Karthik Navayan Atrocities on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes take various forms – both visible and invisible. However it is the visible forms of atrocities that are defined and included in Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. Visible forms of atrocities are taking place in rural India, and invisible …
Fragrance of Peace: Irom Sarmila
A collection of Irom Sarmila’s poems, translated into English from Meiteilon. Published on the tenth anniversary of Sarmila’s hunger fast for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, a draconian law that allows the army unfettered powers in areas that are considered politically “sensitive” or “disturbed”. All proceeds from the sale of this …
Why, Rahul Gandhi, The Adivasis’ Soldier Silent?
On August 26, 2010, the Congress leader and self-proclaimed soldier of the Adivasis, Rahul Gandhi visited to Niyamgiri in Orissa just two days after the Indian government denied clearance to the Vedanta Resource’s Rs.4500 crore bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri Hills.While addressing to a rally of 3000 colourfully dressed Dongria Kondh and other Adivasis at …
Caste’ing Live Chitradurga’s Madigas And Nayakas
Caste in India is a terrible thing. It can surface anywhere in a weirdest manner and forms. In the Chitradurga district of Karnataka, famed for the rule of Nayakas, the chieftain whose descendents have strangely found a place in the schedule for Tribes, prepared by the independent India to do them social justice, it still …
The Mahar Movement’s Military Component
Richard B. White [I]n the Bombay Army, `the Brahmin stands shoulder to shoulder in the ranks, nay sleeps in the same tent with his Parwari [Mahar] soldier, and dreams not of any objection to the arrangement.’ –Brigadier John Jacob, Views and Opinions, 1858. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, is famous for being “the most …
Dalit killed for plucking two brinjals in Bihar village
Patna : A Dalit man was beaten to death for plucking two brinjals from a field belonging to a landowner of a higher caste in a village in Bihar, police said Wednesday.To escape the clutches of law, the landowner later offered the grieving Dalit family Rs.75,000 and a piece of land. The family turned down …
Women’s commission appeals to Maoists for peace
Kolkata :West Bengal Women’s Commission on Women Victims of Maoist Violence (WBCW) on Wednesday expressed deep concerns over the growing attacks perpetrated by Maoists in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts on women and appealed to them to abjure violence.
National Conference on Movements for Equity in Reservations
Conference on: February 21-22, 2011, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi The process of identification, classification and grouping of castes and tribes in India has become contentious due to self-perceived incongruity between socio-ritual and politico-economic statuses of various castes and tribes. This is increasingly manifesting in the recent times with some castes and tribes demanding a …
All hail goddess English?
Dennis Baron Global English may be about to go celestial. A political activist in India wants the country’s poorest caste to improve its status by worshipping the English language, and to start off he’s building a temple to Goddess English in the obscure village of Bankagaon, near Lakhimpur Khiri in Uttar Pradesh. English started …