An ' untouchability fence' that prevented Dalits from using roads in a hamlet near Krishnagiri in western Tamil Nadu was pulled down after it was brought to the notice of the police and revenue authorities. The barbed wire fence put up by non-Dalits around an elementary school at Ittikkal Agaram in Krishnagiri district prevented eight Dalit families of the locality from using an approach road leading out of the village for...

Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh have thrown up many curious phenomena. Everyone involved with the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh seems to love it. Sons, brothers, sons-in-law of MLAs contesting for seats at the village, tehsil or district levels in vast numbers are happy because the vidhayak mahoday is campaigning on their behalf, making full use of the party machinery. Wives and daughters-in-law from ‘influential families' are delighted because their family's...

The city has come to be known as the Detroit of India for its large concentration of automakers, but a series of labour disputes have rocked it, putting a question mark over industrial peace. Car markers such as Hyundai Motor India, German luxury car maker BMW and Ford Motor India besides Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia India have set up their plants on the city outskirts employing more than 23,000 people. As...

The Commonwealth Games were no showcase, but a mirror of India 2010. If they presented anything, it was this — Indian crony, casino capitalism at its most vigorous. The Commonwealth Games over, we can now return to those of everyday Indian life. For all the protests, though, there was nothing in the corruption that marked the Games that does not permeate every town and city, all the time. Just that, in...

Hundreds of Dalits belonging to Chettipulam, a village near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district are planning to embrace Buddhism on December 6, the death anniversary of B R Ambedkar. During September 2009, the CPI(M) had alleged that the Dalits were not being allowed entry into the temple by the villagers. The party organised temple entry agitations twice - on Sep 30,and Oct 14 of that year. On the first occasion, the temple remained...