Saquib Salim “In 1962-63, when I got the opportunity to read Ambedkar’s book, Annihilation of Caste, then I also felt that it is perhaps possible to eradicate casteism from the society. But, later on when I studied caste system and its behaviour in depth gradually there was a modification in my thoughts. I have …
Did caste kill ‘Elvis of Punjab’ – Amar Singh Chamkila?
Pardeep Attri While growing up in Punjab, I was reminded by many not to listen to ‘Chamkila’. I could never understand the reasons behind those advices at that time and never cared to ask anyone as I was not a song loving person. Hence, those advices didn’t matter to me. After moving to England …
Appropriating Guru Ravidas – Ignorance is bliss for Hindu Education Foundation, USA
Pardeep Attri In its recent demands of edits to the Instructional Quality Commission (which acts as an advisory body to the State Board of Education. California), the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) sought that the Bhakti saints like [Guru] Ravidas and the Alvars be added to the list of examples. As per HEF, this was …
‘They couldn’t stand us!’: Fact Finding Report On Dalit Family set afire in Haryana village
They couldn’t stand us!1 Fact Finding Report On Dalit Family set afire in Village Sunpedh, Ballabgarh, District Faridabad, Haryana Written by NDMJ-NCDHR Fact Finding Team Adv. Mangla Verma – HRLN Ms.Tanvi, Programme Officer– HRLN Mr. Rajesh Kumar – Haryana State Coordinator NDMJ – NCDHR Adv. Balwant Singh – NDMJ-NCDHR Ms. Abirami – National Programme Coordinator, NDMJ NCDHR …
Lal Singh Dil, the lonely revolutionary
Gurinder Azad Lal Singh Dil, a Dalit and a poet of renown in Punjab, was called ‘Dil’ by his friends and admirers. He was a man of many parts: poet, writer, struggler, a wandering gypsy, but always a loner. In the course of his Dalit-life, he got entangled with the Naxalite movement but disentangled …
I want to motivate our students to join universities: Narinder Jakhu
Neel Kranti Media (First published in the ‘Dalit and Adivasi Students’ Portal’ in 2010) Narinder Jakhu, age 31, is pursuing his PhD at Department of Political Science, Punjab University, Chandigarh and is also teaching there as a guest faculty. He is a JRF scholar working on the issue of Dalit Assertion, Mobility and Atrocities in …
Fact Finding Report: Gang Rape of Dalit Girl in Dabra, Haryana
Fact Finding Report: Gang Rape of Dalit Girl by Dominant Caste Youth and Suicide of Girl’s Father (Dabra Village, Hisar, Haryana) That the Hindus most often succeed in pulling down Untouchables is largely due to many causes. The Hindu has the Police and the Magistracy on his side. In a quarrel between the Untouchables and …
Questions of name
Gail Omvedt “Dalit”, “Scheduled Caste”, “Ex-Untouchable” and “Harijan”. These are only some of the many words used to refer to the most oppressed sections of Indian society, “untouchable” in the traditional caste order, performers of the most degrading task, and still today caught in the throes of poverty, discrimination and the remnants of untouchability. “Dalit” …
The Death of Merit: Failure of India’s Premier Educational Institutions
Gurinder Singh Azad Is it embedded hatred within elite institutes and their students and faculty against reserved category students, or it is merely coincidence, that of the students committing suicide in the premier institutes of this nation, the number belonging to the reserved category students is much higher? Once again, it is AIIMS that finds …