Anshul Kumar Parameswaran Iyer has made a name for himself as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handpicked choice to lead the Swachh Bharat Mission which led to India becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF). He was the exclusive choice of Our Prime Minister to lead the Swachh Bharat Mission under the Government of India’s newly launched …
The many shades of Saheb Kanshiram
Gurinder Azad Once Kanshi Ram Saheb was going somewhere with his colleagues in a car. His health was a bit bad. A colleague, probably wanting to please Saheb, asked ‘Saheb, tell me, what do you want? Whatever you want, I will offer it to you.’ Saheb said, ‘Will you? Really?’. ‘Yes, of course’, he …
Sunflower giving Mother
“If there was no night, women would not even have a chance to rest” – Smt. Kusum Nigam Dhamma Darshan Nigam Our mother once said that “अगर रात नहीं होती तो महिलाओं को आराम करने का मौक़ा भी नहीं मिलता” (If there was no night, women would not even have a chance to rest). One …
A portrait of the casteist as a young influencer
Shy of inquiry into privilege, social media posts flaunt antiquated attitudes to caste, reservations Rahi Gaikwad We are all to some extent the prisoners of our upbringing.-PD James (Death in Holy Orders) If anyone has any doubts about how the virus of caste has mutated into a 21st century variant in the minds of upper …
Dalit Women to be Heard
Hemangi Kadlak (Transcript of her speech at the National Convention on the Rights of Dalit Women Human Rights Defenders: ‘Dalit Women Speak’ on 17-18 January 2020, at HDRC, St. Xavier’s Campus, Ahmedabad) First of all, I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to this conference on ‘Dalit Women Speak.’ Before coming to …
Kanshi Ram: Man, Legacy and Modern Dalit-Bahujan Political Dynamics
Vaibhav Walunj “Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.”– Walter Lippmann Indian political discourse after the life of Babasaheb Ambedkar would remain incomplete without acknowledging the Bahujan movement led by Kanshi Ram. This movement shook …
Nation of Caste: Can India Tolerate A Dalit Prime Minister?
Rahul Sonpimple I was told that I couldn’t rent the bicycle that day. All entries to our basti (slum) were blocked by the police. I was eighteen then. I insisted, but Namdeo, the cycle wala (shop owner), didn’t even bother to look at me and hurriedly shut the shop. With all his ferocity and …
Behenji: The inevitable leader of 2019 elections?
Amit Kumar In 2007, in one of his articles, the prominent sociologist Dipankar Gupta compared Mayawati with Mao Zedong, the founding father of people’s Republic of China, for being a great strategist. As we enter into one of the most crucial elections that will shape the future politics of this country, we must realize …
Beyond Conventional Political Binaries
Omprakash Mahato Yashwant Sinha, in the ‘United India Opposition Rally’ held in West Bengal on 19 january 2019, stated that the coming together of opposition parties is not to defeat ‘one person’. It is a fight between two ideologies. The ideologies that will uphold the constitutional ethos; that will protect secularism from the religious …