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.
Margin Speak
Ten years after the killings in Gujarat, Narendra Modi has neither expressed regret nor has he been held accountable for those mass deaths. Where do we go from here?
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...
The occupation of the Indu Mills near Chaityabhoomi in Mumbai by dalit youth demanding that an Ambedkar memorial should come up there is a heartening development. In neo-liberal India, dalits are a...
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...
The killing of six dalits at Paramakudi, 35 km from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, as a result of police firing and brutality on 11 September 2011 can be ascribed to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's bid...
Will the removal of the "forward" scheduled castes from the list of SC reservations benefit the "backward" SCs?
What has been the impact of reservations for women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in panchayati raj institutions? In case the reserved seat is for a woman, it is usually the wife or daughter-...
The Maharashtra government has renounced its freeship scheme for students belonging to the ranks of the oppressed and has thereby jeopardised the future of 13 lakh students. Their parents and the...
How the State has responded to the fasts of Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and Medha Patkar and how the media has portrayed them are a study in contrasts and say something about our society.
Operation Geronimo evoked the most farcical reactions in India. Besides approvingly endorsing US imperial arrogance, the media also began advocating that India should carry out similar surgical...
The mobilisation of nationwide opinion against the "scam a day" kind of corruption is a great feat, but to think of it as a solution, actual or potential, is to trivialise the issue. The rising...
It was heartening to witness dalits in Saurashtra, deprived of the use of land that was de jure theirs, marching to take possession of it. One was reminded of an event in Mahad on 20 March 1927 when...
What does one make of the tiny section of dalits propagating dalit capitalism?
With the arrest of Sudhir Dhawale, the well-known dalit social activist and editor of Vidrohi, another Binayak Sen has emerged, charged with sedition and declaring war against the Indian state.
