Yogita Naruka Review: Caste on the Menu Card (2014) | 21 min The documentary film Caste on the Menu Card (2014) starts with the embeddedness and pervasiveness of caste in social life. At the outset, I feel it is important to highlight that the documentary film is significant not just because it revolves around …
Love, friendship and politics: Caste in the campus
Yogesh Maitreya Let me first declare before proceeding any further that this piece of writing is based on my experiences, observations, and reflections on caste (something that has been infused into religions other than Hinduism in South Asia) and its trajectories. These are my thoughts on how caste works and manifests itself spontaneously at …
Caste, CPI(M) and Chithralekha
Rakesh Ram S 26th December 2014. Today Chithralekha, the Dalit woman autodriver, entered the 64th day of her night and day dharna (to death) in front of the Kannur collectorate. She has been fighting the CPI(M)/DYFI/CITU in Kannur since 2005. Despite numerous protests and resultant promises from the government attacks continue to happen on Chithralekha, …
The Gita and OBCs
Kancha Ilaiah No Shudra-OBC can be a priest either in a Ram temple, a Krishna temple, or a Shiva temple. But he can be the Prime Minister of this country. Today, when a Shudra-OBC is PM, it’s not because of the Gita, but because of Ambedkar’s Constitution. The Other Backward Classes are a historically …
Max Mueller Bhavan’s Sleep Walk: White-Brahmin Collaborative Gaze
Akshay Pathak The deeply uneven relationship between the oppressors who forcefully define, speak on behalf of and claim to represent and those they oppress, is a function of power. Art can pose a major challenge to such power, but often in the hands of the oppressor, art serves as a tool for the perpetuation …
The Colonization of Ambedkar: Caste Politics behind Roy-Navayana’s Appropriation of Annihilation of Caste ~ A Discussion
The Colonization of Ambedkar: Caste Politics behind Roy-Navayana’s Appropriation of Annihilation of Caste ~ A Discussion Date: 21st December, 2014 Time: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Venue: J. P. Naik Bhavan, University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus, Santacruz (East) Organised by ~ SC, ST, OBC Students and Teachers Association, University of Mumbai (special thanks to …
6th December: Glimpses of a revolution that changed millions of lives
Yogesh Maitreya 6th December every year means a lot to Dalits all over the world, many of whom have converted to Buddhism as well. Some of them are also a part of the Indian diaspora abroad and are forming a struggle against caste from their host countries. This day has significant importance in their …
Casteless kitchens of casteist households
Abul Kalam Azad “Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers” ~ B. R. Ambedkar Recently, a big revelation penetrated the national media with considerable sensationalism – according to the results of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS-2), the largest pan-Indian non-government household survey, which involved surveyors asking …
Untouched brooms and tin plates!
Amritha Mohankumar All I have been hearing and watching around me is the talk of brooms. But in the midst of all this talk, I was left wondering: did I actually miss seeing those brooms or hearing their sound sweeping the ground? Or was I just so obsessed with my understanding of who would be …