“Inequality is the soul of Hinduism”. And that is why he finally came to conclusion that, “I was born a Hindu, but will not die a Hindu” (Dr. BR. Ambedkar) “Until 1990, Ambedkar was untouchable to all mainstream political parties’’ (Prof. Kancha Ilaiah) On the auspicious occasion of the 130th birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar (celebrated as the Ambedkar[Read More...]
This is part-1 of an article, being published to mark the Birth Anniversary on April 14, of Dr. BR Ambedkar (1891-1956). Referring to “a great deal of controversy” regarding the origin of caste, “as to whether it is due to the conscious command of a Supreme Authority, or is an unconscious growth in the life of a human society[Read More...]
Who is a teacher? In a loose sense a teacher would be anybody including Mahatma Gandhi who was not a teacher in any school or college and Ambedkar who was a teacher in a college for some time. On the other hand, only the school teachers are called the teachers in a strict sense and not the university teachers who[Read More...]
With the recent book “The Shudras : vision for a new path” (edited by Karthika Raja Karuppasamy and Kancha Ilaiah) and the Shudra farmers protesting on the capital borders, the issue of historically neglected Shudras came to the forefront. At a time when the right wing hindutva agenda is on its rise, the need to counter[Read More...]
A well-known Dalit scholar Gopal Guru, presently editor of the Economic and Political Weekly, once wrote that “Indian Social Science represents a pernicious divide between theoretical Brahmins and empirical Shudras’ (2002). But Shudras did not get much attention in his, otherwise useful article. He immediately shifted his argument to the question of Dalits. Nowhere he elaborated his understanding of the[Read More...]
Jai Bhim, Jai Bheem, Jay Bhim, Bhim Salam, Neela Zindabad, Ek Number, Babasaheb Zindabad, Neel Salaam, We are because he was… etc are the comments one would observe in an online social media post, on or about Ambedkar, with lot of likes and comment when posted by a noted person with following. Ambedkarties have become excessively emotional about Ambedkar, a[Read More...]
A lot has been said about the barbaric incident of a Muslim boy being brutally beaten and denied water to drink at a temple complex near Ghaziabad. Many people expressed shock and sorrow and rightly expressed solidarity with the boy. Many said that their ‘Hinduism’ does not reflect this and that they are ashamed of the incident. Many apologised that[Read More...]
I live next to a textile mill complex from an era long-passed. Today, the old stone buildings have been reduced to rubble and the trees that surrounded them, more than 100 in number have been felled. My tired senses don’t feel the same when I look out the window and see pale-grey, concrete walls. The sound of drilling, hammering, crushing[Read More...]
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When we were finalizing the title of my latest book The Shudras–Vision for a New Path edited along with Karthik Raja Karuppusamy for Penguin, there was a serious view that the concept “Shudra” must be avoided as it is not acceptable now. The secular intellectuals in post- colonial India completely avoided caste/varna categories in teaching and writing as if they never existed[Read More...]
Indian state is part of Indian society and Indian society is built on caste based social order. That way state or the government can do very little to destroy the caste system because as the state is built on the caste and the caste society is controlled by the top castes – the state cannot go against the system[Read More...]
