Jai Bhim!


Book Description

Hundreds of people were waiting as the train drew in from Bombay. Waving garlands, banners and lamps they roared as a smiling, orange-robed figure stepped down. The crowds came from the poorest section of Indian society, but the monk they were greeting hailed from Tooting, London. Terry Pilchick (Nagabodhi) was a witness to this crazy reversal of the guru syndrome and other extraordinary results of a revolution begun by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar thirty years earlier. It was then that Dr Ambedkar-champion of India's 60 million Untouchables'-had led a peaceful revolt. Leaving behind the oppression of the caste system, he and his followers had converted to Buddhism. Jai Bhim is a colorful, humorous yet moving meeting with these new Buddhists and the unique revolution they are building in the city slums and remote villages of modern India. A travel book which can extend the moral as well as the imaginative ... horizons of the reader.-Faith and Freedom




Untouchability in Rural India


Book Description

This important book presents systematic evidence of the incidence and extent of the practice of untouchability in contemporary India. It is based on the results of a very large survey covering 560 villages in eleven states. The field data is supplemented by information concerning associated forms of discrimination which Dalits face in their daily lives./-//-/This study finds that untouchability is practised in one form or another in almost 80 per cent of the villages surveyed. It is most prevalent in the religious and personal spheres. While the evidence presented in this book suggests that the more blatant and extreme forms of untouchability appear to have declined, discrimination is still practised in one form or another. The most widespread manifestations are in access to water and to cremation or burial grounds, as also when it comes to the major life cycle rituals. The survey also found that the notion of untouchability continues to pervade the public sphere, including in a host of state institutions and the interactions that occur within them.




Bourgeois Casteism


Book Description

Sachin Kamble, a first generation educated Dalit expresses his anguish for deep-seated beliefs about caste, creed, and race in the bourgeois or middle-class society. He describes his sandwiched, restless state of mind due to caste and the multiple humiliations suffered by him as a Dalit on a daily basis. He also provides the internal caste divisions, the conduct of the so-called educated bourgeois, and their sustainable behavior for modern-day untouchability. The book unveils brahminical forces which operate the social hierarchy and points out the caste reality.




Indian Contemporary Films and Societal Reflection


Book Description

Film has always acted as a window to the society where it brings out various essences of life. India has always shown prominence in representing its inheritance and rich cultural lineage through different layers of films. Right from “Raja Harishchandra” as a full-length feature film in 1913 to the most contemporary films released on OTT, everything and everyone embedded in any of the films made in India has some level of relevance to the time and society, therefore, they can be called contemporary while projecting some form of social message through their presence. The book “Indian Contemporary Films and Societal Reflection” presents a collection of a list of reviews based on some of the perspectives and concepts portrayed through films like commercialism, gender identity, gender representation, portrayal of power, cinema as a form of art, casteism in cinema, political discourse in cinema, inequality, resilience, relationship, oppression, animation, celluloid reverberations, propaganda and agenda planning, and many more. The twenty-six enthralling chapters from forty-nine authors are collected in this book, which would provide an extensive understanding of different perspectives of films and help identify the societal portrayal of films in various ways.




But Little Dust


Book Description

Padmasuri was an English nurse and midwife who gave up nursing to teach Buddhism among the "untouchable" Hindus of India. In this book she charts her progress as she helps her friends discover dignity, strength and freedom on the Buddhist path of individual and social transformation.




Dalits in the New Millennium


Book Description

The book premises that despite the long history of violence and discrimination against Dalits, their lives have transformed with the political and economic shifts in the country over the last three decades. It addresses these changes and interrogates the major aspects of Dalit experience associated with them.




B R Ambedkar


Book Description

The story of the father of the Indian Constitution Born in April 1891into a poor Mahar family, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a victim of caste discrimination for most of his early life. And while India struggled against the oppressions of British Raj, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb, continued his struggle against the oppressions of the Indian caste system, the social discriminations against Dalits in India. He struggled so the underprivileged sections of Indian society could enjoy equal political rights and be treated with equal respect. An Indian jurist, politician, philosopher, anthropologist, historian and economist, Babasaheb was one of the earliest Dalit’s to earn a college degree. He grew to be the principal architect of Indian constitution. He published journals, periodicals, and launched active movements for social and political freedom for India’s Dalit community. Ambedkar, in the later years of his life, turned to Buddhism, preached it and finally made a formal conversion. This book explores the life and times of the independent India's first law minister who fought against the discriminations inflicted by his own countrymen, who lived his life acting only in the interest of people. Payal Kapadia is the author of the very popular Wisha Wozzawriter published by Puffin in 2012. She lives in Bombay




Writing Caste/Writing Gender


Book Description

'The women tell it like it is... So riveting is the narration that it is difficult to put down the book until their stories are finished. For a non-fiction academic work this is no small feat.’ — The Hindu Sharmila Rege’s path breaking study of Dalit women’s writings and lives offers a powerful counter-narrative to the mainstream assumptions about the development of feminism in India in the 20th century. Extensive extracts from eight Dalit women’s writings cover issues such as food and hunger, community, caste, labour, education, violence, resistance and collective struggle. The voices that resound throughout the book, reveal that Dalit feminism, far from being ‘silent’ as so often presumed, is rich, powerful, layered – and highly articulate. Published by Zubaan.




Migration and Mission in India


Book Description

Contributed papers.




Religious Diversity in Asia


Book Description

This anthology explores religious diversity in Asia seen through the lenses of history, identity, state, ritual and geography. The chapters furthermore address theoretical and methodological reflections using Asia as a laboratory for broader comparative research of 'religious diversity'.