Ibin Nayakam My friends and I, youngsters from the fishing community, were playing football on the shore as we often do. Suddenly, we saw a line of pink stones on the shore. We used them as goalposts for our game that day. But the pink stones revealed a great injustice that was about to befall …
Revisiting Keezhvenmani after 50 years: The embers still smolder
Deivendra Kumar A It was during my post-graduation studies in journalism at the Central University of Tamil Nadu in Thiruvarur that one of my professors enquired about my view on the recent movie Asuran (2019), directed by ace filmmaker Vetrimaaran. Further, he asked me about the recent buzz that the particular film has created among …
The landless will now receive no land
Santosh Kumar Thomas Isaac, the Finance minister of Kerala had declared in the budget that flats/apartments shall be constructed within a year and given to one lakh people in Kerala who do not have a proper home. This was also one of the budget declarations that were celebrated quite a lot in the media …
Caste Diversity in Indian Development Sector: Does it Exist?
Karthik Navayan Gramsci uses the analogy of civil society as a system of trenches and redoubts surrounding the state1. All political attempts by the underprivileged classes–castes in Indian context–to overcome the barriers are drowned by the development sector that claims for itself the status of the civil society. Does the civil society, popularly understood …
Ambedkar’s Long Neglected Thoughts on Land Reforms and Agriculture
Utkarsh Mohod Agriculture’s contribution to the Indian economy plays a vital role in economic development and in keeping hunger of rural India at bay. Though secondary (Industry) sector is dominant in contemporary economic development of the country, around 65 per cent of people’s lives still depends on the primary sector (Agriculture). Agriculture’s share in …
Of Caste Massacres and Judicial Impunity: Bloodstains in Bathani Tola and Laxmanpur Bathe…
Anand Teltumbde (Text of the Third Comrade Naveen Babu Memorial Lecture, delivered by Anand Teltumbde) At the outset let me thank DSU for giving me this opportunity to pay my homage to comrade Yalavarthi Naveen Babu, who was martyred at the young age of 35 in Andhra Pradesh. I personally knew Naveen as a …
Going backward
Surinder S. Jodhka The Jats, without doubt, have been the most important and powerful caste community in the rural landscapes of northwest India. The sources of their dominance have typically been their control over agricultural lands, their demographics and their networks beyond the village. However, unlike the other “dominant castes”, such as the Marathas …
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 …
Panchami Land Retrieval- Direct action by Liberation Panthers
Joshua Isaac As part of ‘Panchami Land Retrieval Movement’ planned all over Tamil Nadu, announced by our leader Annan Thol.Thirumavalavan on John Thomas – Ezhumalai (Land retrieval struggle martyrs) rememberance day, Panchami Land Retrieval protest & direct action was carried out at Maraimalai Nagar, Kanchipuram district regarding the 36 acres identified in that area.