Vinay Shende At the outset, let me say that this is not a film review and I am no expert on the technicalities of film making. I won’t be talking about the plot of the movie. If anyone sees it as only a gangster movie, then they are missing the point. Director Pa Ranjith weaves …
Pandit Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade: A Case Study in Brahminism
Dhurwa R. Anand Patwardhan’s Jai Bhim Comrade is one of the best examples of how brahminical powerplay makes a farce out of the most hard fought battles put up by Dalits, and does that rather patronizingly. Before I even watched the film, the title itself (and the media hype with one of its first …
Massacre of Ambedkarites at Ramabai Nagar by State Machinery!
Amar Khade On 11 July 1997, the Maharashtra State Reserve Police Force under Sub-Inspector Manohar Kadam, started firing on unarmed Ambedkarite protesters in Ramabai Nagar. In the police firing, 10 Ambedkarite were massacred. Their names are as follows: (1) Sukhdev Kapadne (2) Sanjay Nikam (3) Bablu Verma (4) Anil Garud (5) Kishore Kataranwar (6) …
Penning Rebellion
A brief note on Dalit literary movements in Maharashtra Daisy Katta Revolutions are stirred on paper and are born out of pens and inks. Revolutionary movement categorically uproots the very being of an accepted thought and tries to negate, challenge, eradicate social evils, thus creating an atmosphere of non-conformity. Literature is a vehicle for …
Of Caste Massacres and Judicial Impunity: Bloodstains in Bathani Tola and Laxmanpur Bathe…
Anand Teltumbde (Text of the Third Comrade Naveen Babu Memorial Lecture, delivered by Anand Teltumbde) At the outset let me thank DSU for giving me this opportunity to pay my homage to comrade Yalavarthi Naveen Babu, who was martyred at the young age of 35 in Andhra Pradesh. I personally knew Naveen as a …
Jai Bhim to Ramabai Nagar, the Living Spirit of Resistance
Yogesh Maitreya On the evening of 5th of December, I, along with my friend who is a photographer, paid a visit to Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar East, Mumbai. At the entrance of the colony, a huge statue of Ambedkar stood. Open space in front of it had been cleaned with water, and preparations for …
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, …