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Today’s ‪#‎dalithistory‬ month post is on the Adi-movements of the 1920’s and 30s. For Dalit history, ‘Adi’ ideologies are highly significant as they bear testament to some of our earliest assertion of equal rights, humanity and citizenship on level with other castes.

By the late 19th century, leaders like the social reformer Jyotirao Phule, had created a powerful anti-caste space, upholding non-Brahmanical thought and presenting the dream of a new egalitarian value system on which to model society on. Soon after, the early 20th century saw several archeological discoveries being made in Mohenjodaro and Harappa in the North, pointing to the existence of an unexpectedly ancient civilization that was likely much older than Aryan migrations. These discoveries struck a profound chord with Dalits all over the subcontinent, who immediately began to identify as an indigenous population who were conquered and subsequently oppressed by an alien religion. Although, the evidence for Aryan conquests remains contested, these interpretation was so compelling that such “Adi” (Ancient/Old/Original) movements sprung up all over the nation completely independently of each other.  

The names of these movements are telling -  Ad-Dharm in Punjab, Adi-Hindu in U.P. and Hyderabad, Adi-Dravida, Adi-Andhra and Adi-Karnataka in South India - all indicating a common claim to nativity and original inhabitation.

The provocative effects of the Adi-movements are best illustrated by an early Maharashtrian pre-Ambedkar Dalit leader, Kisan Faguji Bansode, who warned his caste-Hindu friends in 1909, stating: “The Aryans - your ancestors - conquered us and gave us unbearable harassment. At that time we were your conquest, you treated us worse than slaves and subjected us to any torture you wanted. But now we are no longer your subjects, we have no service relationship with you, we are not your slaves or serfs… We have had enough of the harassment and torture of the Hindus.”

In Andhra, the process was accelerated by the commercialized coastal areas that produced both a mobile Dalit agricultural class and a small educated section that produced leaders Bhagyareddy Varma and Arigyay Ramswamy who managed to mobilize nearly a third of the Malas and Madigas of the Madras Presidency to state their identity in the official census of 1931 as Adi-Andhra.

In Tamil Nadu, some Dalits identified themselves as Adi-Dravidas while Telugu and Kannada counterparts also identified as Adi-Hindu or Adi-Karnataka. In the north, in Uttar Pradesh, an untouchable ascetic, who radically called himself Acchutananda, began to organize an Adi-Hindu identity, arguing, “The untouchables, are in fact Adi-Hindu, i.e. the original and autochthonous Nagas or Dasas of the north and the Dravidas of the south, the undisputed, heavenly owners of Bharat.”

In Punjab, Mangoo Ram Mugowalia, a Dalit who had left the Gaddar movement, unable to stand the Casteism within it, began the Ad-Dharmi movement. By 1926, he had influenced a huge number of Dalits to boldly register themselves a separate “quaum” (religious group) in Hoshiarpur despite the threat of imminent violence. By the 1931 census, nearly 500,000 Dalits registered themselves as Ad-Dharmis all over Punjab.

To counter a growing ‘Adi’ consensus, Brahmins began actively renaming Dalits, ‘Panchama’ (the Fifth). Gandhi used it in his Young India for a long time. Many Dalits of the day strongly pushed back against the term insisting the idea of ‘Panchama’ was derogatory and only served to attenuate the age-long hyper-oppressive framework of Hindu society and solidify their position outside the caste order.

Found this on internet :D I don’t know the original source.

Muslims, dalits and tribals make up 53% of all prisoners in India - The Times of India

Muslims, dalits and adivasis — three of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society — make up more than half of India’s prison population, according to an official report.

“Poverty is more prevalent among these three communities and that becomes an obstacle in dealing with the legal system,” said Colin Gonsalves, human rights activist and lawyer.

“Our system has an ingrained communal and casteist bias. Also, the proportion of these communities in the police officers and even judiciary is less. These are key factors behind this shocking imbalance,” he added.

What’s problematic with this caste-is-dead narrative is that not only is it incorrect and untrue but also that it benefits the savarna in ways that keep the social stratification intact. By denying the current impact of caste on the Dalit’s access to resources, the savarna uses his/her caste privilege to compete for the same set of resources while justifying his/her resentment for affirmative action policies. In so doing, the savarna leverages the widely popular anti-government stand to criticise reservation schemes but continues to reap the benefits his/her caste privilege offers him - social mobility; access to education, healthcare, and career opportunities; possession of ancestral land, property and wealth; trans-national networks and partnerships; and the ease of social acceptance for his/her lifestyle, choices, behaviour and relationships. The savarna, in effect, looks as if s/he is liberal and modern - liberal enough to criticize the state, and modern enough to not believe in the caste system. But if the savarna is indeed that modern, should we not expect him to remove the sacred thread, or not speak in a dialect that gives his/her caste away, or not be particular about marrying into the same caste, or say no to caste-based rituals and festivals? If indeed s/he is that liberal, isn’t it only logical that we expect him/her to shame the state for not addressing caste-based atrocities, or not display selective outrage for only terrorist attacks and animal torture, and show action-oriented solidarity with anti-caste movements? Shouldn’t the savarna demonstrate his/her newly discovered modern identity, which s/he claims is very different from his/her conservative parents, in ways that are more credible and believable? And more importantly, should we not expect the savarna, especially the one who wears the progressive and politicized label, to primarily question his/her privilege and his/her family’s on account of being dominant caste? Most often, the savarna, regardless of his/her social labels, does not feel the need to live up to any of the above expectations; s/he believes his caste privilege also offers him immunity from all kinds of criticism. S/He is at liberty to pick and choose aspects of his identity and lead a lifestyle that is under no compulsion to corroborate his cover story. His/Her privilege allows him to practice caste under the guise of ‘cultural roots’.

Christina Thomas Dhanaraj, “Caste, Friendship, and Solidarity” (via asianamericanfeminisms)

A selection of reads centered around feminism, written by women of color for women of color.

“Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression” (from Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center)

Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics

Feminist Class Struggle

“Feminism and Class Politics”, a specific chapter from the book here.

The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.

Understanding Patriarchy

Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black

Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace.

“Romance: Sweet Love” (from Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, 4th Ed. By S. Shaw and J. Lee)

Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism - Trinh T. Minh-Ha

”Lynching, Empire, and Sexuality in Black Feminist Theory“ -Hazel V. Carby

”Transnational Feminist Pedagogy: An Interview with Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan“

”Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses“ by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

”Feminist Problematizations of Rights Language“ by Jasbir Puar and Isabelle Barker

Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures by M. Jacqui Alexander & Chandra Talpade Mohanty

”The Subject of Freedom“ by Saba Mahmood

The Spivak Reader

Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa

”Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: The Contest in India“ by Partha Chatterjee

”Can the Subaltern Speak?“ Gayatri Spivak

The Politics of the Veil - Joan W. Scott

”Decolonizing Feminism: Challenging Connections between Settler Colonialism and Heteropatriarchy“ by Maile Arvin, Eve Tuck, and Angie Morrill

”Native American Feminism, Sovereignty, and Social Change“ by Andrea Smith

Read on Trascender Magazine

Source: Wasted in Engineering : Story of India's Youth Sharing thoughts of the writer: \\\\‘If you study engineering, you will have a good future.’ This is a claim often repeated to children and teenagers by parents and teachers in many parts of India. But only those who have gone through an engineering college life know that it’s not completely true.

There is a difference between calling yourself as an engineering graduate and an engineer. India produces millions of engineering graduates like you and me but only very few of us are actual engineers. Many of us just graduate with an engineering degree, with an artistic dream in mind.

What do you think is the difference between engineers in many countries around the world and engineers from India? In other countries, if David Pascal studied electrical engineering in college, few years later you can find him working as an electrical engineer. In India, if Ram Krishnamurthy studied electrical engineering, few years later you can find him working in a completely irrelevant field like software coding, banking, photography and even movie directing.

This book is not about the few engineering students in your class who love engineering. I don’t hate them. In fact, I am very jealous that they study what they love. This book is about the majority of engineering graduates whose lives are wasted in engineering and is intended to tell you why you should make an attempt in pursuing your real passion, instead of being suffocated under the weight of an engineering degree.

This is a story of India’s Youth. Welcome to India, the land of Wasted Engineers.///

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To buy the book 'Wasted in Engineering', use the link http://goo.gl/Ia7l7zfor Amazon and http://goo.gl/a29ph8 for Flipkart.

Black on Black

The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato. Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies

Source:Women Without Religion

There’s even more evidence that Europa could hold life

Jupiter’s moon Europa likely holds a huge, salty ocean beneath its frozen shell — and according to a new study, it may be more like our own oceans on Earth than anyone expected. What that means for the chances of life there.

Follow @the-future-now​

road

A Beautiful Railway Track <3

Untitled by Stanley Huang

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