Articles by Anand Teltumbde

Five decades ago Babasaheb Ambedkar had disowned the Constitution and condemned it as a useless document. Today, with the right wing trampling on the spirit of the Constitution even while celebrating Ambedkar as the architect of the document, his denunciatory words ring true.

Rohith Vemula’s death is not a stray case of a life claimed by caste prejudice. Atrocities against Dalits have intensified with the rise of Hindutva forces. While the persecution of Dalit scholars in the recent past has gone relatively unnoticed, the spontaneous outburst at Rohith’s death could portend a new movement against the saffron establishment.

At the 10th ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be held at Nairobi, Kenya, from 15–18 December, the discourse on higher education being public/merit/private good and the covert/overt preparation of the government over the past two decades to withdraw from higher education

There is a rush for memorials dedicated to Ambedkar. The Sangh Parivar is leaving no stone unturned to appropriate Ambedkar who, given his vitriolic comments on Hinduism, should have been their greatest enemy. At the same time, the gap between the Dalits and non-Dalits continues to widen and atrocities against Dalits continue with impunity.

In 1927, an iconic struggle of the Dalits in Mahad, in modern day Maharashtra, had to take a step back in spite of overwhelming enthusiasm of the community. Nearly nine decades later, in Pathapally in India's youngest state, Telangana, a more than three-month-long struggle of the Madigas, a Dalit community, forced the administration to accept its demands. This article traces the events and developments of the Pathapally movement and compares it with its iconic predecessor.