On 12th June, in Laxmipeta, Andhra Pradesh, caste hindu villagers attacked Dalit families and brutally murdered 5 Dalits, grievously injuring about 50 others and completely destroying their properties. About 200 Dalit survivors of Laxmipeta massacre are in the National Capital to demand justice and to protest against the insensitivity of the local administration. Please join …
The blood drenched land in Lakshimpeta questions the State
Fact Finding Report of Andhra Pradesh Dalit Mahasabha on the Lakshimpeta Massacre Three women whose husbands were alive on June 11th became widows on the 12th. One lost a father, and another woman also lost a husband a few days later. 20 victims suffer and grieve in a hospital, nursing seriously injured limbs and heads, …
Lakshmipeta Massacre
Ch. Das Instances of brutal attacks against poor and landless Dalits have been reported more intensely and frequently in North Andhra Pradesh, in areas where the Dalit population is concentrated. On June 12, the socially, economically and politically powerful Kapus launched a cruel and violent attack on the poor landless Malas of Lakshmipeta village, in …
How to stop another Gujarat?
Karthik Navayan [Karthik Navayan wrote this article ten years ago, in 2002, after visiting Gujarat as a relief volunteer seeking to offer aid to the victims of the 2002 carnage. The one persistent thought on his mind after the experience was: how to stop Andhra Pradesh from becoming Gujarat? How to stop any other state …
Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – An Appeal
Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – An Appeal 17/02/2012 To Shri Kiran Kumar Reddy Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Subject: Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – an appeal for a two days discussion on this subject in two houses of the Andhra …
Popular Culture and Ideology: The Phenomenon of Gaddar
P Kesava Kumar (First published in February 2010) The cultural sphere has its own advantage over politics in terms of pulling people into its fold. Through his songs and cultural performances, Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as “Gaddar”, the Telugu poet singer, maintains the historical continuity of people’s lives and their struggles. He brings politics into everyday life situations and …
‘We will do a Chunduru on you!’
Desecration of Ambedkar statues: Truth is the first casualty (Part II) Continued from here. In this concluding part on the issue of desecration of Dr Ambedkar’s statues in Andhra Pradesh, G Jhansi, of Dalit Sthree Sakthi, maps for us the morphing forms of atrocities on dalit assertions. In her analytical narrative of the complex caste …
Desecration of Ambedkar statues: Truth is the first casualty
Truth, they say, is the first casualty in any war. Was it a caste war which triggered the series of desecrations of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statues in Andhra Pradesh, starting with the destruction of four statues in Amalapuram on the night of 22nd January? Was it the result of inter-group rivalry among State Congress leaders? Was …
Analyzing the ‘OBC-Minority’ Sub-Quota–Part III
Khalid Anis Ansari Continued from here. [III] 4.5% Sub-Quota for OBCs within Minorities: The ‘policy’ and ‘technical’ dimensions Let me state right at the outset that the recent 4.5% sub-quota was not a demand raised by the pasmanda movement but rather is informed by the second recommendation of the Ranganath Mishra Report which is as …