Men from subaltern communities must confront the violence that tears apart some of their homes and families The two books under review are quite dissimilar in what they set out to do. Dalit Women Speak Out comprises a detailed review of a set of related studies carried out in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on the violence endured by Dalit women. It revisits the notion of ‘atrocity' both...

-Daily Bhaskar Bhopal: A dozen men from Kushwaha community chopped off the tongue of a dalit youth just because they didn't like the 'temerity' of a Jatav vrooming on bike fast in front of them. The gory crime occurred in Jaitpur Square under Narwar police station of Shivpuri on Monday. Prakash Jatat ( 31) was admitted to a government hospital where his condition is stable. Eyewitnesses say Jatav was on bike...

-The Economic Times Kulvinder Gill, professor of breeding and genetics at the Washington State University in the US, describes himself as a dreamer and an optimist. One of his dreams is to make sure food production does not decline over the next few decades, when increasing temperatures act on the yields of major crops. Specifically, he is beginning a project with six other organisations in India to make wheat less sensitive to...

Mention crime, and murder and rape are the first to strike the mind. But there is another crime that arguably causes similar trauma, yet goes almost unnoticed: abduction.  The felony rose by 77% in six years, from 23,991 in 2006 to 42,580 in 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In comparison, murders remained around the 34,000 mark in the corresponding period and rapes rose by 24% (from 19,348...

Jamshedpur, June 10: For a people who have clung to next-door Bengal for healthcare for years, setting up a self-run school — English medium, no less — may well be just another way out of elusive state welfare measures. The 700-odd population of 19 villages that make up Gopalpur panchayat, 80km from Jamshedpur in East Singhbhum’s rebel-hit Baharagora block, have made up its mind to do just that. The primary schools, at...