Dr. Chetana Sawai On September 20, 1932, Mahatma Gandhi announced a fast unto death in protest against Dr.BabasahebAmbedkar’s demand for a separate electorate, which later turned into the Pune Pact. However, today, on September 20, 2024 at Wardha, the Shudra, an untouchable community of this country once again saw the killing of their rights, justice, …
Conceiving a New Public: Ambedkar on Universities
Asha Singh & Nidhin Donald Dr. B.R. Ambedkar conceptualizes education as a ‘vital need’ which helps us fight notions of ‘inescapable fate’ or ‘ascriptions of caste or religion’. He counted education as a socially inherited value which defines one’s access to power. Education was always a keyword, an indicator which he applied on issues of …
COVID-19 and the failures of India’s healthcare system
Dr Manisha Bangar (Round Table India has been hosting a series of online talks by activists and thinkers on issues of importance to the Bahujan. This is the transcript of Dr Manisha Bangar’s talk on July 25th, 2020) Thank you so much for inviting me to give this very important talk, ‘COVID-19 and the failures …
3 Cs – Corona, Caste and the Country
Arvind Boudhh The outbreak of the COVID-19 has caused havoc globally and different countries have taken different measures to curb the spread, and to treat the infected people. The deadly virus in a way has revealed the gory truth about the governments’ priorities and the extents to which they can go to meet these priorities. …
Caste in the UK – British Government Seeks Answers from Indian Community
Round Table India If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem.~ Babasaheb Dr. BR Ambedkar, Castes in India (1916) A new initiative by activists in the UK to combat caste: http://casteintheuk.org/ This website has been started in the wake of the UK government’s announcement calling for an …
Analyzing the ‘OBC-Minority’ Sub-Quota–Part IV
Khalid Anis Ansari Continued from here. [IV] 4.5% Sub-Quota for OBCs within Minorities: The ‘Political’ Dimension The approach that merely concentrates on government jobs and seats in higher educational institutions is indeed a very savarna (upper caste) view of reservation policy. From the perspective of upper caste discourse, which has little appreciation for dignity of …
Analyzing the ‘OBC-Minority’ Sub-Quota–Part II
Khalid Anis Ansari Continued from here. [II] The Muslim Quota Debate The recent lower caste movements within the non-Hindu religions like Islam, Christianity and Sikhism have foregrounded the presence of caste-based differentiation and discrimination within these communities in the public sphere. As far as the Muslims are concerned the caste cleavages within them were duly …
Analyzing the ‘OBC-Minority’ Sub-Quota
Khalid Anis Ansari [I] The recent announcement of a 4.5% sub-quota for backward sections within minorities in the overall Central OBC quota by the UPA government on 22nd December, 2011 in the wake of elections in five states, including the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, has drawn in a number of reactions, some valid …
Why reservation is necessary
Sukhadeo Thorat WITH a rapid scaling down of our tiny public sector due to privatisation and increasing withdrawal of the state under the impact of liberalisation, serious concern has been expressed about the fate of the present public sector reservation policy. Because of indirect and backdoor de-reservation, there is a growing demand for some sort …