Anoop Kumar His speech at the talk organised by the Ambedkarite Students’ Association at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, held on 22nd December, 2014. The speech has been transcribed by Valliammal Karunakaran. My name is Anoop and I have been working on the issue of Dalit students in Indian campuses for almost …
Condemning the Brahmanical Brutality in UoH!
Ambedkarite Students’ Association, TISS, Mumbai Condemning the Brahmanical Brutality in UoH! #Justice_For_Rohith_Vemula We the Ambedkarite Students’ Association, TISS, Mumbai strongly condemn the brutal police action towards Students, Teachers and Journalist at Hyderabad Central University, who were protesting against the resumption of work of VC Apparao on 22nd March 2016. The VC of University of …
In soldarity with Manipur tribals
On 08 September 2015, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Students’ Union in collaboration with Manipur Tribal students from TISS, Mumbai has organised condolence service for the victims of Churachandpur incident in Manipur whose innocent lives were taken away by the State brutality. The condolence service was held at main campus gate of TISS, …
Have savarna feminists rejected markers of caste and patriarchy?
T. Sowjanya A dalit woman colleague of mine came to the university campus wearing a mangalsutra one day and this forms the context for my discussion. An upper-caste feminist professor was a little inquisitive about the reason for wearing the mangalsutra. In a lighter mood, the dalit woman professor responded, “My parents-in-law came to …
Caste on the Menu Card
Yogita Naruka Review: Caste on the Menu Card (2014) | 21 min The documentary film Caste on the Menu Card (2014) starts with the embeddedness and pervasiveness of caste in social life. At the outset, I feel it is important to highlight that the documentary film is significant not just because it revolves around …
Remembering Khairlanji: Trail of Dalit atrocities in Maharashtra
Daisy Katta When the Dalits in Maharashtra were still reeling from the Ramabai Nagar Massacre of 1997, in 2006, Maharashtra was jolted with news of another massacre, this time it was in Bhandara district. In Khairlanji village of Bhandara district four members of the Bhotmange family were lynched by a caste Hindu mob. 29th …
We want to break the caste system through literature: Anita Bharti
Anita Bharti is a prominent poet, writer and an activist for Dalit and women’s rights since her student days. She has been in the forefront in bringing in the Dalit women’s perspective into Hindi literature. Her most recent contribution to Hindi literature was to edit and publish a pioneering collection of poetry by 65 …
Onam: Real Brahmanism and Mythical Secularism
Field notes from my micro-context1 Nidhin Shobhana As a child, I would always wonder why my house did not look as ‘clean’ as my Nair neighbour’s. Similarly, I always wondered why none of us Christians would look as ‘authentic’ as our Nair friends when we attended Malayalee Samajam Onam programmes. Jokes/comments such as ‘Christians2 …
Teaching Caste in an Upper Caste School
Ketaki Chowkhani Last summer, an 18 year old, 12th Std. student approached me to help him out with a project on caste. He was located at an elite school in a small town in South India, and wanted me to teach him for around 4 months, culminating in a presentation of that project. I …