Eramangalathu Chitralekha On January 31, 2014, Chitralekha (the dalit woman autorickshaw driver from Payannur, Kerala, who has been fighting CITU/CPM men and who has faced repeated attacks from them in the past) and her family were again attacked at her home by a group of CPM goons belonging to its youth wing. Her husband is …
From Devadasis to Bhattathirippads
Pallavi Muraleedharan As I was perusing the newspaper the other day, the photo of a teenager caught my attention. It wasn’t a very unusual thing to see a beautiful fair-skinned young girl winning the Bharatanatyam or Kuchipudi competitions in the school youth festivals. After all, those are perhaps the only competitions that satiate the …
Exploring Inter-sectionalities and Development Paradigms in South Asia
[Via Asha Kowtal] National Campaign on Dalit Human RightsWada Na Todo Abhiyan, Asia Dalit Rights Forum, Feminist TaskForce & Global Call to Action against Poverty invite you for a Panel Discussion onExploring Inter-sectionalities andDevelopment Paradigms in South Asia contextPromoting social equity by dismantling issues relating tocaste, gender, age, disability & sexual orientation ~ Welcome …
Polluted Minds and ‘God’s Own Country’
N Sukumar and Shailaja Menon One of Kerala’s enlightened souls, Sree Narayana Guru, had proclaimed, “One Caste, One Religion and One God” for mankind, thus ushering in a radical transformation of society. The state also witnessed momentous struggles to liberate society from the shackles of caste and untouchability. The Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924-25, a historic …
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 …
Who is the “Aaam Aadmi” in AAP?
Suresh Mane, General Secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), spoke recently to Ria De, of Dalit Camera: Through Un-Touchable Eyes, on the Aam Aadmi Party and the emerging contours of politics in India. This video interview was transcribed by Ajith Francis. Recently, Indian politics is undergoing radical changes- drastic changes especially in the …
January 3rd – National Teachers’ Day
Bahujan Students’ Front Go, Get Education Be self-reliant, be industrious Work, gather wisdom and riches, All gets lost without knowledge We become animal without wisdom, Sit idle no more, go, get education End misery of the oppressed and forsaken, You’ve got a golden chance to learn So learn and break the chains of …
Congress, AAP and the Common Man
Ratnesh Katulkar The sudden rise of Aam Aadmi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal is the most prominent political event that emerged in the recent assembly polls. This is certainly a big blow to the established political parties and is particularly a strong setback to the Congress which found its tally reduced to merely eight …
Caste and the sari
Kuffir In a Times of India column a couple of years ago, Shashi Tharoor tried to stand up for the sari, and was roundly castigated by many readers for trying to impose patriarchal burdens on Indian women, in the name of tradition. In his next column, though apologetic, he still tried to bring back …