For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Amar Khade The offensive Havells Fan television commerical has been removed from Youtube and the company’s Facebook page, and also apparently from television, thanks to the vociferous opposition expressed by Ambedkarites and others. Congratulations friends! But the structures of prejudice that gave birth to it need to be constantly critiqued, as this article does …
Syamprasad KV Introduction The demise of Rohith Vemula and his poetic suicide note made history, and they continue to disturb our minds. As an Indian citizen, as a member of a Bahujan community, as a research student, I am obliged to express my deepest condolences over his demise and to protest against the university …
Pankaj Kumar Naik Dear Self-Proclaimed Pandits and Descendants of Manu, Greetings from Trivandrum, the soul of supposedly God’s Own Country, since the Asura king Mahavali is yet to resurrect from the grave to see broad daylight! I am writing this to you both with immense pleasure and pain. Pleasure, because you proved my ‘conviction’ regarding …
Gowd Kiran Kumar On August 7th, 1990, V.P. Singh tabled the Mandal Commission report in the Parliament which resulted in 27% reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBC). This decision was followed by the Kamandal or the anti-Mandal agitation in the country. Right wing forces, led by upper caste elite sections, participated in the …
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 …
Karthik Navayan In India there is no escape from the Brahmanical caste structure, it is a story that needs no retelling. It has been the case since ages, and, quite distressingly, it will be so for at least few generations to come. My 18-month tenure in ActionAid Hyderabad Regional Office and my subsequent year-long …
Nilesh Kumar The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity. Caste has made public spirit impossible. A Hindu’s public is his caste. His responsibility is only to his caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his …
The Silence on ‘Reservations in Promotions’ in a caste-based social polity Bobby Kunhu In a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court of India, Justices Chalameswar and Sikri have held that: “to carry out promotions from Scale-I upwards upto Scale-VI, reservation in promotion in favour of SC/ST employees has to be given” in the Chairman …
Thongam Bipin Racism is a form of discrimination that is based on race, physical features and region. Like any other form of discriminations, whether, gender, caste or sexual orientation, racism is deeply rooted in our psyche, in our national collective imagination. Collectivity implicates homogeneity, common feelings. Racism involves power and dominance. Any difference or …