Harshkumar Kugwe It is commendable that the government of Karnataka is celebrating the birthday of the great thinker Sri Narayana Guru as an official ceremony. It is definitely a means of showing respect to the great religious thinker and social reformer. Unfortunately, though, the situation has become such that whenever governments celebrate birthdays, it is …
Arippa Land Struggle: The Geography of Caste in Kerala
Ajith Kumar A S The people in the protest land in Arippa in Kollam district in Kerala, are celebrating the first anniversary of their land struggle in the last week of December. It was on December 31st, 2012, that over 150 landless families, under the leadership of ADMS, ‘occupied’ and set up temporary shelters …
Onam: Real Brahmanism and Mythical Secularism
Field notes from my micro-context1 Nidhin Shobhana As a child, I would always wonder why my house did not look as ‘clean’ as my Nair neighbour’s. Similarly, I always wondered why none of us Christians would look as ‘authentic’ as our Nair friends when we attended Malayalee Samajam Onam programmes. Jokes/comments such as ‘Christians2 …
Caste And Hinduism
Gail Omvedt (Written in November 2003) M V Nadkarni’s recent article “Is Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism?: Demolishing a Myth”, (EPW, November 8, 2003) comes as a follow-up to his earlier article “Ethics and Relevance of Conversions: A Critical Assessment of Religious and Social Dimensions in a Gandhian Perspective” (Januay 18). Both articles show the fundamental stamp of Hindutva ideology, …
Disturbing Aspects of Kerala Society
Gail Omvedt Arundhati Roy’s prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things, focuses on the most socially explosive of all relationships in India, a love affair between a dalit man and a high-caste woman. It ends with the brutal murder of the man by the police, “history’s henchmen,” and the woman’s banishment — punishments for …