Dr.Ambedkar on Nation: What Dr.Ambedkar warns is about forming India into a nation. While submitting the Constitution he had said about his concept of Nation’
Jotirao Phule: The Mahatma who identified with the exploited farmer
In 1882, Jotirao Phule began touring the rural areas outside Pune, getting to know firsthand the plight of the kunbi cultivators, addressing large gatherings and organizing a boycott of Brahmins and moneylenders. The speeches that he wrote for these gatherings later became ‘Cultivator’s Whipcord’
If Mahatma Jotirao Phule were alive today, he would wholeheartedly support the farmers’ protest and tell the Supreme Court, hearing the petitions challenging the validity of reservations for Marathas, “Well, all Marathi-speaking people from Mahars to Brahmans are known as Marathas. It is not possible to locate anybody’s caste if only the term Maratha is used.” That was Phule’s reply when a Maratha-kunbi introduced himself as a Maratha.
Our battle for love must be militantly waged – and beautifully won: Arundhati Roy
The text of Arundhati Roy’s speech at the Elgar Parishad 2021, Pune on January 30.
By News Desk| Published: 31st January 2021 11:05 am IST Courtesy Muslim Mirror
By Arundhati Roy
I thank the organisers of the 2021 Elgar Parishad for inviting me to speak at this forum to mark what would have been Rohit Vemula’s 32nd birthday and the 1818 victory of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. Not far from here, Mahar troops fighting in the British Army defeated the Peshwa King Bajirao II under whom Mahars and other Dalit castes were cruelly persecuted and ritually debased in indescribable ways.
Dibyangshu Sarkar/ AFP
I thank the organisers of the 2021 Elgar Parishad for inviting me to speak at this forum to mark what would have been Rohit Vemula’s 32nd birthday and the 1818 victory of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. Not far from here, Mahar troops fighting in the British Army defeated the Peshwa King Bajirao II under whom Mahars and other Dalit castes were cruelly persecuted and ritually debased in indescribable ways.
From this platform let me join the other speakers to express my solidarity with the farmers protest that is calling for the immediate withdrawal of the three Farm Bills that have been rammed down the throats of millions of farmers and farm workers and brought them onto the streets. We are here to express our sorrow and anger for the many who have died during the course of the protest. The situation on Delhi’s borders where the farmers have been peacefully camping for two months is becoming tense and dangerous. Every possible trick and provocation is be