For An Informed Ambedkar Age
P V Vijay Kumar An attack on the screening of the documentary, “Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai” in one of the colleges in Delhi and subsequent intimidation of Dalit students at University of Hyderabad, gathered under the umbrella of “Ambedkar Students Association”, staging a protest- these two incidents, though quite common forms of “intolerant ” and …
Yogesh Maitreya As part of my fieldwork, I had been assigned to spend a year studying one of the prisons in Mumbai. To study the criminal justice system more closely and to know its nuances, I had to attend court trials, visit police stations and localities where mostly Dalit-Bahujans reside. Wherever I went, I came …
Kathi Padma Rao (This is a translation of his Telugu article ‘bhaaratiiya saamaajika gharshaNalanunDi aavirbhavincina taatvikuDu mahaatma jOtiravu phuulE’) Mahatma Jyotirao Phule is a thinker who shook brahmanic India’s foundations. No philosopher is born on his own, he emerges from the conflict between various historical forces. In India, Phule and Ambedkar are the most …
Braj Ranjan Mani There is little awareness about a more or less institutionalised arrangement of normalising, if not glorifying, the oppressive past from which the privileged continue to derive profit and pleasure. Invented histories, myth-making, and armoury of stereotypes merge to create convenient narratives and myths which masquerade as the history of India. The …
Upendra Sonpimple The war of 1857 was a rebellion against British colonial rule. The peculiarity of this confrontation consisted of the coming together of all sections of society, with the objective of freedom from the East India Company and their exploitation of the country. The event has left a deep imprint in the history …
Gopal Guru On October 14, 1956, Babasaheb Ambedkar, along with several hundred thousand “untouchables”, embraced Buddhism. The moral and ethical strength of Ambedkar’s embrace of Buddhism lies in its cultural and intellectual capacity to sustain among the ex-untouchables a growing association with it. Conversion as a cultural-intellectual movement that took off in October 1956 …
Braj Ranjan Mani There is no competing cultural vision from below for the mind and heart of India. Dalit-bahujans are still absent in the contest of ideas, policies and visions—the fundamentals on which democratic competition takes place.This paralysis of the mind is linked totheir systemic cultural, intellectual and spiritual destruction. Without reference to history …
Jadumani Mahanand The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it ~ Karl Marx. Aristotle says ‘man is by nature a social and political animal’, which means one cannot live without these two kinds of institutions. That is to say, if an individual wants to live apart …
Rahul Sonpimple “The history of India is nothing but a history of mortal conflict between Buddhism and Brahmanism”. ~ Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Once again, my city Nagpur will be the hotspot of two contrasting realities. One will be the show of arrogance by caste Hindus through their religious practices and other will be the …