Anitya Sanket Rohith Vemula’s ‘suicide’ case has caught the nation’s attention through the media and it is gaining a lot of support too. Seen through the mainstream media’s eye, in the ongoing series of protests carried out by the Dalit students in various places and institutions one thing is evident that Rohith was suspended …
Here’s the smell of the blood still…
Dr. N. Sukumar Here’s the smell of the blood still; All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.1 On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly “to make the deaf hear”2 as their leaflet described the reason for their act. The bomb, …
From shadows to the stars…
Rohith Vemula’s last message Good morning, I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a …
Indefinite Hunger Strike at University of Hyderabad over Suicides
S Swaroop Sirapangi I As a response to the non-stop suicides in the campus, especially among the Dalit students, over the past few years, various student organisations and concerned active University students have come under the platform of ‘Raju-Venkatesh Solidarity Committee’ and started an indefinite hunger strike from the morning of December 06, 2013, …
Life was beautiful, but…
A Dalit Student Ends his Life in University of Hyderabad Campus Chapparban Sajaudeen Nijamodeen (Shuja) Date: 24/11/2013 ‘Suicides on the campus are a failure of the system and steps that have been suggested in order to address the serious issues of the student community need our immediate attention’ ~ Registrar, University of Hyderabad. Mr. …
The politics of “our” failure
Sudha K. F. Walter Benjamin, the famous Marxist critic, in an essay on Franz Kafka wrote that there is “plenty of hope, an infinite amount of hope—but not for us”. Benjamin, a Jew, took his own life fleeing from the Nazis, when he lost all hope of survival, by swallowing a handful of morphine …
Death and detention in Nonadanga: the Chotalok under Bhadralok hegemony
Suicide of Uttam Mondal and Arrest of Shuma Mondal: The Dalit Protest in Nonadanga Georgy Kuruvilla Roy (For Dalit Camera Through Un-Touchable Eyes) It’s a given that if a casteist government is at the helm of affairs, Dalits are bound to suffer the most, and if they were to protest this casteism, they would …
The Strange Meaning of Teachers’ Day in India
Ratnesh Katulkar Varnanam brahmano guru! Meaning: among all the varnas only the Brahmin can be appointed as a teacher. This dictum is followed in Indian society from time immemorial. But in contrast to this principle there has been frequent mention of a non-brahmin teacher called Shukracharya, the guru of the Rakshasas, in the Vedas and …
The Emergence of Right-wing Caste Politics in Tamil Nadu
Harish S. Wankhede Ilavarasan and Divya eloped and got married. Divya’s father killed himself a little while later because his daughter had married a Dalit youth. A few days ago Ilavarasan’s body was found next to the railway tracks near Dharmapuri. It is, as yet, unclear if his death was a murder, accident or …