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 …
Caste, corruption and romanticism
Kancha Ilaiah The Dalit-Bahujan theory or Ambedkarism cannot negotiate with funny theories of sociologists like Ashis Nandy. The best way to counter them is to write a better theory. Utsa Patnaik, a noted economist said in a small note that she circulated “Ashis Nandy had earlier made approving remarks on the 1988 Deorala burning …
Christmas 2012 : After all home is just 15 minutes away…
Senganglu Thaimei It is with a compelling urge to let out my angst that I sat down to write in Tulihal, the airport in Imphal. A stringent curfew had been announced, and news of burning vehicles and sounds of tear gas or perhaps gunshots were welling up in the Imphal valley. This was because …
Condemn sabotage of UGC norms in faculty recruitment & promotion in S.N.School, University of Hyderabad
Condemn the attempt to sabotage UGC norms in faculty recruitment and promotion in Dept. of Communication, S.N.School, University of Hyderabad – Dalit-Bahujan Scholars, Hyderabad ~ Please sign this petition against the expert committee recommendations violating UGC norms in faculty recruitment and promotions at Dept. of Communication, S.N. School, University of Hyderabad, here at change.org. To …
We have to write our own stories: Abhay Xaxa
Neel Kranti Media (First published in the Dalit and Adivasi Students’ Portal as ‘Abhay Xaxa: A Role Model Par Excellence’ in 2010) Abhay Xaxa, age 34, born and brought up in Jashpur District of Chhattisgarh, is a researcher-activist based in Delhi. He is currently with the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, working on the …
The ‘Dirt’ in The Dirty Picture: Caste, Gender and Silk Smitha – Part 2
Jenny Rowena Continued from here. My only preparation was to constantly tell myself that I love my body. And I was going to use it as a tool to get what I wanted in life and I was not going to be apologetic about it. So that was what Silk is for me. Therefore there is …
What can a ‘sincere’ upper caste person do?
Pardeep Attri It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes …
The Dalit liberation Movement in Colonial Period
Gail Omvedt & Bharat Patankar [First published in February 1979. This is the first part of a pathbreaking article on the Dalit movement in the mainstream media. It was pathbreaking because mainstream discourse had until then consistently denied or tried to studiously ignore the existence of the Dalit movement and its vital role in Indian …
Voters were against BSP, not for anybody
Vivek Kumar This election is historical because, once again, upper castes have been kept out of power. This has been the trend in the state for the past two-and-a-half decades. Secondly, this election can also be seen as a backlash of upper castes against the consolidation of Dalit power in Uttar Pradesh. Dalit workers and a …