Articles by Anand Teltumbde

It would be wrong to say that there is an undeclared state of Emergency in India today. The regime simply uses devices such as the colonial law on sedition, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and so on to keep dissent at bay.

Why has there been such a silence from dalit leaders over the Bathani Tola judgment acquitting all those accused of killing 21 dalits? At the same time, what explains their loud protests over the Ambedkar cartoons in the textbooks? Has the elevation of Ambedkar as an icon relegated the dalit leadership to a politics of empty symbolism? Is the issue of a lack of accountability in the judicial system towards dalits not more important than the hollow iconisation of Ambedkar?

While Mayawati is, all the way, a winner, the dalits have been the certain losers. The M?y? (illusion) of political power as the master key for their emancipation has proved to be a chimera.

Arun Ferreira's illegal arrest and torture is a telling example of the unlawful conduct of the police. While he and a few thus jailed received media attention, there are many who are rotting in jails, accused of being Maoists and tortured. Many of them have denied being Maoists but that is not the point. The Maoists, after all, are responding to the deceit and violence of the state in their chosen way.

Why did the Occupy movement fail to take root in India? The basic reason is that the Indian middle class is so infused with the ideology of the caste system that it can never easily identify itself with the lower strata of society to say that we are the 99.99%.