Shailaja Menon and N Sukumar “It takes years of “political, social, economic and human degradation to create a terrorist”. So “fighting terror can only succeed by rehumanising degraded societies, by undoing, one by one, the many individual acts of repression, obstruction, denial, marginalisation and autocracy.” ~ Rami Khouri, Jordan. Many eons ago, the Films …
किसकी चाय बेचता है तू (Whose Tea Do You Sell)
Braj Ranjan Mani किसकी चाय बेचता है तू ~ ब्रजरंजन मणि अपने को चाय वाला क्यूँ कहता है तू बात-बात पे नाटक क्यूँ करता है तू चाय वालों को क्यों बदनाम करता है तू साफ़ साफ़ बता दे किसकी चाय बेचता है तू ! खून लगाकर अंगूठे पे शहीद कहलाता है और कॉर्पोरेट …
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 …
Oh Periyar! Look what they have done to your teachings!
United Dalit Students’ Forum The death of Ilavarasan must be a revelation for people who think we are a democratic society. Is there any society that kills couples who choose to live a life based on mutual consent? Yes, it’s our own “Mera Bharat Mahaan.” In spite of such savagery it does not prick …
“Agitate by burning down the Manu Dharma Shastra”: Kolathur Mani
[Via Ravi Chandran] On December 26, 2012, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam will join hands with all other like minded progressive organizations who are concerned about annihilating caste, and agitate by burning down the Manu Dharma Shastra. Statement by Kolathur Mani: For more than 2000 years, the brahminical Manu Dharma was the one that was controlling …
The Politics of Food Culture: The Holy Cow and The Unholy Swine
The New Materialists The Brahminical left in this campus (JNU) in the name of secularism supports every religion instead of critiquing it. As Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the masses”: the Indian Parliamentary left comfortably forgets this for their vote banks of Majority Hindus and Minority Muslims. Secularism is not supporting all religions …
A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram
Kancha Ilaiah [This article was first published in two parts, ‘A paradigm shift called Kanshi Ram’ and ‘Dalits and the horizontal ladder’, in 2003; we have combined the two parts into one single piece of writing. We, along with our readers, celebrate the memory of Manyawar Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary- Round Table …
I, E.V. Ramaswamy
[On the occasion of Periyar‘s death anniversary (24th December), we remember him through some select quotes from his speeches and writings– Round Table India] ‘I, E.V. Ramaswamy, have taken upon myself the task of reforming Dravidian Society so that it shall be comparable to other societies of the world, in esteem and enlightenment, and I …
The Dravidian movement
Gail Omvedt “So many movements have failed. In Tamil Nadu there was a movement in the name of anti-Brahmanism under the leadership of Periyar. It attracted Dalits, but after 30 years of power, the Dalits understand that they are as badly-off – or worse-off – as they were under the Brahmans. Under Dravidian rule, …