Neeraj Bunkar In a previous article for Round Table India, I analysed the depiction of caste dynamics in Season 2 of the web series ‘Panchayat’. The series portrayed a village dominated by ‘upper caste’(Brahmins), while Dalits are depicted as struggling to secure basic amenities, such as toilets. This is exemplified through the character of Vinod, …
Bigg Boss – A peek into the vacuous lives of Savarnas
Chanchal Kumar The concept behind Bigg Boss is simple, and the title is borrowed from the George Orwell novel 1984. A group of random (mostly) savarna celebrities inhabit a house for a short and fixed period of time, wherein they are expected to interact with each other, follow certain rules and perform “tasks”. …
Eklavya and Karna: An Understanding of Discrimination against Marginalised in Indian Education System
Ritu Mahabharata and Ramayana are considered as the biggest epics (Mahakavya) of India. These are back in popular discussion with the reruns of their TV serials on Doordarshan amid the Covid-19 crisis. Those who have access to television are watching the serials with great interest as shown by the rising TRPs of Doordarshan. Coming to …
Covid-19 plus Ramayan: Adding insult to injury
Amarnath Sandipamu & Deepu Myneni (Round Table India is doing a series to put together the Bahujan perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic) Anu Ramdas: It is well known that pandemics can and do facilitate totalitarian regimes to accelerate their ideologies when society is under the threat of the disease. We wanted to document the …
The Rise of BJP: Bitter Fruits of Fertile Brahminical Soil (Part II)
Nidhin Sowjanya Continued from here. The political and historical trajectory of the Brahminical Hindu domination that was traced in the last part is found to be deeply prevalent in almost all spheres of society. This part attempts to highlight how the Brahminical Hindu power is displayed, both brazenly and subtly, in our day-to-day lives. …
Out of the Box – Televisualised Identities and Their Politics
Shaheen Ahmed “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth – it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true” ~ Baudrillard1 No truth about television can be truer than this quote – television is a reality, a reality which is nothing but simulacra. As Jean Baudrillard explains …
You lookin’ at me?
Aqui Thami Nichelle Nichols on meeting Martin Luther King jr. — “I said, “I’m going to leave Star Trek because (I was going to say ‘because I have an offer to star in…’ I never got that far”) He (Martin Luther King) said “You cannot – you cannot. For the first time on television …
Hindu, savarna, urban, elite media: an X-ray, CT Scan, ECG, MRI report
By Dilip Mandal As expected, large sections of the media, especially the Hindu (sorry, Hindi) newspapers have adopted the policy of turning a blind eye towards the ‘Save the Constitution’ rally led by Dr.Udit Raj held on 24th, August in Delhi. A few newspapers seemed to be merely going through the ritual of reporting it. …
Aarakshan: Expression with Reservation
by Bobby Kunhu I have not watched Aarakshan. I am an unapologetic advocate of free speech. And I generally do not like writing about what I do not know. But then this piece is not about Aarakshan, but about dominant discussions about the movie from newsroom discussions to (English) newspaper headlines. And most of the …