For reservation benefits to accrue equitably to all people, families that availed themselves of reservation and its benefits should experience a proportionate suppression of their chances the next time they attempt to get reservation, writes Anand Teltumbde.
The recent verdict of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upholding the legality of the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the purpose of reservations has already created an avalanche of reactions, both positive and negative, most groping like the proverbial blind man describing an elephant. Read more
Hindustan Times / by HT News Desk All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) supremo Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday raised his concerns over the future of Muslims, tribals and Dalit people who are being held under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Taking a jibe, the Hyderabad MP said he hoped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would learn something from the Lok Sabha election results, but they poured cold water on his expectation.
… The AIMIM chief further claimed that the stringent law became the reason for the death of 85-year-old Stan Swamy. Swamy, a tribal activist, died in judicial custody in 2021. He was arrested under the UAPA in connection with the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence case. Read more
Artists in Kabir Kala Manch are struggling to earn a living due to state-sponsored censorship
Kabir Kala Manch, a Pune-based protest performance art troupe, has been a target of the State since its inception in 2002. The group propagates the anti-caste and equality ideology of Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar and Marx through songs and street plays.
In 2019, police arrested three members, Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap, in the Bhima Koregaon case for allegedly inciting communalism through songs at Elgar Parishad. Read more / read poem
On July 15, a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar stated that they were not inclined to grant her interim bail. Senior Advocate Mihir Desai (appearing for Jagtap) told the bench that the case erroneously listed for interim bail as she is challenging the order of the Bombay HC refusing to grant her regular bail.
‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ by Ajaz Ashraf: Laying bare Maharashtra’s deep-rooted caste fault lines
11/08/2024
The Tribune India / by Debashish Mukerji
By now, it is manifestly clear that the Bhima Koregaon case, unfolding since 2018, is an indelible blot on India’s democratic record.
…
Two books recalling these shameful developments have been published this year — ‘The Incarcerations’ by Alpa Shah, an anthropology professor at the London School of Economics, and ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ by veteran journalist Ajaz Ashraf. Both are staggeringly well researched; however, while they do inevitably cover much common ground — using interviews with the same people, even quoting from the works of the same experts (such as Paul Brass and Christophe Jaffrelot) — their focuses are somewhat different. Read more
Groundbreaking book, addresses oppression of Dalits, ‘Brahminical’ underpinnings
05/08/2024
Counterview.net / by Harsh Thakor
‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers Of Equality’ is a groundbreaking work addressing the oppression of Dalits and the Brahminical underpinnings of the state. This book compellingly illustrates the perilous consequences faced by those engaged in the struggle against class and caste hierarchies in India, especially since 2014, where any quest for justice and equality is often met with suppression and criminalization. It holds an esteemed place in the literature that confronts proto-fascism and embodies the fury of Brahminism against advocates of equality. Read more
New book investigates Bhima Koregaon—‘riots are manufactured, not spontaneous’
02/08/2024
The Print / by Antara Baruah
There’s no singular account of what happened at Elgar Parishad. In ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, Ajaz Ashraf offers precisely this.
The battle in today’s India is between those dreaming of equality and those upholding Brahminical hierarchy. It is within this context that senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf situates the contentious legacy of Bhima Koregaon as a site and symbol of Dalit liberation in his book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste.
In the book, he discusses the events following Elgar Parishad—held to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon’s 200th anniversary on 31 December 2017—and the wrongful arrest of 16 activists, professors, and journalists, collectively known as BK16. Read more
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration
31/07/2024
The Caravan / by Kaashif Hajee
“The Incarcerations” / “How Long Can The Moon Be Caged” / “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste”
“IT IS ONLY BY CHANCE that I came out of prison alive,” GN Saibaba said, at his first press briefing after his release from Nagpur Central jail on 7 March. The 57-year-old former Delhi University professor also mentioned the inhumane treatment and torture he had faced for nearly ten years in prison. Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound and over ninety-percent handicapped, was confined to the same cell for over eight years and deprived of a wheelchair. Read more
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496 Read more/order
▪ The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners
Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247 Read more / order
An excerpt from ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, by Ajaz Ashraf.
Maharashtrian academic Amarnath Chandaliya founded the Kabir Kala Manch in the wake of the 2002 pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat. The troupe’s avowed mission was to use songs and skits to inoculate the lower classes and castes against the virus of communalism concocted by the votaries of Hindutva, or militant Hindu nationalism. Given the communal-caste linkages, the Kabir Kala Manch subsequently deployed its artistic oeuvre to sensitise its audiences to the oppression and violence built into the Hindu hierarchical social order. Read more
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 Read more/order
Bhide would speak against Gandhi and Nehru, in decidedly abusive language, then switch to raising alarm over the rising population of Muslims. Did they know, he would ask his audience, that infants died of heart attack when loudspeakers came alive with the azan, or the Muslim call to prayer?
…
In Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers Of Equality, journalist Ajaz Ashraf takes a close look at the performances and speeches at the Elgar Parishad in Pune on the eve of the Bhima Koregaon violence. These critiqued Brahminism, prime minister Narendra Modi and the ‘new peshwai’ or new age caste oppressors. It provides a rare glimpse into how a Hindutva leader in Maharashtra used the state’s widespread reverence for Maratha warrior king Shivaji to foment anti-Muslim feelings; and studies the impact that James Laine’s book on Shivaji had on Maharashtra’s anti-Brahmin consciousness. Read more
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496 This book rips apart the Maoist conspiracy theory and the Urban Naxal narrative. It points out the ironies underlying the State’s charges against the sixteen, and the flimsiness of the evidence that is said to have been planted on their hacked computers. The conspiracy against the sixteen that inflicted untold miseries on their families is retold here in their voices. Read more/order
by Deepak Kumar / @rencho79130 (Jul 28):
End 4 Years Wrongful Incarceration in Bhima Koregaon case.
Release Professor Hany Babu Immediately
#Bhimakoregaon #bk16 #SupremeCourtOfIndia
by The Polis Project / @project_polis (Jul 28):
Actor, poet, and writer Danish Husain ( @DanHusain ) reads a poignant poem “For Sachidanandan” written by Professor Dr. Hany Babu, one of the prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.
Today, 28 July 2024, marks four years of his incarceration under the draconian UAPA Watch video
Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial
28/07/2024
Maktoob / by Maktoob Staff
Delhi University professor and noted academic Dr. Hany Babu, who is one of the UAPA prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, completed four years of incarceration on Sunday, 28 July, 2024.
On 28 July, 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Babu, an anti-caste activist and a staunch proponent of social justice. Read more
Shah traces the trajectories of cartoonists, poets, writers, Jesuit priests, grassroots activists and English educators arrested under the UAPA law.
June 4 was a significant day for India. After ten years of unfettered access to power, the Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority mandate, leading to another era of coalition politics. Liberal critics of the party published long articles on the scent of the renewed hope wafting over the country. The voters have spoken – they will not hand over custody of our nation’s values to one person or party. Read more
▪ The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
▪ Book Excerpt: The story of an ‘Urban Naxal’ (Deccan Herald | by Alpa Shah | April 2024 )
The Print / by Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
In ‘How Long Can The Moon Be Caged’, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia look at present-day India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people don’t encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed.’ Read more
How Long Can the Moon Be Caged?
Voices of Indian Political Prisoners
Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247 A powerful look at authoritarian India through the experiences of political prisoners
How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, by student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020, and by activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities. Read more / order
