(Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s speech at the Plenary Session, Fifth Sitting of the Round Table Conference on 20th November 1930) “Mr. Chairman, my purpose in rising to address this conference is principally to place before it the point of view of the depressed classes, whom I and my colleague, Rao Bahadur Srinivasan, have the …
Untouchability wall in Mettupalayam: Segregating SC/MBCs from Caste Hindus
Dr. Ravichandran Bathran At the outset, untouchability or caste is never an issue until it takes lives. Similarly, the wall is in discussion, also, only due to the lives it took. The collapse of the 20 feet high and 80 feet long wall in #Nadoor a small village situated in Mettupalayam has attracted a …
Secularism and the Maintenance of Caste Hierarchies: Notes from Sikh Studies
Pritam Singh Tinna (This paper was presented at Young Researchers’ Conference, Beyond the Icon: Ambedkar’s Legacy for Our Times held at Ambedkar University Delhi on the 23rd of February 2018) In an opinion article published in the Hindu dated September 3, 2001, Andre Beteille, taking notes from M.N Srinivas writes: “It would be unthinkable …
Dr. Khatumal Jeewan on the Rise of Meghwars in local Politics of lower Sindh
Dr Khatumal Jeewan Dr Khatumal Jeewan (Khatu) is the most celebrated Dalit leader of Pakistan. He has been senator, four times MNA (Member of National Assembly) and two times MPA (Member of Provincial Assembly) on party ticket of Pakistan People’s Party, between 1985 and 2013. This speech was delivered at a time when the …
Vegetarians only
Sky Baaba He sat on a throneand made my Dalits sit on the groundtold my Adivasis to stay at his feetwe folded our hands and stood,bringing palms together was all he ever taught my people;changing religion was a rebellionmy people stood shoulder to shoulderand entered mosques and churches; The above excerpt from Sky Baaba’s …
On the violence in a Muzaffarpur village: Some Untold Stories
Mohammad Sajjad On 18 January 2015, in the Ajitpur-Bahilwara, near Saraiya, in the district of Muzaffarpur in north Bihar, violence broke out. It killed nearly five people and almost all the 56 Muslim (Pasmanda) households in the village were looted and burnt. The immediate provocation was an inter-faith love affair: to the Hindutva zealots, …
Yesudas and I: Many Hues of a Prejudice
James Michael History of a prejudice Yesudas’s recent remark against women wearing jeans is not an exceptional phenomenon. My parents and aunts are similarly prejudiced against jeans as much as some of your aunts and parents are. But that does not quite make my father or mother or scores of my other relatives misogynist. Neither …
Without Arundhati Roy and Gandhi, the book had its own value: Bojja Tharakam
Dalit Camera: Through Un-Touchable Eyes Dalit Camera talked recently to veteran human rights activist Bojja Tharakam on the new edition of ‘Ännihilation of Caste’ introduced by Arundhati Roy. The text below is a transcript of the interview. BojjaTharakam, senior advocate in the AP High Court, was the founding president of Andhra Pradesh Dalit Maha …
Common Sense and Hindu Nationalism: Why the Catholics in Goa are not Hindu
Albertina AlmeidaAmita KanekarDale Luis MenezesJason Keith FernandesR. Benedito Ferrão Can a Goan Catholic be Hindu? Can Catholics professing a tradition of Catholicism that is over five centuries old be considered Hindu in culture? This is what the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar, sought to suggest in a recent interview with Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi of …