Bobby Kunhu I have already received a lot of flak for the bits and pieces of opinion that I have expressed on social media, a collation of which is what I propose to write in this essay. At the outset, I would like to make it clear that my intention isn’t to undermine the …
Secularism, Democracy and Economics
Sanket Vinayak Waghmare There’s no doubt that we are very fortunate to be in a democratic nation like India. But still, we always complain about the Government, Nation & Society. We never praise or utilize the benefits of what we already have, that’s none other than the Constitution of the nation. If you seek firmly, …
Modern Historiography fits Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Indian Nationalistic Perspective
Jaspal Singh Sidhu “That history always has a purpose. That history is always about power. That history is never innocent but always ideological.” ~ Keith Jenkins, ‘Rethinking of History’, Routledge Classics. Of late, a majority of historians including those subscribing to the Left ideology have attempted to portray Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a 19th century …
Saba Mahmood (1962 – March 10, 2018)
Mara Ahmed On the morning of March 11, 2018, I woke up to the incredibly sad news that Saba Mahmood had passed away. Professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, a scholar of modern Egypt, and the author of stunning books like “Politics of Piety” and more recently “Religious Difference in a Secular …
Communalism and the Pasmanda question
Lenin Maududi It’s time for us to understand that politics is at the centre of every society. It follows then that if politics is of a poor quality, it is futile to expect any improvement in social status. Secular warriors in India claim that they are fighting against fascism, so they want every person …
The Rise of Modi: Historical Knowledge in Popular Memory
Mukesh Kumar Past and Present: Inherent Contradictions in Psycho-Historical-Political Philosophy in India History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce~ Karl Marx (2008 :15) In Indian political history, very few people have achieved such huge success in such a short span of time as prime minister Modi. It would be the height of …
Interview with Prof Khalid Anis Ansari on the Pasmanda Movement
Round Table India In this episode of the Ambedkar Age series, Round Table India talks to Prof. Khalid Anis Ansari, Director, Dr. Ambedkar Centre for Exclusion Studies & Transformative Action (ACESTA), Glocal University, Uttar Pradesh. The interview focuses on the Pasmanda movement, on the issues of secularism/communalism and on the upper caste hegemony in all …
Caste and the order of experience: Sketching anti-caste in Akbarian philosophy
Abdul Ahad K I am writing this note to delineate some conflicts I went through as an audience in a seminar conducted in Calicut University under the title, ‘From Identity to Epistemology’. A Dalit friend who is an artist shared his story during the event. “I am a Dalit. I realized that only in …
Building the Idea of India: Conserving Brahmanism and the Brahmanical State? Part III
Continued from here. Pinak Banik Gandhi’s attempt to abolish untouchability in the 1930s without ever questioning the varanshrama dharma is like todays fight against Hindutva without recognizing Brahmanism. Gandhi only created a token group of SC representatives, who were never given any chance to voice their issues, which later Saheb Kanshiram defined as the …