Rohith Vemula’s ‘suicide’ is not the desperate reaction of a despairing victim to casteist atrocities. For the same reason, and contrary to what many might imagine, Vemula’s ‘suicide’ has nothing to do with anomie-bred existential nihilism. Rather, it is an act of revolutionary affirmation
Category: Commentary
SO WHO WILL MAKE CHANA FOR US?
BIHARI?
WHO WILL CLEAN UP OUR MESS?
BANGLADESHI?
WHO WILL RUN OUR SHOP?
PUNJABI?
WHO WILL SEND SUPPLIES?
MARWARI?
For those who are using Rohith’s letter to simplistically assert that he died due to “personal problems,” sit up and open your eyes, ears, and mind to what is being said and what is not being said in this letter. Read between the lines, in the loops of his “y”s and “g”s and in the indented spaces separating his neat paragraphs.
“Please serve 10mg Sodium Azide to all the Dalit students at the time of admission. With direction to use when they feel like reading Ambedkar.”
ROHITH VEMULA’s letter of 18/12/2015 to the Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad Central University
The vibrance of the streets of Shillong can be overwhelming, especially on a crowded public holiday, or even just rush hour on weekdays when the colleges are at their peaks of attendance levels. A few steps away from the bustling centers however, and you are transported to a different world, where houses snuggle together in the dying sun and lanes disappear and reappear on the curves of hills.
(for Rohith Vemula) they pushed you to the edge of their village but, you broke into the cellars of their Agrahaaras they sealed your lips…
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
It is a well known fact that people have been threatened of being kicked out of the balang if they were to take part in festivals of other groups. The word ‘blei thaw’ is quite familiar to us with the degrading connotation it carries. So we already have people in our state who have developed their own version of the ideology of ‘incompatibility of differences’; given the right motivation they could very soon take the next step, i.e., violence (not in thought but in actual deed)
A few days ago, I found myself among 50 odd listeners, soaking in the field recordings, narrative-snippets, perceptions and emotional responses of singer-songwriter Moushumi Bhowmik…
It is now only a matter of months until the Rio Olympics, an event inevitably wrapped up in the glamour of that most festive of world cities. The reality, however, is rather less glossy. Indeed, behind the fanfare, some of the city’s poorest people, many living in Rio’s notorious favelas, are being uprooted to make way for the games.
R.I.P DAVID BOWIE
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Essay presents the critique of perspective on gender and patriarchy of the revolutionary movement in India that comprises numerous mass organizations and movements across the country that follow Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology.
There has to be a systematic overhaul of public health delivery system in Meghalaya with health rights at the core of such a structural change. Accountability and transparency is an important structural change that requires immediate attention if the health sector is to improved.
With all the paeans being sung about Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, this calling into account by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) is a much needed corrective.
I don’t want a Bible without errors and historical inaccuracies, without contradictions and inconsistencies. Thank God for them! They are good news. They are the very things that make Scripture meaningful and compelling.
Not all is right in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the Indian Union. Some old British-rule era habits die hard
In light of all the hatred, directed towards hawkers and other people of the street, I want to stand up and publicly cheer for them.
Whenever a major earthquake is in the news, you’ll probably hear about its Richter scale rating. You might also hear about its Mercalli Scale rating,…
Allowing a private entity
– to define for Indian Internet users what is “basic”,
– to control what content costs how much, and
– to have access to the personal content created and used by millions of Indians
is a lethal combination which will lead to total lack of freedom on how Indians can use their own public utility
Ia ka History ngi pule ym tang kum ka jingiathuh khana, hynrei ngi dei ruh ban pynshai shynna (interpret) ia ki jingjia history na kawei ka pateng sha kawei pat. Ki jingjia ha ka history ym dei ba ki iathuh ne kdew tang shaphang ka mynnor, khamtam eh ka History ka don ruh ban hikai bad pyrsad mynsiem thymmai ia ka mynta. Ka Raiot ka kynmaw burom ia U Kiang Nangbah kum u riewpaidbah bad u riewiakhun na ka bynta ki khun ki hajar bad ki nongshong shnong jong ka Hima Sutnga
The decision of the Bombay High Court decision refusing bail to Professor GN Saibaba and issuing a contempt notice to Arundhati Roy requires a critical appraisal
Security personals sexually harassed and assaulted more that 40 women and gang-raped at least two during an anti-Maoists operation in the villages of Pegdapalli, Chinnagellur, Peddagellur, Burgicheru, and Gundam in Bijapur, South Chhattisgarh between October 20 and October 24, 2015.
Lots of people ask us what raiot webzine is about? Rather than give an answer, we give you a reading list of our 20 popular (not the best) posts. If this does not explain what we are about, nothing else will.
Using modern-day forensic techniques, retired medical artist Richard Neave has reconstructed the face of ‘Jesus’ by studying Semite skulls.
Hasn’t he grown up? Christmas reminds us the startling fact that he has moved from the infant to the man of Nazareth. Are we still stuck on his infancy? It demands a commitment from our part to grow up to the man of Nazareth
Kiba iaidkai ne leit thied jingthied sha Khyndai Lad ha ka 21 Nohprah 2015 ki iohi ia ka Risa Lehkmen Khristmas ba la pynlong da ka Seng ki Nongtrei-Nongbylla, ka Nazareth Hospital Workers Union, ha ryngkat ka jingiasnoh kti lang ka Thma U Rangli-Juki, Ka Domestic Workers Association, Ka All India Trade Union Congress bad kiwei de ki kynhun ne ki riewshimet, kaba kynthup ruh ia ki nongrwai, ki kaitor, ki kynhun shad kiba la ai ka jingkyrshan kaba pura bad pynlong ia ka Risa Lehkmen kaba don jingmut.
Amar Kanwar began as a documentary filmmaker, later expanding his practice to multi-channel video installation. While he works strictly with documentary and archival images, Kanwar employs various methods of editing and presentation to exceed their immediate facticity, conjuring atmosphere, underlying motives, and furtive histories. This is a (re)viewing diary of Amar’s latest work The Sovereign Forest
On the evening of 19th November at Bethany Society, Shillong a momentous and unprecedented, if not historic event occurred. Those who congregated there witnessed the…
The film is partly based on a novel titled Lockup by an auto driver Chandrakumar based on his own experience as a 17-year-old labourer in an Andhra police station and the second part of the film is based on a record of everyday policing events.
I remember a time back when I was in Catholic school; I was speaking in my mother’s language, Khasi during break time. A teacher walked…
Scientists say nuclear workers, village residents, and children living near Uranium mines and factories in Jadugoda of Jharkhand are falling ill after persistent exposure to unsafe radiation
Up in the North-East, the Guwahati franchise already belongs to NorthEast United. And since Shillong Lajong have separated from the John Abraham-owned team, they became the front-runner for getting the Shillong franchise thanks to influence and money-power. That’s why Wahingdoh pulled out. They waited till November to do it so that AIFF don’t get to spin their withdrawal as “failing to meet licensing requirements” as they did with Pune FC and Bharat FC. They wanted it to be known loud and clear that they were walking out of the I-League as a protest;
Nepal is a land-locked nation. It is disproportionately dependent and ‘close’ to the Indian Union due to its geographical location and the presence of the Himalayas that, for now, limits smooth connectivity between Nepal and China. Delhi’s influence on Nepal is largely borne out of this unfortunate geography – an influence that sometimes is no different from political blackmail.
In most societies the acts of religious conversion do ruffle the feathers of those who take the task of policing group boundaries zealously. In India too the issue of proselytization has been a matter of immense anxiety for the majoritarian groups belonging to Hindu religion
ISIS fuels Islamophobia and leads to alienation of Muslims in many countries. As a result ISIS also capitalizes on the alienation of these disillusioned Muslims and easily recruits them.
The decay of traditional and ritualistic Hinduism is the reaping field of Sri Sri Ravishankar’s philosophy business. Ravishankar offers the Upper Middle Class and the wealthy an expectation that he will provide the balm for the frustrations in their lives. But what they get is a method of breathing and a manner of laughter wrapped in fake philosophy, marketed with a vengeance
Recently, Royal Wahingdoh – a Shillong-based football club of some repute – formally announced that they would be pulling out of the I-League, an All India Football Federation (AIFF) promoted initiative. This came as a rude shock to the fans who had been religiously following the club.
Ngin ym lah ban iada bad pynneh ia ka Merisawkun, lymda ngi iakhun pyrshah ia ka “Capitalism”, ka Sain Pyrkhat kaba pynshlur ban pynjot bad kaba ngeit ba ka spah ka dei ban lang lynnong lynnong tang ha ki katto katne ki lynghoh kti.
The entry of refugees in large numbers is never welcomed anywhere. Demographic balances in Northeast India were threatened, even overturned, by the influx. The Bengali refugee, competing for scant jobs in the already impoverished economy, was a threat. The next phase of violence and ethnic cleansing began.
Modi and his party and supporters have thrashed every logical and sensible critical narrative with illogical, foolish and non-democratic counter narratives.
There’s nothing innate to the Sith that makes them evil. Indeed, the values they hold are all about self-empowerment to bring about change and throw off oppression in all its forms. The Jedi, by contrast, are about stagnancy and suppression of the self.
With the sudden Chidambaram realisation that Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses must be unbanned in India, we tend to forget that there is something called…
Buying local is not about economic benefit alone. Its also about empowering communities in a real sense, beyond slick and shameless NGO-partnered “CSR” initiatives about street-children and “women”. Its about changing the paradigm of economic activity and getting the stake of the people back and putting one’s own surrounding first.
Why is English so hard to learn?
Irregular verbs, crazy spelling and the difficulty of being polite. English is tough.
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