Subhendu Sarkar The cow is now the most important politico-religious icon in India. The self-proclaimed custodians of Hinduism and their political representatives in power are desperate to impose ban on cow-slaughter and beef-eating. As a result, there have been incidents of violence not only in a relatively unknown town like Dadri but also on the…
Ram Puniyani Arun Shourie, who was part of NDA, a fellow traveler and an ideologue of BJP wrote several books, many of them against minorities and dalits in particular. One of these which was strongly protested against by large sections of people, dalits in particular, was his “Worshipping False Gods”. In this book he expressed…
Ram Puniyani On 28th Feb (2014) Ramvilas Paswan of Loktantantrik Jan Party joined the NDA alliance. Same Paswan had left the NDA twelve years ago with the beginning of Gujarat carnage, saying that with the violence in Gujarat he cannot be part of NDA. This time his son formulated the face saver when he said…
Ram Puniyani Caste is a phenomenon deeply entrenched in Indian society and the struggle against it began in the late 19th century. Despite the social movements, initiated around the ideas of Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and many such legendary figures, it continues to pervade in the Indian society like a malignant cancer, refusing to die easily. There…
Ram Puniyani Parliament was rocked (May 2012) with the discussion on the alleged insult of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar in the cartoon in NCERT text book for standard XI. The MHRD Minister immediately declared the withdrawal of the book and asked for review of all books for which a committee has been appointed. This is…
[It is a widely held belief among the ruling, upper caste circles that the question of caste is no more an issue in India. We have chanced upon a documentary that unmasks this myth articulated by the very same people who practise casteism in a myriad of ways . This documentary is directed by Stalin,…
Ram Puniyani In the middle of April 2012 Osmania University (OU) witnessed an unusual violence on the issue of eating beef. A section of dalit students’ were demanding that University Hostels should have beef on the menu. They also organized a beef festival in which a large number of students ate beef biryani. The festivity…
Narendra Nayak Loosely translated into English, Made Snana means taking bath on leftovers but a detailed one would mean rolling over the leaves on which others have eaten and discarded. .Again, a lengthier one would be lower caste people rolling on the leaves on which Brahmins have eaten! This has been taking place since hundreds…
Prof Narendra Nayak with the couple after their wedding Well this is not the cliched title of a wedding invitation but the narration of events that led to this wedding! For, Sandesh is a Pambada, a caste of dalits who are untouchables except when they get possessed by spirits- sorry not of those of the…
Ram Puniyani With elections looming over Uttar Pradesh horizon, recently (Nov 2011) UP Chief Minister Mayawati declared that her cabinet has approved the proposal to divide the UP state into four smaller states. She declared that only a dalit-OBC Chief Minister should be able to solve the problems of dalit-OBCs. There is also the talk…