Columnists

Suraj Yengde

This writer is with the department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

It’s time India paid reparations to its Dalits

Sun, Jul 26, 2020

The constitutional promises through reservations and land reforms were one of the few ways for us to get together. But these remain hotly contested. Reparation is one of the most viable ways to secure justice for all.

As we debate Floyd and systemic prejudice, the power and need for such a moral force couldn’t be more relevant today

Sun, Jun 28, 2020

Sometimes, it is the moral force that draws attention to it. This moral force helped India win its independence from British brutality.

Dalitality: Labour laws and the muffled voices of 93%

Sun, May 31, 2020

Labour laws are a conglomeration of close to 250 Central and state laws that grant protection to the labourer by regulating fair wages, conditions of work, overtime, leave, and social securities through employment security.

State attacks Dalits via anti-Left rhetoric, as directly attacking them would cost it heavily

Sun, May 03, 2020

Dalit and Adivasi social and political movements need to consider waging a struggle against the draconian laws primarily aimed at penalising them.

What makes injustice to migrant workers more acute is the fact that many of them are Dalits

Sun, Apr 05, 2020

Unlike China and South Korea, India had the advantage of time and lessons from other countries to prepare. But, even as the pandemic was building up, it was caught up in the machinations in Madhya Pradesh.

Delhi pogrom is an attempt to divert attention from government’s failures

Sun, Mar 08, 2020

The Delhi anti-Muslim pogrom is a collective failure of the liberals and radicals who ferry to occasional protests.

Ambedkar’s desires are yet to be fulfilled as Dalits continue to live his worst fears

Sun, Feb 09, 2020

India is a Brahminical State, notwitstanding its secular nature. The entire system favours the twice-born savarnas, mostly Brahmins who occupy the highest position by default in all the major sectors, controlling wealth and power.

Caste in a green room: A fictionalised account

Sun, Jan 12, 2020

Cheerfully acknowledging the intrusion of a world-renowned journalist, Devika invites him for a talk. The cameras flash as she takes him to the green room behind the stage...

Dalitality: Hindu, Muslim, and the nonsense of it

Sun, Dec 15, 2019

The Hindu-Muslimisation of India’s past and present falls well into the trap of Brahminical rhetoric of theocratic nationalism that wants the world, and Indians in particular, to believe in this dichotomy and not about the grand legacy of Buddhism and the internal violence of caste.

Dalitality: In India love is not free. It is strictly put in chains, bound for generations

Sun, Nov 17, 2019

This world is so beautiful that one who is privileged to have such childhood often wants to live in it. The child wants to freeze the time zone of that journey. However, as soon as it notices the child living in her wildest imagination of possibilities, society seizes this from her.

Dalitality: How Kanshiram’s politics took shape as cultural activism, angled its fate

Sun, Oct 20, 2019

Untouchable India refused to fit into the Brahminical story-writing samples of magazines. It challenged the nationalist narratives and asked the Dalits to self-examine their subordinate slave status in society.

Creation and innovation sit at the crux of Dalits’ secret to survival

Sun, Sep 22, 2019

Taking a stab at his first ever journalistic piece, Babasaheb Ambedkar lamented the recklessness of newspapers in manhandling Dalit issues.

Raja Dhale’s words and work stirred sleeping souls, gave expression to simmering Dalit anger

Thu, Jul 18, 2019

Dhale’s early Dalit Panthers phase is nectar for the contemporary radical Dalit consciousness. In spite of the voluminous contribution, Panthers like Dhale and others could not get a chance to personally connect with other revolutionaries like the Black Panthers or the global workers’ movement in their lifetime.

Why we need Dalit

Thu, Sep 06, 2018

The term seeks to change structures of oppression, rather than adjust to them

Perils of Gandhiplomacy

Sat, Oct 01, 2016

Why there are protests against Gandhi’s statue in Ghana University

Express Blogs

Casteist India is becoming for Dalits what Western Europe was for Jews

Wed, Jan 20, 2016

Rohith’s death has highlighted social injustices of Dalit students. It is an epochal moment where #DalitLivesMatter becomes a priority and #CasteMustFall reiterates our commitment to the Indian constitution