dalits – Page 6 – free them all

The Importance of Anand Teltumbde’s Thoughts in a Republic of Caste

05/08/2022 Asha

The Wire / by M.S. Sriram

Anyone engaging seriously with Teltumbde’s work will know his beliefs are antithetical to the crimes he is being accused of.
As an email circulates to support a campaign to name Professor Anand Teltumbde in the list of world’s top thinkers to be listed in Prospect magazine, it is time to take note of his important work: Republic of Caste (2018) and put it in perspective. This is more important in the context of the campaign to have a “har ghar tiranga” for the Amrit Mahotsav of Azaadi. If the 75th year of this nation’s freedom cannot be celebrated with a free man and a free mind, the flying of the flag is but symbolic.
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Jailed Or Punished, With Or Without Trial: How The State Misuses The Law Against India’s Inconvenient Citizens

19/07/2022 Asha

Article14 / by Mani Chander

The arrests and continued incarceration of fact-checker Mohammad Zubair, political activist Javed Mohammed and the exoneration of 121 Adivasis accused of terrorism are the latest evidence of how the State adopts extra legal methods of dealing with ‘inconvenient citizens’- including journalists, dissidents, activists or the poorest Indians – to push official narratives of conspiracy and terrorism. The common threads: manipulation or egregious misinterpretation of laws, changing accusations, unknown or untraceable complainants and the abandonment of due process by police and courts.
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Video: Online discussion on Anand Teltumbde – Decoding Strategies of Resistance

15/07/2022 Asha

en | 1h 55min | 2022

By National Campaign to Defend Democracy

July 15, 2022 marks the third birthday that Anand Teltumbde spends in prison.
On the occasion of his birthday, the National Campaign to Defend Democracy organized a discussion about his contributions as an activist, scholar and a public intellectual.

Watch the panel discussion @ PUCL fb page

Your Ideas Have Spread Like Wildfire: A Letter to Anand Teltumbde on His Birthday / His thoughts strive to liberate us

15/07/2022 Asha

‘Your Ideas Have Spread Like Wildfire’: A Letter to Dr Anand Teltumbde on His Birthday

15/07/2022

The Wire / by Suraj Yengde, Balmurli Natrajan, Meena Kandasamy, Sangeeta Kamat and Biju Mathew

“The world is at the brink of not giving up, of refusing, of resisting. You are that world in a world apart who has shown us to not give up.”

Dear Anand,
The din of darkness sprawls, the night sky devours and us – those who love you yearn for the patient past to be with us and skip the present. There is a silence in the lover’s island while the canon of flames has died in a fascist land.
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Republic of Caste: Anand Teltumbde’s thoughts strive to liberate us even as he is in jail

15/07/2022

Scroll.in / by Jean Drèze

His vision of working-class unity with an anti-caste core may or may not be realisable, but it is an important line of argument and action at the very least.
“Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.” This powerful image from Dr Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, published in 1936, still rings true today. That would be obvious enough from the point of view of the oppressed castes, but they are not the only victims of the caste system. India’s entire society, culture and politics are also casualties of it.
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Also read:
● Why Anand Teltumbde Matters – My Birthday Wish To A Caged Bird (YKA / Jul 2022)

Why Anand Teltumbde Matters – My Birthday Wish To A Caged Bird

09/07/2022 Asha

YKA / by Ashwin Narayanan

“I am off to NIA custody and do not know when I shall be able to talk to you again. However, I earnestly hope that you will speak out before your turn comes.”
Two years ago, I read these stinging lines from Professor Anand Teltumbde’s letter (on The Wire’s website) on the eve of his arrest. Prof. Anand is a scholar, writer, civil rights activist and management professor. He is also the grandson-in-law of Dr B. R. Ambedkar. I had never known about Prof. Anand or his history of struggle for the marginalized before reading his letter.
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And Ma died waiting for Surendra

20/06/2022 Asha

Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf

One of Nagpur’s most successful lawyers, Gadling took it upon himself to fight for the rights of Adivasis who were picked up and thrown inside jail after being tagged Maoists. Now he, too, is lodged in jail, without an end of his trial in sight.
There are many ways you could begin the story of lawyer Surendra Gadling, incarcerated in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence. You could, for instance, leap over the events of June 6, 2018, the day he was arrested, to begin the story from June 11.
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Also read:
● And Ma died waiting for Surendra (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

And he waits for Shoma Sen

16/05/2022 Asha

Midday / by Ajaz Ashraf

Falling in love while trying to affect a change in the society, as their hearts beat for adivasis and dalits, the couple has now spent in jail nine out of 31 years of their life together.
I called up Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya, husband of Shoma Sen, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, on May 9, with a request: could he tell me their story—she languishing in jail and he alone outside? He said it was on this day in 1991 that Shoma and he were married.
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Also read:
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday / May 2022)

Video: Songs of Defiance – A Short Documentary on Kabir Kala Manch

18/04/2022 Asha

Video: Dafachya Talavar (Songs of Defiance)

Hindi, Marthi (subtitles: English) | 24:01min | 2022

This short documentary tries to trace the personal and collective journeys of artists of Kabir Kala Manch, a People’s cultural troupe consisting of youth from marginalized backgrounds, who sing songs of resistance in the Vidrohi Shahiri tradition. This film profiles these artists and their lived experiences in the context of an unjust and hostile system they are struggling against.

Watch video

Video Statement by Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor (Sep 5, 2020)

hindi/ english subtitles | 2:20min | 2020
Kabir Kala Manch activists Sagar Gorkhe & Ramesh Gaichor have alleged that they’re being forced by the NIA to give confessional statements, claiming they are a part of Maoist organization. The two refused, and were arrested in The Bhima Koregaon case today. Their statement was recorded on Sep 5, 2020.
Watch their video statement

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

12/09/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

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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Also read:
● Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression (ritimo / April 2022)

Contemporary challenges before the anti-caste movement / Crises in ‘Ambedkarism’ That Merit Deeper Reflection

14/04/2022 Asha

From the vault: Contemporary challenges before the anti-caste movement

14/042022

The Leaflet / by Anand Teltumbde

This is a republication of Dr Teltumbde’s address at an event by The Leaflet on Ambedkar Jayanti in 2019, which we had originally published on April 23, 2019, in which, taking stock of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s anti-caste legacy, he called the anti-caste movement in India dead and reflected on the larger issues being faced by Dalits that are being ignored by the State.
AT the outset, I would like to thank Indira Jaising and the entire team of the Lawyers Collective and The Leaflet for having me here to speak on the eve of the 128th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar.
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Finding Ambedkar: Crises in ‘Ambedkarism’ That Merit Deeper Reflection

14/04/2022

The Wire / by Deepanshu Mohan

Since Ambedkar’s passing, Ambedkarites have been leaving a mark in various arenas, from politics to academia to employees’ organisations and more. Yet, as Anand Teltumbde puts it, “Every Ambedkarite, whether they are conscious of it or not, experiences some crisis.”
… It is beyond the scope of this reflective essay to go into each crisis that Teltumbde discussed in his speech. Rather, I shall take the illustrative case of four of these crises points.
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Also read:
● Dalit leaders condemn Anand Teltumbde’s arrest on 14 April—Ambedkar Jayanti (The Caravan │ April 2020)
● Crisis Of Ambedkarites And Future Challenges (Countercurrents │ by Anand Teltumbde │ April 2011)

Kabir Kala Manch: A History of Revolutionary Singing and State Repression

04/04/2022 Asha

ritimo / by Gurlhosur Geetanjali

Kabir Kala Manch founded in early 2000s has been at the receiving end of the state. As it grew in popularity its members faced incarceration for long years and continued oppression under successive governments.
“I remember it was a rainy day. I was about 23 then. When I heard the group performing in our basti (informal urban cluster), I had goosebumps! I had never heard songs that spoke of the struggles of women, Dalits and the poor. I was enthralled.”
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