Gaurav Somwanshi Consider the following three instances: 1. Until just a few years ago, the mere mention of the word ‘Dalit’ aroused scorn from even the most veteran progressives and media outlets that countered it with “we’re all humans”. That hypocritical silliness of “we’re all humans” argument is still there, but now almost every …
Brahmin identity politics: A short note
Gaurav Somwanshi Here is Kuffir’s brief analysis of the Brahmin hegemony (recently shared on social media): “let’s recognize this: the brahmins are superior. look at the number of presidents, prime ministers, chief ministers, ministers, party presidents, doctors, engineers, scientists, nobel/magsaysay winners, corporate presidents/directors, editors, columnists, university heads, professors, writers, playwrights, actors, directors, bureaucrats, diplomats, …
Tilak, the granddaddy of all Hindutvavadis
Gaurav Somwanshi (As the RSS mouthpiece Organiser comes up with a special issue on Babasaheb Ambedkar to attempt, futilely, to appropriate his legacy, we felt it necessary to look at one of the evergreen icons of Hindutva in this country, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and recapitulate the despicable, original roots of Brahmanic nationalism ~ Round …
How can we exclude the storyteller from the story being told?
Gaurav Somwanshi One of the grave problems with Indian academia, and the general discussions involving upper castes, has been that although we have had our share of Spivaks, Roys, Srinivases, Dipankar Guptas, Andre Beteilles and Gudavarthys, we’ve never really had any Peggy McIntosh. The one thing common among the former and latter is that …
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 …
Sardesai, Caste Pride, and The Kalyug of Inverted Logic
Gaurav Somwanshi So a few days ago Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted1, “Big day for my Goa. Two GSBs, both talented politicians, become full cabinet ministers. Saraswat pride!” (GSB= Goud Saraswat Brahmin) That led to some criticism which was conveniently dubbed as “abuse and hate mail” by Sardesai in a follow-up article2 on Hindustan Times where …
Roy-Navayana project: The critique so far
We have put together, for our readers’ convenience, this compilation of all the articles which have appeared on Round Table India so far (some more are yet to be published) on the Roy-Navayana project of appropriation of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste. The articles have been listed in chronological order, with short excerpts from each article. …
The battle against caste isn’t just some ideology, it’s our existence
Gaurav Somwanshi I have spent most of my twenty four years in Aurangabad. I studied in a convent school where my friends were a mixed group from all castes and communities.Though we never felt it back then, and it’s only in retrospect that I am saying this, but we were all growing up differently. …