Friday, May 4, 2012

Fwd: The open eyed Buddha and Dr. Ambedkar



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Round Table India <contact@roundtableindia.co.in>
Date: Fri, May 4, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Subject: The open eyed Buddha and Dr. Ambedkar
To: Palash <palashbiswaskl@gmail.com>


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roundtableindia

Round Table India

For an Informed Ambedkar Age

Dear Palash,

History

The open eyed Buddha and Dr. Ambedkar

(Excerpt from a recent article by Dr. Yashwant Manohar in the Marathi daily 'Sakal'. Thanks, Gouri Patwardhan, for the translation-- Round Table India)

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Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had a special interest in painting. He loved seeing paintings and really wanted to be able to draw well. He learned to draw from B R Madilagekar. He bought many books to study painting. He used to lose himself completely while painting. It was after reading Churchill's book 'Painting as a pastime' that he developed such passion in painting.

Read More

Rights

The caste cauldron of Maharashtra (Part II)

(Report first published in November 2003)

Continued from here.

Violence against Dalits in Marathwada

A Report by the Fact Finding Team comprising

Dr. Anand Teltumbde, Akram Siddiqui, Subodh More, Hashim Mohamma

November 2003

Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Mumbai

2. Murti incident

Murti is a relatively bigger village with a population of about 3000. The incident happened on July 9, 2003 as a result of a clash between two minor girls- Kalpana Ankush Thorat belonging to Matang community and Ayodhhya Sandipan Surashe belonging to Sawarna community, at the hand pump at around 3 pm. When the elders returned in the evening, these girls reported the matter to them. Both sides came out in the open along with their supporters, armed with sticks and axes. The fight started with verbal abuses soon culminated into a physical battle. Kalpana's mother Janabai (40), who was pregnant for the 10th time, rushed to save her husband Ankush Thorat and got axed by the Surashe side. Janabai succumbed to her wounds while being taken to the hospital at Kumbhar Pimpalgaon.

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Feature

Mayawati: Caste Anxieties and Patriarchal Fears

Continued from here.

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Her roofless abode gives her a clear view of the fields and the village she guards over. She is my paternal family's deity, revered as a force of nature as are the scores of female gods of the Shudra, Atishudra and Adivasi cultures. Her free spirited nature echoes the attitude of another goddess in Siddalingaiah's narrative of village deities: one who refuses a temple with a door, saying, 'I would like to go and come as I please.' Within the timeless non-brahamincal world, female iconography is rendered in ways whereby it is 'her gaze' which is anxiously worried over, as it could mean, protection, forgiveness and peace.

From the 10th and 11th centuries AD onwards, with the onset of large scale temple building activities, female iconography begins to appear on temple panels. Here the female form is rendered through the brahmanical male gaze, though the imagery itself is not inspired by brahmin women. From Multan to Somnath, from Konark to Hoysala to Thanjavur temples, all of them bear sculptures that have been inspired by the temple-women, drawn almost exclusively from the shudra and atishudra castes. These visuals radiate the highly disciplined intellect and body literacy of these subjugated, ancestral dalitbahujan women. Throughout the ages, the collectives of temple-women were known to be rigorous knowledge producers, surpassing the productivity of the best universities, bequeathing to the subcontinent, civilization-sustaining bodies of knowledge. Yet, for us, the images are life size portrayals of women manacled by caste and patriarchy. Contemporary dalitbahujan women are often ambiguous about celebrating these images as immortal style icons of amazing grace and ability. This visual history highlights an ancient struggle in progress-- against caste, the father of all hegemonies.

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Current News

A fence dividing two groups of Dalits removed

S. Sundar A barbed wire fence put up on Government land dividing two different groups of Dalits for nearly a decade in Santhaiyur village near Peraiyur was removed by the Madurai Rural district police...
Read More...

Rajasthan tops list of atrocities against Dalits

Prasad Nichenametla Rajasthan has emerged as the state with the highest incidence of registered atrocities against Dalits across the country. In 2010, the state recorded 51.4 cases of atrocities against...
Read More...

Caste prejudices hit Bihar's anganwadi centres: Report

Patna, May 3 (IANS) Caste and religious prejudices in Bihar's villages are affecting the central government's education and health schemes - such as anganwadis - for impoverished families, says a report...
Read More...

Tribals keep hockey alive in Delhi

New Delhi. With more than an hour to go for the actual match to start, the actual seating area around the second turf at the National Stadium in New Delhi was already houseful. Even the outer boundaries...
Read More...

The Shared Mirror - reflections in poetry and prose

  • I am the Yanadi
    I put the whole village to sleep While spending sleepless nights, I keep guard over the roads leading to the village While Brahma Jemudus grow in the path...
  • Immortality
      The seed, dying, promised the crop   The little flower, withering, promised the fruit, with a smile,   The forest, burning, promised the conflagration   The sunset,...
  • Dalita Naaniis
    Gujarat is an experiment to see if a state would grow when you sow blood ~~~   I've always kept my heart's doors open for Dalits among Brahmins...

Opinion

A Dalit betrayed: 'Rahul bhaiyya has forgotten me'

Danish Raza

Shivkumari_copyAmethi, Uttar Pradesh: Shivkumari's home is a tiny five foot by five foot room. It is bare except for a lantern, a few utensils, and a bale of hay lying in the corner. She feeds her family by working in the fields during harvest season. In these three months, she earns Rs 3000 a month. For the rest of the year, she does odd jobs at Brahamin and Thakur households in the village.

Today, the mother of five is disillusioned but resigned to her fate. Yet she still remembers the night that made her famous; 15 January 2009 when she stood in her tiny home, trembling with hope.

"Do you feel cold?" asked the man holding both her hands.

"No. I am scared," she replied, gasping.

"Look at me, I am your brother. I am here to end all your woes," he assured her, breaking her precarious reserve. Shivkumari began listing her many woes: her inability to pay the loans taken by her late husband, Lallan Harijan,and how much she wanted work under MNREGA, a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card, or a house under the Indira Gandhi Avaas Yojna scheme.

Read More


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