Discovering young Ambedkar’s Indo-US trade petition
‘We, the representatives of India and members of the Indian Society for the Promotion of Commerce, request to the high-intelligence of the officers of the Bureau of Commercial Economics that we are intensely interested in bringing about a proper understanding, to create an unbreakable bond of friendship and to establish closer commercial relations between...
Uttar Pradesh: SIR’s ground reality that EC wants to hide
The BLO said, ‘They took away all forms from us and handed them over to contractual or other employees for feeding. The result was...
Bihar looks set to become a graveyard of social justice and a playground for corporate czars
In the new Nitish Kumar-led 27-member council of ministers, eight are from the upper castes, five from EBCs and eight from OBCs. Then, there...
Social composition of the 18th Bihar Assembly
The Rajput have the highest representation among all the castes, while Kushwahas top Backward Classes, followed closely by Yadavs. Dhanuk and Ravidas have most...
25 years of Jharkhand – who gained, who lost?
Jharkhand is not what it was supposed to be. The beautiful civilization of Chhotanagpur and Santhal Parganas is threatened with destruction as powerful companies...
Bihar Assembly Elections 2025: BJP would only touch Pasmanda with JDU-LJP(R) barge pole
BJP Bihar state president Dilip Jaiswal stated that his party would guarantee Pasmanda Muslim involvement in state politics. However, when it came to giving...
Behold, the Light of the world!
This Christmas season, may we look beyond the twinkling lights and decorations, to the Light of the world who has entered our dark world...
Kant, Phule and Ambedkar, and the need for a collective struggle for the right to reason
In societies that are unequal not incidentally but structurally, the issue is not simply 'immaturity', as Kant poses, but being deprived of a social...
Sohrai: An Adivasi festival that celebrates oneness with nature and coexistence with cattle
‘Sohrai’ means ‘appreciating and caressing’. The festival is about caressing cattle, pampering them and expressing gratitude towards them; it is about the relationship between...
A day at Ekwari – the village of Rameshwar Ahir, Ram Naresh Ram and Jagdish Master
Rameshwar Ahir’s son Bihari Yadav said that even after his father’s martyrdom, violence continued in the village. Feudal elements killed Rajendra Chaudhari, who was...
Dasain festival: A dance performance to preserve a collective memory of grief is on the wane
Dasain is not merely a festival of the Santhals; it is a collective memory of the entire indigenous society. It encompasses history, culture and...
Seminal role of Dalit-OBCs in development of language and literature
Scripts were invented by painters and sculptors, and not scholars. Not only in India but in civilizations the world over, paintings and sculptures predated...
‘Sahitya Akademi has brought itself honour by honouring Sanjeev’
In his more than a dozen novels, Sanjeev has depicted the reality of the post-Independence Indian society. The issues and topics that he has...
In his ‘Ambedkar: A Life’, Shashi Tharoor betrays his privileged-caste naivete
After coming out with ‘Why I Am A Hindu’, Tharoor has predictably set out to look for Ambedkar’s ‘flaws’ in his biography of Ambedkar,...
Phanishwar Nath Renu – who gave centrality to the toilers of ‘the provinces’
Renu took the genre of reportage to new heights in Hindi literature. No one has been able to match him to date. In his...
Rajesh Paswan: Criticism within Dalit Literature is still in its infancy
Our Dalit writers don’t take criticism well. They begin enquiring about the caste and ideology of the critic. They evaluate criticism on these parameters,...
Discovering young Ambedkar’s Indo-US trade petition
‘We, the representatives of India and members of the Indian Society for the Promotion of Commerce, request to the high-intelligence of the officers of...
Beyond Sacrifice: Reflections on the multifaceted life of Ramai
Was Ramabai just a dutiful housewife of Babasaheb, or was she an active co-emancipator who, like Babasaheb, envisioned a society free from man-made divisions...
Dr Ambedkar’s interactions with Indian scientists of his era
In my limited research, I found documented evidence of at least four leading Indian scientists who had interactions with Dr B.R. Ambedkar. They were...
‘Lo Bir Sendra’ reveals yet more facets of the multifaceted Jaipal Singh Munda
In his recently republished memoir, Jaipal Singh recalls founding labour unions in the Gorumasahini and Badampahar iron-ore mines (in then Orissa) of the Tatas....
How Ambedkar led deeksha ceremonies in Nagpur and Chandrapur despite ill health, and Bombay was to follow
Why did Babasaheb Ambedkar sacrifice his valuable health to write the books? Why did he take on a mission to embrace Buddhism through multiple...