Category Archives: Identities

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Government, Identities, Right watch

डा अम्बेडकर के नये मुरीद

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selfie with ambedkar

(Image : Courtesy – http://www.tehelka.com)

शोषित-उत्पीड़ित अवाम के महान सपूत बाबासाहब डा भीमराव अम्बेडकर की 125 जयन्ति के बहाने देश के पैमाने पर जगह जगह आयोजन चल रहे हैं। इसमें कोई दोराय नहीं कि वक्त़ बीतने के साथ उनका नाम और शोहरत बढ़ती जा रही है और ऐसे तमाम लोग एवं संगठन भी जिन्होंने उनके जीते जी उनके कामों का माखौल उड़ाया, उनसे दूरी बनाए रखी और उनके गुजरने के बाद भी उनके विचारों के प्रतिकूल काम करते रहे, अब उनकी बढ़ती लोकप्रियता को भुनाने के लिए तथा दलित-शोषित अवाम के बीच नयी पैठ जमाने के लिए उनके मुरीद बनते दिख रहे हैं।

ऐसी ताकतों में सबसे आगे है हिन्दुत्व ब्रिगेड के संगठन, जो पूरी योजना के साथ अपने अनुशासित कहे जानेवाली कार्यकर्ताओं की टीम के साथ उतरे हैं और डा अम्बेडकर – जिन्होंने हिन्दु धर्म की आन्तरिक बर्बरताओं के खिलाफ वैचारिक संघर्ष एवं व्यापक जनान्दोलनों में पहल ली, जिन्होंने 1935 में येवला के सम्मेलन में ऐलान किया कि मैं भले ही हिन्दु पैदा हुआ, मगर हिन्दू के तौर पर मरूंगा नहीं और अपनी मौत के कुछ समय पहले बौद्ध धर्म का स्वीकार किया /1956/ और जो ‘हिन्दु राज’ के खतरे के प्रति अपने अनुयायियों को एवं अन्य जनता को बार बार आगाह करते रहे, उन्हें हिन्दू समाज सुधारक के रूप में गढ़ने में लगे हैं। राष्टीय स्वयंसेवक संघ (RSS) के मुखिया जनाब मोहन भागवत ने कानपुर की एक सभा में यहां तक दावा किया कि वह ‘संघ की विचारधारा में यकीन रखते थे’ और हिन्दु धर्म को चाहते थे।

इन संगठनों की कोशिश यह भी है कि तमाम दलित जातियां – जिन्हें मनुवाद की व्यवस्था में तमाम मानवीय हकों से भी वंचित रखा गया – उन्हें यह कह कर अपने में मिला लिया जाए कि उनकी मौजूदा स्थितियों के लिए ‘बाहरी आक्रमण’ अर्थात इस्लाम जिम्मेदार है। गौरतलब है कि मई 2014 के चुनावों में भाजपा को मिली ‘ऐतिहासिक जीत’ के बाद जितनी तेजी के साथ इस मोर्चे पर काम चल रहा है, उसे समझने की जरूरत है।

प्रस्तुत है दो पुस्तिकाओं का एक सेट: पहली पुस्तिका का शीर्षक है ‘ंहेडगेवार-गोलवलकर बनाम अम्बेडकर’ ( http://www.isd.net.in/Publication/Booklet/2015/Booklet-66.pdf) और दूसरी पुस्तिका का शीर्षक है ‘ हमारे लिए अम्बेडकर’। (http://www.isd.net.in/Publication/Booklet/2015/Booklet-67.pdf)

पहली पुस्तिका में जहां संघ परिवार तथा अन्य हिन्दुत्ववादी संगठनों द्वारा डा अम्बेडकर को समाहित करने, दलित जातियों को मुसलमानों के खिलाफ खड़ा करने, भक्ति आन्दोलन के महान संत रविदास के हिन्दूकरण तथा छुआछूत की जड़े आदि मसलों पर चर्चा की गयी है। वहीं दूसरी पुस्तिका में दलित आन्दोलन के अवसरवाद, साम्प्रदायिकता की समस्या की भौतिक जड़ें आदि मसलों पर बात की गयी है। इस पुस्तिका के अन्तिम अध्याय ‘डा अम्बेडकर से नयी मुलाक़ात का वक्त़’ में परिवर्तनकामी ताकतों के लिए डा अम्बेडकर की विरासत के मायनों पर चर्चा की गयी है।

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Identities, Law, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Simply for Making Speeches Some Go to Jail in Kerala: Nasarudheen Mannarkkad

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This is a Guest post by NASARUDHEEN MANNARKKAD

In a democracy, it is beyond argument that court procedures should  be accountable and transparent. If the courts start to give its verdicts relying upon the false made up stories of police and the media influenced by its own make-believe ‘public opinion’, that spells disaster for democracy. There is nothing more dangerous than a manipulated and biased court verdict and that can be fatal to the public trust in the judiciary, which is the only claim for an unelected body to be credible before the nation. Continue reading Simply for Making Speeches Some Go to Jail in Kerala: Nasarudheen Mannarkkad →

Identities, Politics, Right watch

Observing Human Rights by Defending Food Rights of Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims: Sudarshan, Osmania University

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Guest post courtesy DALIT CAMERA

[On 10th December 2015 Osmania University students celebrated Beef festival to mark Human Rights Day in a novel fashion. BJP MLA Raja Singh few days before stated he would kill or get killed to protect the cow. It is strange because the Osmania Uuniversity students had only said they would eat beef which is already available in the market, they never said they would kill cow, but the BJP/VHP was spreading rumours that OU students are killing cow. Print and Electronic media gave a full coverage for the BJP/VHP activists). With threats pouring in from different corners (Police, Judiciary, Administration) OU students organized the Beef festival, and in their support EFLU, TU, UoH organized beef festival. Most importantly TVV organization ate beef in Delhi Red Fort.

Why did OU students hold the Beef festival? Here we present an interview of Sudarshan, key organizer of the Beef Festival in OU for the larger public. The interview was conducted and transcribed by Dharma Teja.]

Continue reading Observing Human Rights by Defending Food Rights of Dalit-Bahujans and Muslims: Sudarshan, Osmania University →

Culture, Identities, Politics

Ambedkar For Our Times!

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( Till 1992, 6 th December was remembered as ‘Parinirvan Divas’ of Dr Ambedkar, legendary son of the oppressed who had clearly recognised the true meaning of Hindutva and warned his followers about the dangers of Hindu Rashtra ; post 1992, 6 th December has an added meaning and it relates to the demolition of Babri Mosque undertaken by these very forces.

Apart from the fact that this event led to the biggest communal conflagaration at the national level post-independence, whose repercussions are still being felt and whose perpetrators are still roaming free, we should not forget that it was the first biggest attack on the principles of secularism and democracy, which has been a core value of the Constitution drafted under the Chairmanship of Dr Ambedkar.

What follows here is an edited version of the presentation made at Dept of Social Work, Delhi University, during their programme centred around 1 st Ambedkar Memorial Lecture)

 

“If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. On that account it is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.”

– Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India, p. 358

‘Indians today are governed by two ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity whereas their social ideal embedded in their religion denies it to them’

– Ambedkar

Continue reading Ambedkar For Our Times! →

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Identities

गयी भैंस पानी में…. : दाराब फ़ारूक़ी

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Guest post by DARAB FAROOQUI

जी हाँ मैं भैंस हूँ और करीब 5000 साल से लगातार पानी में जा रही हूँ. जब भी किसी का कुछ भी बुरा हो रहा होता है तो हमेशा मुझे ही पानी में जाना पड़ता है. ना उस वक़्त मेरे नहाने की इच्छा होती और ना तैरने का मन. पर मुझे ना चाहते हुवे भी पानी में जाना पड़ता है.

तुम लोग कभी उस सफ़ेदमूही गाय को पानी में क्यों नहीं भेजते हो. और वैसे भी हम अल्पसंख्य हैं, हमसे कहीं ज्यादा गायें हैं भारत में. और शायद तुम्हे याद न हो, हमारे संविधान में सब बराबर हैं. पर इतना सब कुछ करने के बाद भी तुम लोगों ने हमें कभी अपना नहीं समझा. हमने क्या नहीं किया तुम्हारे लिये, तुम्हे अपने बच्चों का दूध दिया, तुम्हारे खेत जोते, तुम्हारे चूल्हे जलाये. कितने बलिदान दिए हमने पर तुम्हारे तो कान पर भैंस तक नहीं रेंगी.

सबसे पहला बटर पनीर किसके दूध का बना था? हमारे दूध का, पंजाब में हम ही हैं. और वो जो तुम हमेशा पंजाबी ढाबे पे खाने की रट लगाये रहते हो वहां जाके पूछना, उस खाने का स्वाद कहाँ से आता है? हमारे दूध के असली घी से. चले हैं बड़े गाय की पैरवी करने. कभी अच्छे वक़्त पर हमें याद मत करना. पर जब भी किसी का कुछ बुरा हो, चाहे हम सोती हों या जगती, चाहे हम खाती हों या पीती, हमें ही पानी में भेज देना. तुम्हारे बाप का राज है ना, सरकार तुम्हारी, तुम माई बाप हो, हम तो जानवर हैं. किसी ने सही कहा है जिसकी लाठी उसी की भैंस. Continue reading गयी भैंस पानी में…. : दाराब फ़ारूक़ी →

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Identities

Silencing Caste, Sanitising Oppression – Understanding Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

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The Hindu notions of purity and pollution, inextricably linked with the caste system and the practice of untouchability, underlie the unsanitary practices in Indian society. These beliefs perpetuate the oppression of the “polluted castes,” who are forced to undertake manual scavenging, unclog manholes and clean other people’s filth. The availability of cheap Dalit labour to do these dehumanising jobs can be cited as one of the reasons why development of toilet facilities and a modern garbage and sewage management system have been neglected so far. As long as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan attempts to delink the relationship between caste and sanitation, its lofty goal of cleaning India will remain unachievable.

(Read the full text here http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2015_50/44/Silencing_Caste_Sanitising_Oppression.pdf)

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Identities

നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്കു മറുപടി

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ആദരണീയ നഹാസ് മാള

താങ്കളുടെ മറുപടി വായിച്ചു, സന്തോഷമുണ്ട്. അത് കാഫിലയിൽ പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യുന്നില്ല. മറിച്ച്, ആ കത്ത് ഉണർത്തിവിടുന്ന ചില ചിന്തകൾ പങ്കുവയ്ക്കാൻ ഈ ഇടം പ്രയോജനപ്പെടുത്തുന്നു. Continue reading നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്കു മറുപടി →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Identities

Save Yo Drama for Yo Mama :യഥാർത്ഥരക്ഷകർത്താക്കളോട് കലിപ്പ് തീർത്തുകൊള്ളുക

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എസ് ഐ ഒ നേതാവിനോട് ഒരു ചോദ്യം ചോദിച്ചതും, അതാ ‘നിങ്ങളുടെ രക്ഷാകർതൃത്വം ഞങ്ങൾക്കാവശ്യമില്ല‘ എന്ന ആക്രോശം മുസ്ലിം റാഡിക്കൽ സ്ത്രീപുരുഷ ആക്ടിവിസ്റ്റുകളിൽ നിന്നുമുണ്ടായിരുക്കുന്നു. അവരുടെ കൂക്കിവിളിക്ക് ആക്കം കൂട്ടാൻ ചില ദലിത് സിംഹങ്ങളും സട കുടഞ്ഞെഴുന്നേറ്റിരിക്കുന്നു. അവരുടെ തന്ത്രങ്ങൾ പരിചിതങ്ങളാണ് – മുൻപ് ചുംബനസമരം നടന്ന സമയത്ത് പയറ്റിയ ചില അടവുകളാണ് അവ. എന്നെ ‘അധികാരത്തെ മോശമായി പ്രയോഗിക്കുന്ന പവർഫുൾ സ്ത്രീ’ എന്നും, ഷാഹിനയെ ‘ചീത്ത മുസ്ലിം’ എന്നും, അരുന്ധതിയെ ‘സവർണ്ണസ്ത്രീശരീര’മെന്നുമൊക്കെ ആദ്യമായല്ല മുദ്രകുത്തുന്നത്. അങ്ങനെ ചെയ്താൽ ഞങ്ങൾ പറയുന്നതു മുഴുവൻ തെറ്റാണെന്ന് മറ്റുള്ളവർ ധരിച്ചുകൊള്ളുമെന്ന ശുദ്ധഗതി കലർന്ന പ്രത്യാശയിലാണ് ഇതു ചെയ്തു കൂട്ടുന്നത്. മുസ്ലിം സമുദായത്തെ ചില വാർപ്പു മാതൃകകളിലേക്കു ചുരുക്കുന്ന രീതി സ്വീകാര്യമല്ലെന്ന് വാതോരാതെ കരയുന്നവർ തന്നെയാണ് ഈ പണി ചെയ്യുന്നതെന്നത് തീർച്ചയായും കൌതുകകരം തന്നെ. Continue reading Save Yo Drama for Yo Mama :യഥാർത്ഥരക്ഷകർത്താക്കളോട് കലിപ്പ് തീർത്തുകൊള്ളുക →

Bad ideas, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Excavation, Identities, Images, Language, Media politics, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Of Flags and Fetishes – The Paris Attacks and A Misplaced Politics of Solidarity: Debaditya Bhattacharya

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This is a guest post by DEBADITYA BHATTACHARYA

Megan Garber’s article ‘#PrayForParis: When Empathy Becomes a Meme’, published in The Atlantic (November 16, 2015) has claimed that Paris hashtags and French flag filters on Facebook make for an “act of mass compassion” – a “compassion that has been converted, via the Internet’s alchemy, into political messaging”.

flag filter2

I have absolutely no problems with flag filters on Facebook. Or for that matter, profile-picture revolutions that happen all too often. I’m not, in the least bit indignant about such a competitive exhibitionism of feeling – indexed through a currency of memes and emoticons. In an age of such mass-production of violence (‘terroristic’ or ‘humanitarian’), it is no surprise that the event of mourning must become a symptom of the incompatibility between ‘act’ and ‘response’.

A funereal Facebook must therefore bleed profile pictures, because that seems the only charter of our most intimate emotions. We naturally do not care if Facebook is using the Paris tragedy as a marketing platform, as long as it helps us reclaim a deeply ‘personal’ angst in the face of more-than-a-hundred ‘spectacular’ deaths.

Continue reading Of Flags and Fetishes – The Paris Attacks and A Misplaced Politics of Solidarity: Debaditya Bhattacharya →

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Identities

ചീത്തകളെ തള്ളിക്കള: നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്ക് തുറന്ന കത്ത്

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പ്രിയ നഹാസ് മാള

‘ഓൺലൈൻ പെൺവാണിഭം:  വിശദമായ അന്വേഷണം വേണം – എസ് ഐ ഒ’ എന്ന തലക്കെട്ടോടു കൂടി താങ്കളുടെ സംഘടന പുറത്തിറക്കിയ പ്രസ്താവന ഇന്നത്തെ മാദ്ധ്യമം പത്രത്തിൽ കണ്ടു.  അതിൽ പറയുന്നു:

“കേരളത്തിലെ ചുംബനസമരം അടക്കമുള്ള സമരങ്ങളിൽ മുഖ്യപങ്ക് വഹിച്ചിരുന്ന രാഹുൽ പശുപാലനും രശ്മി നായരുമാണ് റാക്കറ്റിൻെറ പിന്നിലെന്ന പോലീസ് ആരോപണം ഗൌരവമുള്ളതാണ്. കേരളത്തിലെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ മാധ്യമമേഖലയിലെ പ്രമുഖരുമായുള്ള ബന്ധങ്ങൾ ഇത്തരം റാക്കറ്റുകൾ മറയായി ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്തുന്നുണ്ട് … വിദ്യാർത്ഥികളെ അടക്കം സ്നേഹം നടിച്ചും പ്രലോഭിപ്പിച്ചും തങ്ങളുടെ വലയിൽ കുരുക്കി ഉഭയസമ്മതപ്രകാരമെന്ന് പറഞ്ഞ് ചൂഷണം ചെയ്യുന്ന ഇത്തരം റാക്കറ്റുകൾക്കെതിരെ സമൂഹം ജാഗ്രത പുലർത്തണം.”

കഴിഞ്ഞ ദിവസം മനോരമ ചാനലിൽ യുവ മോർച്ചാ നേതാവ് രാജേഷ് ചുംബനസമരത്തിനെതിരെ തൊടുത്തുവിട്ട പൊട്ടശ്ശരങ്ങളോട് നിങ്ങളുടെ പ്രസ്താവന അടുത്തസാമ്യം പുലർത്തുന്നു എന്നു കണ്ടതുകൊണ്ടാണ് നിങ്ങൾക്ക് കത്തെഴുതാൻ തീരുമാനിച്ചത്.

Continue reading ചീത്തകളെ തള്ളിക്കള: നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്ക് തുറന്ന കത്ത് →

Culture, Identities, Politics

Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj

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Guest post by GITA JAYARAJ

New shocks seem to await non-vegetarians almost daily, now. At a popular supermarket chain in Besant Nagar, one of the go-to places in namma Chennai, there seems nothing unusual on the evening of November 11. The floor is littered with stuff as the young shop assistants squat in the narrow aisles trying to stack the packets on the shelves; or laze in small clusters discussing workplace politics, oblivious of the customers milling around.

Seems like a normal evening. Heading towards the billing counter, I decide at the last minute to pick up some chicken. The young girl at the fresh-ground coffee counter, next to the fresh chicken refrigerator, giggles nervously as I open it. “Sale of chicken not permitted today madam”, she tells me hesitantly in Tamil. I am puzzled, has the beef ban in some states been extended to cover chicken as well in all states? Continue reading Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Left watch, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Scams

We agree passionately: one world, one struggle, education is not for sale!

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Dangerous Vandals, Goths and Visigoths: Students Demanding the Impossible at #OccupyUGC
Dangerous Vandals, Goths and Visigoths: Students Demanding the Impossible at #OccupyUGC

The Occupy UGC movement looks irrelevant or ridiculous to the middle and upper classes in India because it can be made to appear so by the media. Not surprisingly, television channels and leading dailies either ignored the protests altogether, or worse, focused on the apparently far more *critical* issue of the “vandalism” and “disfigurement” of the ITO metro station by the protesting students. Times of India said they were “brazening it out” after their acts of vandalism, and on social media including Kafila, these student vandals have been additionally belittled by some as misguided pawns in the hands of an apparent conglomerate of ambitious lefty professors from JNU! Basically, anything but a legitimate set of demands, some of which this poster from the movement tries to explain…

Dekh Bhai UGC
Translation: Look here UGC, if you don’t give us the scholarship, I will face marriage pressure, but you will have to face the pressure of the entire student population!!

(Incidentally, it was this image that was painted on the walls of the ITO metro station. Personally I found it cheerful).

Anyway, as Camalita Naicker reminded us in her excellent article on South Africa here on Kafila, student protests against rising student fees and shrinking scholarships and fellowships are no flash in the pan but a burgeoning worldwide phenomenon cutting across political affiliations. This is because you don’t need to be a leftist to understand that in contemporary conditions, pursuing a higher education is both the only guarantee to economic security, and the one thing that may be denied to you if you are from the wrong side of the tracks. 

We post below statements from #OccupyUGC and #Occupy SOAS in support of each other. These have been sent to us by Akash Bhattacharya, research scholar in history at JNU.

Continue reading We agree passionately: one world, one struggle, education is not for sale! →

Culture, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Politics

So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram

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Below is the joint statement issued by the International Conference on Gender Equality that concluded today at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, organised by the Gender Park,  supported by the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala. The Gender Park represents a unique attempt to address gender inequality — understood in non-binary, inclusive terms — through skill-building and entrepreneurial innovation. It is refreshingly free from the burden of cultural ageing that is ubiquitous in Kerala now, and has a very young, dynamic team. The theme of the conference was ‘Gender, Governance, and Inclusion’, and that was not lip-service, as the statement clearly shows. The Statement embodies a vision that seeks to bring back questions of gender freedom and equality back into the heart of development interventions, but speaks of all marginalized genders, and not just women.

The Kerala Government’s Transgender Policy, pioneered by the Department of Social Justice was released the conference and transgender people were a major presence at all sessions. Speaking at the occasion, Kerala’s Minister for Social Justice, M K Muneer, declared that he would monitor the implementation of the policy personally and also fight to end Section 377 on all platforms of the government and outside, at state and national levels. 

Their remarkable interventions worked magic: if the pressure of neoliberal discourse is to continuously tie all development to the imperatives of market-led growth and gesture to its Promised Never-Never Land, transgender people’s questions cut through such instrumentalism to join it again with freedom and equality … and the  aesthetic in the fullest sense of the world. For the aesthetic does involve a heightened attention to the sensuous and to rhythm, to difference and to fit, to the entire range of kaleidoscopic formations! 

And it brought back into the heart of development, Love. Love as understood and celebrated by Alice Walker: 

love is not concerned/with who you pray to/or where you slept/the night you ran away/from home/love is concerned/that the beating of your heart/should kill no one.

Continue reading So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Countryside, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Politics, Right watch

Yes, the Biharis chose Mud over the Lotus. Get Over It.

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It is not difficult to imagine some of the reactions to the sweeping victory for the Grand Alliance in Bihar. All those who have spent a lifetime thinking of Bihar as the worst kind of social, economic and political cesspool in the country, all those who shudder at the sight of Lalu Prasad Yadav and amuse themselves with jokes about his rustic origins and his apparently appalling antics, all those who are charmed by the hologram charm of our current PM – all those have found the best kind of alibi to explain the result of November 8th. As Prem Panicker has noted on Twitter, the sum total of their reactions is – “Illiterate Biharis deserve this”. A particularly pee-yellow variant of this jaundiced view of the lower castes and classes was given (and mysteriously withdrawn later) by one Sonam who goes by the handle #Asyounotwish on Twitter:

Thank you Bihar for choosing mud over lotus. You deserve to stay rickshaw walas.

It’s perfect – for the thousands of Sonams out there, Lalu and Bihar are made for each other in a kind of self-limiting loop, and we can return to our economically dynamic, socially vibrant and thankfully un-Bihari Indian lives. Another joke that is doing the rounds:

Wife: Ever been to Bihar?

Husband: No

Wife: Moving there?

Husband: No

Wife: Relatives fighting elections?

Husband: No

Wife: Then give me the damn remote…

Continue reading Yes, the Biharis chose Mud over the Lotus. Get Over It. →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Identities, Images, Mirror Worlds

An ‘Anti National’ Response from JNU to the ‘Nationalist’ RSS: Pratim, Gargi and Lenin

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Guest Post by Pratim, Gargi and Lenin.

As writers, historians, scientists, film makers, poets, actors and others return their awards in protest against the rising intolerance and anti-rational climate in this country, we in JNU keep stocking up accolades of a different kind. These accolades are ones which are very generously gifted to us from the RSS and its affiliates. These accolades come in more than fifty shades, only highlighting the deep seated trouble that these folks have in seeing this University up to them, despite their attempts to tarnish it. A few days back the ever-so-absurd/islamophobic/irrational Subramaniam Swamy endowed JNU students with the honours of being ‘Jehadis’, ‘Naxal’ and ‘Anti-National’.

Continue reading An ‘Anti National’ Response from JNU to the ‘Nationalist’ RSS: Pratim, Gargi and Lenin →

Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Identities, Law

Statement by Academics Against Intolerance

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In light of the recent spate of killings of noted writers and intellectuals M M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, and Narendra Dabholkar, and the Dadri lynching incident followed by forced nation-wide attempts at cultural policing, we feel that the current political dispensation headed by the Prime Minister is mandating an atmosphere of violence and fear. Continue reading Statement by Academics Against Intolerance →

Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Scams

A Dalit Employee’s Death and Its Aftermath – in a Central University: Solidarity for Amar Singh

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The following is a guest post by SOLIDARITY FOR AMAR SINGH

We are writing this quite late. On 27 July 2015, a Monday, a young person named Amar Singh passed away in Lucknow. We came to know it very late, only on the other day, since we no longer reside in the city and, to confess, do not remain in regular touch with the happenings there. A leading Hindi daily’s Lucknow edition had reported this death two days later in a small column which we have just recovered. The report provided information about his father as well as about his native place, Faizabad. Though the daily did not state his caste in its description of what could be discerned like an accident, it made a note of his name, his age, his father’s name, and the job he was doing. But we knew Amar’s background. Amar was a dalit. He was Hela by caste and hailed from a poor family. His death could well be an accident, though what exactly happened remains mysterious. People who know a little about the incident are however emphatic that it was not suicide. But what appeared very intricate is how his death was reported and how the whole incident was handled since then, in the well-known public spheres—not only of Lucknow but also of other places.

The daily, Dainik Jagran, indeed reported it on 29 July 2015, stating that on Monday night at Nishatganj, a young man passed away under mysterious circumstances, and that he was a sanitation worker at the Moti Mahal lawns. It also informs that his relatives had asked for an investigation by the police. The report reads further like this: “Originally from Faizabad, the son of Ram Ratan, Amar Singh (23) had gone to his employer’s house at Nishatganj on Monday. Soon after leaving the premise there, he was found on the road in a state of unconsciousness. The passersby took him to a private hospital where he passed away.” The report ends there. It had appeared as an insignificant column at the left bottom of page 9 of the daily, with one of the most common headings one can come across, “a young man dies under suspicious circumstances”. But who was this employer here? Who were the passersby? Continue reading A Dalit Employee’s Death and Its Aftermath – in a Central University: Solidarity for Amar Singh →

Bad ideas, Debates, Government, Identities, Left watch

What Communal Attacks And Our Own Blindness have Cost Us: Thoughts for Malayalees on the Eve of Panchayat Elections

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On the eve of the panchayat elections in Kerala, I can’t help noticing how different it has been this time. Every time, the build-up to voting day includes heated debates about the state of the local bodies and discussions on the promises made by political parties. Not that it was completely absent this time, but somehow it appeared that such questions were hardly on people’s minds. The coming of decentralized governance in the mid-1990s divided the political field in Kerala into two:  ‘local governance’ and ‘high politics’ involved very different conceptions of power, authority, and agency. Welfarism, now also reimagined in terms of self-help, was moved into the former, while the latter remained the more decisive arena of political activity and authority. However, given that the space on local governance was crucial to the poor in that welfare entitlements flowed through it, it remained a key area of public concern. Over the years, from Plachimada to Vilappilsala, the local bodies even seemed to form sites around which resistance to top-down destructive ‘development’ could take shape. Each election was an opportunity to take stock of this large network of institutions which despite all the flaws remained quite decisively important to the lives of the poor in Kerala. In fact, it is worth noting that the elections were the occasions in which the better-off sections paid relatively more attention to local bodies and even set aside their cynicism and reluctance to engage. Not so, this time, I can’t help feeling. Continue reading What Communal Attacks And Our Own Blindness have Cost Us: Thoughts for Malayalees on the Eve of Panchayat Elections →

Bad ideas, Culture, Feminism, Identities, Media politics

Girl, Get Back your Dignity NOW: Indulekha Writes to Sumathikkuttyamma

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Dear great-great granddaughter Sumathikutty

I am sure you never expected this missive. Yes, you may even think it impossible. But here am I, writing to you, from the other side of J Devika’s computer screen at which she is staring now, mouth open and goggle-eyed, right now. I don’t have to introduce myself – most Malayalees know me as Chandu Menon’s Soul-Daughter, and the Grand (Old) Lady of Modern Kerala (alas, some of the youngest know of Indulekha hair oil only!). Continue reading Girl, Get Back your Dignity NOW: Indulekha Writes to Sumathikkuttyamma →

Culture, Debates, Identities, Images, Language

Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics Against Rising Intolerance in India

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Text of a Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics in India against a Climate of Rising Intolerance in India

(Followed by Names of the 300 + Signatories, in Alphabetical Order)

The artist community of India stands in firm solidarity with the actions of our writers who have relinquished awards and positions, and spoken up in protest against the alarming rise of intolerance in the country. We condemn and mourn the murders of MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, rationalists and free thinkers whose voices have been silenced by rightwing dogmatists but whose ‘presence’ must ignite our resistance to the conditions of hate being generated around us.

We will never forget the battle we fought for our pre-eminent artist M.F. Husain who was hounded out of the country and died in exile. We remember the rightwing invasion and dismantling of freedoms in one of the country’s best known art schools in Baroda. We witness the present government’s appointment of grossly unqualified persons to the FTII Society and its disregard of the ongoing strike by the students of this leading Institute. We see a writer like Perumal Murugan being intimidated into declaring his death as a writer, a matter of dire shame in any society.

While the Prime Minister of the country has been conspicuously reticent in his response to the recent events, the reactions of BJP ministers in his government reveal their ignorance and prejudice. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture, has made abhorrent comments about mob lynching and murder. His remarks suggesting that writers should stop writing to prove their point are alarming – empowered as he is to take policy decisions in the domain of culture. Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Information & Broadcasting, has mocked the actions of our respected writers as a manufactured ‘paper rebellion’. He asks for scrutiny of the political and ideological affiliations of those who are protesting.

To these and other such provocations there is a clear answer: while the actual affiliations of the protesting writers and artists, scholars and journalists may be many and varied, their individual and collective voices are gaining cumulative strength. It is this that the ruling party will have to reckon with: the protestors’ declared disaffiliation from a government that encourages marauding outfits to enforce a series of regressive commands in this culturally diverse country.

The scale of social violence and fatal assaults on ordinary citizens (as in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh; Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir; Faridabad, Harayana) is escalating. The contemptuous comments about the religious minorities and Dalits made by those within the government confirm that there is little difference between the RSS-BJP mainstream and supposed ‘fringe’ elements. The perfunctory warnings and regrets issued by ruling party ideologues – to defend the agendas of ‘development’ and ‘governance’ advanced by Mr Narendra Modi – are merely expedient. The Sangh Parivar and its Hindutva forces operating through their goon brigades form the support base of this government; they are all complicit in the attempts to impose conformity of thought, belief and practice. Continue reading Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics Against Rising Intolerance in India →

Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Palestinian Women from Occupied East Jerusalem Call for Protection: Jerusalemite Women ’s Coalition

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A Statement by the JERUSALEMITE WOMEN’S COALITION

We women of occupied East Jerusalem call for immediate protection as we witness and suffer the widespread and serious violations of Palestinian human rights, including physical attacks and injuries, severe psychological threats, and persecution by the Israeli settler-colonial state and settler entities.

We urge the international community to act and defend the rights of Palestinian children, women, and men, including the right to a safe life amidst the constant attacks, excessive and indiscriminate use of force used by the Israeli oppressive apparatus, acts of violence and daily terror committed by Israeli Jewish civilians, including settlers. This brutality is intimidating our lives, provoking our youth, willfully causing death and bodily and psychological harm, and disabling and injuring of our community members.

We, a group of Palestinian women, mothers, sisters, daughters and youth—and in the name of the “Jerusalemite Women’s Coalition”—call upon the international community to protect our families, community, and children. We are calling for the protection of our bodily safety and security when in our homes, walking in our neighborhood, reaching schools, clinics, work places, and worships venues. Continue reading Palestinian Women from Occupied East Jerusalem Call for Protection: Jerusalemite Women ’s Coalition →