CJI’s ‘cockroach’ comment reveals a new version of Supreme Court’s pre-existing attitude
It can be said without an iota of hesitation that in terms of social background, the present CJI belongs to the establishment and, as such, has his limitations. Consequently, he could not develop the broad social outlook that promotes and strengthens the idea of democracy and the spirit of the Constitution, writes Anil Chamadia
CJI’s ‘cockroach’ comment reveals a new version of Supreme Court’s pre-existing attitude
It can be said without an iota of hesitation that in terms of social background, the present CJI belongs to the establishment and, as...
Rajasthan: RSS workers grab temple, Dalit priest seeks Mohan Bhagwat’s intervention
“You say that Hindu community is one, you talk about harmony between castes and you say you are against caste-based discrimination. The RSS has...
Unmissable irony: Celebrate the killing of Adivasis’ ancestors and then hold an Adivasi cultural gathering
Almost all of their festivals – whether it is Holi, Dusshera or Diwali – celebrate the killing of Adivasis. The gods whom they revere...
West Bengal elections: Adivasi women representation and Hindu imperialist politics
On the one hand, Adivasi women have enthusiastically joined the electoral process, sending out a strong message that they want to enter the field...
Third generation of Muslim leadership: Hopes and ironies
The rise of the Hindu backward castes in the political arena in the 1980s was a novel phenomenon. Naturally, most of its leaders were...
Sarhul: Reverence for nature informs this Adivasi farming festival
At a time when the world is obsessed with “Paris Accord” and “carbon footprint”, the philosophy underlying Sarhul offers a simple yet infallible solution...
‘Gail and Bharat’: An intimate portrait of solidarity with the public
There is an informal feel to Somnath Waghmare’s filmmaking that is worth noting. Waghmare himself appears in several of his films, camera in hand,...
Casteism among Muslims and the battle for rights
This book ‘Pasmanda Jan Andolan 1998’ becomes even more relevant in the context of the current sociopolitical scenario. The representation of the Pasmandas in...
Privilege with a bruise: What Manu Joseph gets wrong about dark skin and caste
An upper-caste man with dark skin like Laxman Sivaramakrishnan may experience symbolic downgrading in certain interactions. Yet the architecture beneath him remains intact. His...
Savarna sympathy, Dalit erasure: A critique of cinematic morality in Telugu film ‘Dacoit’
By the time viewers leave the theatre, the Dalit protagonist’s fate does not register as the consequence of caste transgression, of loving across rigid...
Virendra Yadav’s struggles in the ‘progressive’ camp
Virendra Yadav’s heart was riddled with barbs hurled by his ‘own’ people. But he kept fighting for secular-progressive ideas. He could have easily immersed...
Virendra Yadav was an incisive intellectual with a vision for social justice
Virendra Yadav’s biggest contribution is the inculcation of a sense of moral-social accountability in Hindi criticism. Through his writings, he tried to establish that...
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,...
पश्चिम में बाबासाहेब के भाषणों की खोज
गोलमेज़ सम्मेलनों के दौरान आंबेडकर को इंग्लैंड, अमरीका और कनाडा में कई स्थानों पर भाषण देने के लिए आमंत्रित किया गया। यह तत्समय के...
Shabbir Ahmed Ansari: Harbinger of Pasmanda consciousness
Shabbir Ahmed Ansari’s life shows that social reform is not only about sloganeering. It is also about making use of constitutional and legal provisions...
Phule’s Sarvajanik Satyadharma in times of religious hatred
What is surprising is that references to how Phule saw Islam and Christianity are totally missing from the discourse even as communalism in general...
Discovering Babasaheb’s lost speeches in the West
At the time of the Round Table Conferences, Dr Ambedkar had become a sought-after speaker in the UK, the US and Canada, as a...
Jotirao Phule’s ideology and literature
Phule challenged the traditional concept of literature. For him, literature was not only about aesthetics. It was a tool for ushering in social justice....