An online petition has been started to help a soldier who has to fend for himself for treatment of paralysis caused by injuries while fighting terrorists during 26/11 Mumbai terror attack NSG commando PV Maneesh, injured and paralysed in a grenade blast during the operation in Hotel Oberoi and subsequently awarded the Shaurya Chakra, has to foot the expenses of his Ayurvedic treatment on his own. The treatment will continue lifelong. He...
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Humour is by no means exempt from prejudice
-The Hindu A petition submitted to Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairperson, NCERT Textbooks Review Committee, by leading Dalit and non-Dalit writers, scholars and activists. When NCERT's Class XI Political Science textbook, Indian Constitution at Work , came to the attention of some Dalit activists, they objected to the manner in which the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had been depicted riding a snail representing the Constitution, with...
More »Ambedkar, NCERT Textbooks and the Protests-Harish Wankhede
The cartoon controversy provides the possibility of interrogating the functioning of the academic system to understand its relationship with the downtrodden masses. A new deliberation is needed in order to make the academic world more sensitive and responsive towards the issues and concerns of the subaltern-oppressed communities. This will be an ethical incentive for the present-day dalit movement in India and can bring greater democratisation to the education system. Harish Wankhede...
More »NCERT book blanks out Ambedkar's role as the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee-Chandra Bhan Prasad
Are Dalits turning intolerant? Are they emotional and scornful to reason? These are some of the questions the Mainstream Media asked, following the controversy over publication of an Ambedkar cartoon in an NCERT book. In the process, a new stereotype on Dalits may have been created. The authors of the NCERT book, 'Indian Constitution at Work,' are amazed at the response of 'emotional-devotional' Dalits. "They have not read the book," and...
More »Bathani Tola and the Cartoon Controversy by Anand Teltumbde
Why has there been such a silence from dalit leaders over the Bathani Tola judgment acquitting all those accused of killing 21 dalits? At the same time, what explains their loud protests over the Ambedkar cartoons in the textbooks? Has the elevation of Ambedkar as an icon relegated the dalit leadership to a politics of empty symbolism? Is the issue of a lack of accountability in the judicial system towards...
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