Vinod Kumar State came into existence with the failure of human values in the society. As far as Marxist understanding is concerned, in the primitive society, there was no existence of private property and private family. The very existence of private property led to conflict in society. Where there is property there is greed, …
The Confession: Experiencing JNU
Kshirod Nag I joined JNU as an M.A. student of Sociology in the year 2008. I didn’t have any idea about ‘caste’, ‘class’, ‘gender’ ‘social change’, ‘revolution’, ‘Ambekarism’, ‘Marxism’, ‘Maoism’ or any other ‘ISM’ for that matter, except Gandhism and Hinduism (as if in India, one has a birthright to know these two isms). …
Hindu Nationalism and Brahmins
Yogesh Maitreya It isn’t an accident that the inventors and propagators of the concept of Hindutva, which later helped shape the consciousness or discourse of Hindu Nationalism, were all Brahmins. All hailed from the state of Maharashtra: V.D. Savarkar, Hedgewar, and M.S. Golwalkar. Golwalkar was born in a brahmin family in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and …
Historian and Political Commentator M S S Pandian Passes Away
Ajith Cherian & Akanksha Verma (For Dalit Camera) On Monday, November 10, M S S Pandian passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where he was admitted on Sunday following a cardiac arrest. He was 57. Professor Pandian taught modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The pioneering historian is …
The Crisis and Challenge of Dalit-bahujans
Braj Ranjan Mani There is no competing cultural vision from below for the mind and heart of India. Dalit-bahujans are still absent in the contest of ideas, policies and visions—the fundamentals on which democratic competition takes place.This paralysis of the mind is linked totheir systemic cultural, intellectual and spiritual destruction. Without reference to history …
Cricket: False Populism and Imposed Nationalism
Kshirod Nag It certainly gives pleasure to see symbols as inspiring tools to motivate the generations to come. Contextually, we can take a look at the initiative taken by the state to confer the ‘Bharat Ratna’ on Sachin Tendulkar as one such symbol. It was felt necessary to honour a person who, undoubtedly, captured …
The Protests in Delhi and the Nationalist Paradigm
Jenny Rowena On a broken tar road in a rather remote area in Kerala (where I am right now), someone has scribbled this with white chalk: Sister, For You, Bad New Year(Sahodari, ninakkuvendi, bad New Year) This statement is addressed to the girl who passed away recently after being brutally raped in a bus …
A Life Lived Well, and Lessons Thereof
Braj Ranjan Mani Jotirao Phule, and his wife Savitribai, declared war on brahmanic-casteist culture and religion. This Maharashtrian couple presented the first major anti-caste ideology and led a mass activism against the ascriptive norms and values. Their distinct brand of socio-cultural radicalism was based on uniting all the oppressed, whom they would call stree-shudra-atishudra. (Literally, …
Whipping up ‘critical pedagogy’: Uncritical defense of NCERT’s violence
Savari (Round Table India thanks Savari for sharing this article) Universally, the imagery of a whip evokes the reality of violence throughout human history. The whip is inseparable from violence against slaves, dalits, women, animals and children. Almost all histories of protest against injustice, be it feminism, anti-slavery, anti-caste or anti-apartheid movements have protested and …