Anirudh Deshpande अनिरूद्ध देशपांडे

Colonialism, at one level, opened up avenues for the non-elite in the urban centres it created – which led to the Dalitbahujan and Dravidian movements in Maharashtra and South India. At another level, it created a crisis of identity among the traditional intellectuals of all Indian communities. Syed Ahmad Khan was a product of such a time

Decades ago, Ambedkar had said that the rural Indian setup was inherently anti-Dalit. The Dalit castes cannot live with dignity in the villages. Nagraj Manjule underlines this horrendous truth in all its ugliness

Ambedkar’s historical method remains resilient and alluring in our times because his reflections highlighted the important political difference between imagination and fantasy, conjecture and possibility and a credible story and academic pedantry

A ban on bovine slaughter will have a direct impact on the supplementary peasant incomes in the country, multiply the useless component of the country’s cattle population and make fodder more expensive

प्राध्यापक बतौर उनके प्रशंसकों की संख्या बहुत बड़ी थी और इतिहास लेखन में सिद्धांत व सामान्यीकरण की भूमिका जैसे विषयों पर उनके विचारों को बहुत गंभीरता से लिया जाता था। इतिहास लेखन उनका जुनून था

Most certainly the Dalits must do and write what is good for them but they must keep their doors and windows open to their friends many of whom for not fault of theirs are not Dalits. Undoubtedly among these friends will also be some well meaning critics but in dealing with them the Dalits must adopt an attitude exemplified by one of the dohas of Kabir in which the humane saint-poet extolled the virtue of keeping our critics close to ourselves