After the death of a Dalit girl from Hathras in a hospital at New Delhi, many video cameras turn to members of girl’s family to gather the know about of the incident. Many videos surfaced on social media showing girl’s brother speaking to a journalist just after the death of his sister, a grieving mother sitting on a soiled ground,[Read More...]
The recent Hathras incident of violence against a 19-year-old Dalit girl has boomeranged the relevance of caste question in academia and at least digital media. It has again illustrated the complex structure of violence against women, which places the Dalit woman at the absolute bottom. The unfolding of the debates, however, indicate an interesting trend of Savarna spokespersons from various[Read More...]
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted with a main objective to protect marginalised communities viz. schedule castes and tribes against discrimination and atrocities. Sec.3 of the said Act enunciates the nature of various acts committed against a schedule caste or a schedule tribe to constitute an offence punishable under the said Act. The said provision stipulates that any act which is[Read More...]
Introduction National Commission of Scheduled Castes and National Commission of Scheduled Tribes, both constitutional bodies constituted to protect and monitor implementation of safeguards to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been lying vacant at highest level for the past six months. Barring employees, there are no Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Members. The governing body is vacant. Both the constitutional bodies are[Read More...]
In Gujarat a young Dalit activist lawyer Devji Maheswari, belonging to BAMSCEF was killed in Surat by the Brahmin goon who was warning him against his facebook posts not to speak up against Brahmanism but then there are other angles also which are mostly related to land disputes, many time ignored by the activists. Fact is that Devji Maheshwari was[Read More...]
In early September, circles from the Bengali academia and Left political spectrum, strongly vocalized their seemingly disgruntled voices against the trolling of Professor Maroona Murmu, Assistant Professor from the Department of History at Jadavpur University. At the same time, many of them also claimed to be “astonished” at something of this nature happening in Bengal. Soon after my arrival in[Read More...]
C N Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu , and who headed the first DMK ministry in the state, was one of the few political leaders in the country who welcomed Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar’s decision to convert to Buddhism. Here is what he wrote (in 1956) about that momentous event. Annadurai’s birth anniversary was observed on September 15, and[Read More...]
In Conversation with Dr Obadele Bakari Kambon on Racism, white supremacy and caste system Dr Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, Ph.D. is an Afrikan anti-amerikkkan. In India, he has been known for advocating vociferously for the removal of the statue of Gandhi, from the University Campus in Ghana which was gifted by the government of India. He had famously advocated that ‘we[Read More...]
Dr Hemangi Kadlak in Conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dr. Hemangi Kadlak is a native of Maharashtra, India. She did her Ph.D. from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The Ph.D. topic was “Interface of Caste and Occupation: Case Studies of Children of Safai Karmacharis in Higher Education in Mumbai.” She also holds an MPhil degree in Social Work from[Read More...]
Co-Written by Aseem Hasnain, Abhilasha Srivastava and Avinav Kumar Sudharak Olwe’s photographs of conservancy workers in Mumbai are heartbreaking. They depict the lives and work of sanitation workers, as much as they reflect the fundamental nature of our society. In this haunting image a young adult is standing neck deep in an open bubbling drain, underground, both literally and metaphorically.[Read More...]
