Kuffir A few notes on the recent budget, and other events, to examine how they promote/subvert Babasaheb’s ideals of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. ~ One of Gaddar’s popular songs goes something like: India is a land of good fortune, There is no dearth of any (natural) wealth here, There are fields that yield golden …
In a time of public crisis, how important are elections to a democracy?
Niharika Singh With the eighth and final phase in Bengal only now concluded, India conducted another local election amidst a collapsing healthcare infrastructure, administrative miscalculations and immense scheming. It appears that the world’s largest democracy and its rulers aim for an electoral win over any collateral damage, a term that arose in the 1960s. …
Manifestation of Power Dynamics in Higher Educational Institutions during the Pandemic
Annesha Mukherjee, Satyaki Dasgupta and K Chandra Shekar The outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 saw a number of reports highlighting the plight of students in the country because administrations of higher educational institutions asked them to vacate their hostels. In this light, we conducted a survey among students in September using Google …
Millennials and Jotiba Phule
Pavankumar Shinde 300, the movie The Hollywood movie, which depicts how 300 Spartan soldiers fought hard with thousands of Persian troops, arrived in 2006. It was such a popular movie among the youth of India. 137 years ago, in 1883, Jotiba (Krantiba) Phule had in the book ‘Shetkaryancha Asud’ (‘Cultivators Whipcord’) written that the …
Moral Right to Labour
Pralay Nagrale The recent mobilization of the Valmiki community all over India was important in fighting for justice for the 19 year old girl of Bulgaddhi village of district Hathras, because till now, the protests of the Valmiki community used to be on local levels, mostly. But this resistance did not happen suddenly. It was …
Ram Van Gaman Path: Who are you to decide our vision for development?
Bodhi Ramteke What could be the priorities for any poorest state, where literacy rate is low, malnutrition level is high, having no proper educational & health infrastructure and other endless issues The vision before such a state should be to overcome those issues through framing and implementing good and constructive policies in a very democratic …
Racist mainland Indians were more terrifying than Covid
Chongtham Rameshwori My phone records 9:21 pm with the first picture of my favourite but unfortunate black T-shirt splattered with the thick pungent tobacco remains over my neck and chest area. On 22nd March 2020, after the nationwide curfew ended at 9 pm, I went outside with my friend to buy some groceries, to …
Should the proponents of public (government) schools celebrate Global Teacher Prize 2020 to Mr. Ranjitsinh Disale?
Tanoj Meshram Last week, Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher from rural government Zilla Parishad (ZP) school in Solapur district, received Global Teacher Prize from Varkey Foundation. The prize which carries a very attractive cash prize of one million US dollars (about seven crore Indian rupees) and gets endorsements from famous political personalities, media & film celebrities …