As cartoons, like all other images, are constantly subject to fresh interpretation, there is a need to set boundaries within which dissent must be tolerated; or else we run the risk of damaging the task of knowledge building Like many books, works of art, and articles that have been summarily withdrawn from public circulation, for different political reasons, and due to public pressure, the controversial 1949 cartoon by Shankar has been...

-The Times of India The Ambedkar-Nehru cartoon controversy has drawn contrasting views from political analysts and social scientists. Dalit intellectuals feel the cartoon is demeaning to Dr Ambedkar. Others believe the controversy is needless, with one commentator saying it smacks of "psephocracy", a system where electoral politics and priorities drive decision-making. Says social scientist Ashis Nandy, "The controversy indicates that though the process of democratization has taken place, democratic values have not...

A campaign to help the elderly spend the evening of their lives with dignity and without want is being launched by Pension Parishad with a dharna in Delhi from May 7th to May 11th 2012 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The idea is straight and simple, and is something whose time has come. Just read on and reach the venue for more information and interviews with the campaign participants.   “One...

-The Hindu The acquittal of 23 people convicted by a lower court in the gruesome Bathani Tola massacre case is a shocking indictment of the country's criminal justice system. The mass murder of a group of 21 Dalits and Muslims, most of them women and children, by the notorious caste militia, the Ranvir Sena, took place in Bihar's Bhojpur district in 1996 in broad daylight. The basic facts about the ghastly...

The National Advisory Council will ask the Centre to focus the ongoing socio-economic caste census on enumerating and classifying denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, or DNTs. The plan is to give these groups priority while issuing unique identity cards and introducing laws that will grant them explicit recognition on the lines of the 1992 statute on minorities. The NAC said special directives must be issued to the housing and urban poverty alleviation...