Chhotelal Kumar In general, Adivasis are also known as Tribals, as Aboriginal or Autochthonous people, or Vanvasi. The tribal population of the country, as per the 2011 census, is 104.3 million, constituting 8.6% of the total population. And only 10.03 % of the population live in urban areas. Several scholars have classified the tribal population—like …
‘Chak De! India’ and Women’s Hockey
Khakhlari Recently the Indian women’s field hockey team made headlines as they qualified for the Olympic semi-finals for the first time in Tokyo. Quite predictably and not without fair reason, Chak De! India started trending. In the fervor of the win, jubilant fans drew parallels between the team and the movie. Shah Rukh Khan …
Is there a space for North-Eastern identity among students’ politics in Indian Universities?
Thangminlal (Lalcha) Haokip My colleagues have often asked me why University students from the North East do not take an active part in students’ politics in mainland Indian Universities. Often times, I would find myself unable to answer this inquiry. Perhaps, a convenient straitjacket reply could be that since a majority of these students …
‘North-East’: A Myth
Veewon Thokchom In India the term popularly called the “North-East,” used by the White British colonizers to refer to a part of the then province (Assam) under its rule, Northeast Frontier Area (NEFA), later inherited by the new Brown Indian rulers post 1947, has become a brand, a manufactured decorative term, a spatial concept where …
The Making of the Region: Perspectives from a Non-Savarna Newspaper (Part I)
P. Thirumal Abstract This intervention concerns itself with elaborating the administrative category ‘region’. The federal units qualify as administrative regions of the Indian Union. This paper argues that in the initial decades after independence, region(s) tend to be reproduced and affirmed largely through region-state(s) or Indian State practices. Though the …
JNUSU Elections- Three ideas of Nation
Vivek Singh JNU has been in the limelight since 9th February, when supposedly “anti-national and seditious” slogans were raised in the campus (the matter is sub judice). In this scenario, many eyes were turned towards the JNU Students Union elections which happened this September. What was also evident is that the idea of nation …
Kabali has roared: Why BAPSA was the real winner of the JNU student polls
Dhrubo Jyoti I have never been a big fan of presidential-style debates or Jawaharlal Nehru University. The former almost always reduces social justice to grandstanding and the number of hunger strikes while the latter takes itself too seriously as the citadel of equality, never mind the festering casteism, sexism and homophobia. Therefore, when I …
Today is the day of unity of the oppressed: Rahul Sonpimple
Rahul Punaram Sompimple (Following is a rough transcription and translation of Rahul Sonpimple’s speech for the Presidentital election at JNUSU delivered on 8th September, 2016. Parts of the speech had to be omitted owing to lack of a fully audible video and disturbances) {youtube}zh5Dt3Ee1eI{/youtube} To all the people that have come here for the …
The ‘Nation’ at War with the Students
N. Sukumar and Shailaja Menon “The backward classes have come to realize that after all education is the greatest material benefit for which they can fight. We may forego material benefits, we may forego material benefits of civilization, but we cannot forego our right and opportunities to reap the benefit of the highest education to …