The difference in the Hindu ethos amongst those of the older generation versus the present lot is all too evident to see.
Author: Sonalee Hardikar (Sonalee Hardikar)
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The Real Cost of Leather: Chamars, Cow, and Colonialism
The blame for the poverty and hardships faced by communities like Chamars and Mahars in present-day India is placed at the door of the 'caste system' and more specifically, the moral failings of so-called upper-castes (savarnas). A deeper and sincere investigation into the past and present of the global leather industry destroys the carefully crafted myth.
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Are you serious, Dr. Ambedkar?
Reading Ambedkar's works in conjunction with the historical realities of his times provides interesting insights into the mind of the most revered historical figure of contemporary India.
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The Fall and fall of the Shudras
There is an abundance of inscriptional and literary evidence pointing towards the high status of Shudra communities in pre-colonial India. Yet, academicians have never acknowledged, much less revised their erroneous theories to accommodate for the same.
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Caste and the discourse of Casteism
Shudras in pre-colonial India were totally different from how they are seen in the popular imagination of modern India leading to a perverted discourse that looks for solutions to the problems of the marginalised sections of society in the vague past instead of the concrete present.
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The prism of class
Class is a useful lens for understanding caste but it could lead to misleading conclusions that do not account for a plethora of contradictory evidence.
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The shadow of colonialism
The grounds (meta-narratives) that inform the modern notion of caste all stand debunked. Yet caste-based politics seems to be perpetually on the rise.
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Caste: Purusha and Varna
The dominant school of academic scholarship on the caste system makes very serious mistakes in understanding and conveying the meaning of the most fundamental Indic concepts of Purusha and Varna.
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Tilak's sacrifice
How one of the tallest figures of the Indian freedom movement, a champion of the oppressed and a great mobilizer of the masses, is denigrated by scholars for what seem to be petty ideological reasons.
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Caste in stone – Part 1 (Introduction)
Caste politics derives sustenance from centuries of erroneous scholarship that began with the British colonial project in India. The theories so derived have since been challenged by many scholars but the associated myths persist as strongly as ever.