are almost invariably savarna/dominant caste males. The candid display of the film makers’ enormous illiteracy about the history, culture and politics of adivasi and dalits cannot be countered with the …
“Hinduism is not a religion; it is a disease.” One of the few men who have risen from the malodorous sink which is below the lowest caste of India is Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, No. 1 Untouchable. This plump, cheery, bespectacled man of no caste, whose very shadow would outrage high-caste Hindus, managed to get …
by Kancha Ilaiah They killed five Dalits for skinning a cow… At least now the whole nation must stand up against this kind of spiritual and political nationalism. IS A cow’s life worthier than that of five Dalits? The Dalits have had to pay an enormous price — of remaining untouchables — for removing carcasses …
Kathi Padma Rao Written on 26th Anniversary of the Karamchedu massacre (on July 17th, 1985 ) in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. Karamchedu village is located 7 km off from Chirala in Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh State. The village was a big Panchayat with 16 wards. Kammas, the landlord community, lived in eight …
Translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar After that the Arya Brahmans began to treat with disdain all the Kshudra peasant slaves who had come under their control. They completely stopped giving them education and brought their condition below the level of animals. And since they became illiterate and completely without access to knowledge, the Arya Brahmans plunder …
by Ashok Yadav & Khalid Anis Ansari The police firing and subsequent killing of five OBC Muslims in Bhajanpur village in Forbesganj of Araria district in Bihar on June 3, 2011 has been analyzed in most reports in the public sphere through the frame of ‘communalism’ and there has been little effort to grapple with …
Mallepally Lakshmaiah Is there a single village in India which has no Dalit? There could be a few exceptions but we do find Dalits in most parts of India – who have fought the system relentlessly. Every village has produced its very own Dalit social revolutionary but is there any Dalit reformer with a …
Gail Omvedt Dalits have reason to be worried, with the RSS in control of the Ministry of Human Resources Development. Not only is it in a position to impose its cultural agenda on the nation, but it also seems to be moving to cut off the development of a Dalit intelligentsia which has been one …
by Chandra Bhan Prasad British imperialism did help serve the Dalits’ cause. The sciences, modern institutions and democracy were attendant features of colonialism which, in turn, shook the very foundations of the Varna order. The British, however, had no such intent when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a few London businessmen on December 31, …