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The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Seven and Eight

The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Seven and Eight


VV with wife Hemalatha and the author

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed. Today’s Telangana wouldn’t have been what it is without him. I have written and spoken about him and his poetry in the past, but now he is on the deathbed, in a faraway hospital, being subjected to retributive torture by the powers that be. Now, with a never-before urgency, I want to speak and write about him, through an interminable torrent of words.
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An activist poet challenges official narratives: A profile of Sudhir Dhawale

An activist poet challenges official narratives: A profile of Sudhir Dhawale

The Polis Project / by the Polis Project and maraa

Born to a Dalit family in the slums of Indora, an Ambedkarite hub in Nagpur, fifty-four-year-old Sudhir Dhawale is an activist, editor, and writer.
While the 2002 Gujarat riots led him to launch his radical bi-monthly magazine “Vidrohi”, in 2006 he started a cultural-political organization called “Ramabai Nagar-Khairlanji Hatyaakand Virodhi Sangarsh Samiti” following the murder of four persons from a family in Khairlanji in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra… His magazine, though produced on a small scale, was potent enough to rouse the ire of the establishment. Dhawale was a key planner of the Elgaar Parishad.
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Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

The crushing power of street performances from the margins:
A profile of Kabir Kala Manch’s Sagar Gorkhe, Jyoti Jagtap and Ramesh Gaichor

02/09/2021

By The Polis Project and maraa

Kabir Kala Manch
Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) is an urban grass-roots performance group at the helm of a socio-political movement rooted in cultural struggles of the most marginalized communities in India. KKM was formed by working-class youth from low-income Dalit and Bahujan caste communities in Pune as a response to the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat. Drawing inspiration from India’s legacy of dissent – from Kabir and Sant Tukoba (Tukaram) to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Jyotiba and Savitri Phule, Bhagat Singh, Annubhai Sathe and contemporary cultural activists such as Sambhaji Bhagat and Vilas Goghre – KKM write and perform Marathi and Hindi songs and street plays in the language of India’s laboring people.
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Who are the three Kabir Kala Manch artistes arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case this week?

12/09/2020

Scroll.in / by Aarefa Johari

The National Investigation Agency arrested Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap from Pune on Monday and Tuesday.
In 2002, as a 19-year-old student in Pune’s Wadia College, Ramesh Gaichor was disturbed by the deadly communal violence in Gujarat that had claimed over 1,000 lives. Passionate about poetry and theatre, he soon found an outlet for expressing his anxieties: the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural organisation founded by artiste Amarnath Chautaliya in response to the Gujarat riots.
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When contesting repressive laws makes you a dangerous citizen: a profile of Rona Wilson

When contesting repressive laws makes you a dangerous citizen: a profile of Rona Wilson

The Polis Project / by The Polis Project and maraa

Rona Wilson, a forty-seven-year-old activist from Kollam district in Kerala, has made Delhi his second home since the late 1990s. Having come to the capital during his post-graduation, Wilson almost immediately took to activism.
Rona Wilson is a member of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), which has campaigned against the UAPA and other repressive laws.
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Bombay HC Directs State & University To Pay Rs 5 Lakhs Each To Shoma Sen [Read Order]

Bombay HC Directs State & University To Pay Rs 5 Lakhs Each To Shoma Sen [Read Order]


Drawing by Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

Live Law / by Nitish Kashyap

The Bombay High Court last Friday directed Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University and the State Government to pay Rs.5 lakh each to former Head Of Post Graduate Department Of English at Nagpur University Professor (retired) Shoma Sen towards payment of gratuity, which was withheld after Sen’s arrest in the Bhima Koregaon violence case in June 2018, a month before her retirement.
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The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Four & Five

The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Four & Five


Solidarity poster by PSO (Sep 2020)

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed … Here, I will attempt to paint the 80 years of his life in seven angles – a rainbow of seven colours that characterise him – a creative writer, teacher, editor, organiser, activist, and lastly, a victim of the state, yet a humane individual.
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Ludwig Lewisohn’s 1927 Book Has Lessons for Indian Minorities Today: A Review From Jail

Ludwig Lewisohn’s 1927 Book Has Lessons for Indian Minorities Today: A Review From Jail

The Wire / by Sudha Bharadwaj

An exploration of Jewishness written long before the Holocaust shows how fraternity and solidarity are required to overcome majoritarianism and fascism.
A month ago, Sudha Bharadwaj wrote the following review by hand in Mumbai’s Byculla Jail. While her friends and family typed the text for possible publication, Bharadwaj was diagnosed with a heart disease. As she remains incarcerated in an overcrowded prison on the basis of contentious charges for her alleged involvement in the Elgar Parishad case, appeals for her bail are ongoing.
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Incarcerated, ‘erudite’ scholar Rona Wilson worked for release of political prisoners

Incarcerated, ‘erudite’ scholar Rona Wilson worked for release of political prisoners

Counterview / by Atul, Sandeep Pandey

Rona Wilson is a prison rights activist who has been in jail since April 2018 and denied bail several times. The Pune Police raided his home in Delhi on April 17, 2018, and arrested him subsequently for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence in January that year. A few months later, the agencies also accused him of being part of a larger naxal plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a Rajeev Gandhi style and overthrow the current government.
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The Sudha Bharadwaj the Govt Doesn’t Want You To Know

The Sudha Bharadwaj the Govt Doesn’t Want You To Know


Pic by www.karinscheidegger.ch

Article 14 / by Chitrangada Choudhury

India’s National Investigative Agency describes her as the shadowy leader of the banned Maoist party, smuggling arms, planting booby traps and guiding strategy on armed operations. That contrasts sharply with her life of public service among some of India’s most exploited people.
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Why the State Fears My Friend, Sudha Bharadwaj

28/08/2020

The Wire / by Smita Gupta

They cannot fight her in court, so they are calling her a Maoist. They don’t have any real evidence against her, so they are converting the process itself into punishment.
Exactly two years ago, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case.
It is very painful for me to read about her declining health and the several serious ailments she has been suffering from during her imprisonment – heart disease, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, depression. Even after two years, she has been denied bail and is being held without a trial.
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‘Maa chose to serve her people. Is that anti-national?’ Sudha Bharadwaj’s daughter

28/08/2020


Maaysha and Sudha Bharadwaj

The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal

Daughter pens heartfelt note as Sudha Bharadwaj completes two years in prison.
Noted human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested by the Pune police from her residence in Faridabad in August 2018 in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
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The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Two & Three

The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Two & Three


Pic: Rao with K Balagopal, Gaddar, and Vangapandu / ICF

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed. Today’s Telangana wouldn’t have been what it is without him. I have written and spoken about him and his poetry in the past, but now he is on the deathbed, in a faraway hospital, being subjected to retributive torture by the powers that be. Now, with a never-before urgency, I want to speak and write about him, through an interminable torrent of words.
Read more