Bobby Kunhu “Christ is born, my wise Solomon, my wretched pen-pusher! Don´t go picking things over with a needle! Is He born or isn´t He? Of course He is born, don´t be daft. If you take a magnifying glass and look at your drinking water-an engineer told me this, one day – you´ll see, …
Deifying the Migrant Mother and Kolkata’s erasure of Caste
Aatika Singh Pallab Bhowmick, an artist, has come up with the concept of portraying Goddess Durga as a migrant mother for this year’s Durga Pujo in Kolkata’s Barisha club. The finely carved and aesthetically beautiful sculpture is being widely applauded for its progressive form and thought. However, this particular theme showcasing a migrant woman laborer …
Liars Masquerading as Communists: The Curious Case of CPIM in Bengal
Mahitosh Mandal “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” – Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach” (1845) “In the twentieth century, we tried to change the world too quickly; the time is to interpret it again.” – Slavoj Žižek, “Don’t Act. Just Think” (2012) On the occasion …
‘Jai Bhim, Lal Salam’: Myth and Reality
Vinod Kumar Of late, uniting Ambedkarism and communism has become a matter of discussion among intellectuals and students across India. As far as the emergence of this discourse is concerned, it is because of the increasing assertion of the Ambedkarite forces to alter the politics of the most prominent institutions, in particular HCU, JNU, …
Remembering Babasaheb: Ambedkar Jayanti Celebrations At CSSSC
On 23rd April, 2014 1.00 pm onwards at CSSSC campus, Baishnabghata Patuli, Kolkata This April 14 is the first time that Government of India declared a national holiday to mark Babasaheb’s birth anniversary. This act must be seen not only in the context of the elections underway in the country but also as part …
The Dilemma of an upwardly mobile, English speaking, Bengali Dalit woman
Drishadwati Bargi The rather long title could have been longer if it were to encapsulate the full range of the subjectivity of this scribe. It should have been “The dilemma of being an upwardly mobile, English speaking, Dalit Feminist and ideologue who is simultaneously a wannabe intellectual, a commodity fetishist and a person with …
Don’t Give Me Red!
Ajith Kumar A S Going straight into the matter, let me confirm that this note is my response to Anand Teltumbde’s article “It’s Not Red Vs Blue” published in Outlook ( Aug 20, 2012). I am sure that it is not a comprehensive critique of the article. But rather I will be sharing some questions …
Marichjhapi and the Revenge of Bengali Bhadralok
(First published in Insight blog in 2009) Anoop Kumar, Ajay Hela and Nilesh Kumar Exactly 30 years ago, Dalits, in West Bengal, came to realize the true nature of Indian state that is being dominated, in every sense, by a tiny section of population but at a great personal cost. It was in 1979, when …
Muslim-Dalit Relations
Gail Omvedt Islam is a religion of egalitarianism and brotherhood. After the defeat of Buddhism, it maintained these values in India for centuries. Not only did those who became Muslims benefit by escaping from caste restrictions, but Muslim rule also provided a social and political context for the growth of Bhakti movements. Within these, to …