Rachna Gautam In every civilized society, there is an indispensable need for law for the proper governance of society. People by virtue of being human are rational and move ahead in the direction which can fulfill their interest at best and because of the presence of numerous people with varying interests their paths or the …
Land Redistribution and the marginalized in Uttar Pradesh: An interview with Prof. Vivek Kumar
Shivam Mogha A great churning of ideas is happening in the sites of the current farmers’ protest at the borders of Delhi, being dubbed by many as the largest and longest peaceful protest in the world. As part of looking into various aspects of these protests, we have tried to understand the history of …
Judicial Subversion of Affirmative Action Jurisprudence
Bobby Kunhu “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” ~ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste The jurisprudence around reservations and affirmative action …
In Memory of Sant Ramanand Ji
Ram Dayal Ahirwar Political and social theorists are in support of subaltern theoretical development in India as an emancipatory project for the socially, religiously, gender-wise, and regionally marginal. But within the strand of Dalit politics, there are lots of contestations, there are independents, groups of activists and public intellectuals who have problematic dispositions towards words …
Beyond Dalitness: Start Annihilating Caste and Claiming Humanness
Milind Thokal The process of learning and unlearning is inevitable and will continue forever but some basic concepts must always remain at the core where we must never have any confusion, keeping it more simple, straightforward, and to the point. Let’s start with the very basic word ‘Dalit’. Dalit is a Sanskrit word that means …
Outlook magazine’s duplicity
JS Vinay Recently, there was a controversy when the Outlook magazine released an issue with a cover story on “50 Dalits remaking India”. [1] Many anti-caste activists raised questions about the issue. Some were talking about the usage of the word “Dalit” since a court had ruled against the usage of the term in previous …
Moral Right to Labour
Pralay Nagrale The recent mobilization of the Valmiki community all over India was important in fighting for justice for the 19 year old girl of Bulgaddhi village of district Hathras, because till now, the protests of the Valmiki community used to be on local levels, mostly. But this resistance did not happen suddenly. It was …
So you want to ally with the Dalit Rights Movement?
Shivani Waldekar On 25th May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis, USA. A video showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was pinned to the floor went viral. Following this, large anti-racism protests took place with many white …
Did Savarkar believe in and promote untouchability?
Harishchandra Sukhdeve “… When these Mahar ‘untouchable’ folk coming from Sanatan Hindu majority villages go back to their villages now after embracing Buddhism at Nagpur will they be considered ‘touchables’ only because they have now embraced Buddhism? It is impossible.” This is a quote from his article published on 30 October, …