For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Kanaga Varathan “My body is my politics, my actions are my movement, my life is my statement,” everyone was astonished when the firebrand activist stamped their authority. “We need to educate people on how important it is to learn from black women and intersectional movement to strengthen anti-caste struggles,” the casual coffee shop conversation suddenly …
Ajinkya Sanjay Khandizod Urbanization and Slum Growth Urbanization has exploded in Indian metropolises over the last few decades. The urbanization degree worldwide is around 57%, whereas in India, it is 34%. According to the U.N. report on World Urbanization Prospects 2018, cities’ population will double by 2050. Between 2014-2018, the slum percentage increased from 23% …
Rahul Gaikwad Every now and then one comes across some or the other celebrated so-called progressive leader/writer/activist who turns out to be absolutely shallow, superfluous and even hypocritical upon closer examination. This has been the case with Vijay Tendulkar and his Kanyadaan drama; or Pandit Anand Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade where he portrayed Ambedkarite assertion …
Christina Thomas Dhanaraj “The oppressor is solidary with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor — when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and …
Manisha Mashaal Today, when I see myself as a national leader fighting a battle against caste tyranny, when I speak about changing the oppressive system, when I’m completely engaged with the reality of the ground level, there is only one thing that my heart screams for, that is justice! Whatever happens now, we must …
Deepak Kumar In Gujarat, on the 25th of June 2016, an NGO called ‘Human Development and Research Centre’ (HDRC) attempted to problematize and eradicate the social stigma on the untouchables who work as sweepers. But this initiative was welcomed with stone-throwing by the so-called upper castes1. This is the real face of Hinduism and …
Sylvia Karpagam Dear Sir, It is good to see that you are very active and busy with many meetings and inauguration ceremonies. You get lots of attention from media and from all the places you visit. You have a nice smile too which you flash generously wherever you go. You also speak …
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 …
Bobby Kunhu “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~ George Orwell. This is an anti-ideological article – not post-ideological – to the limited extent that I am trying to critique grand narratives posturing to save the world. There is a much debated …