Bhavani Etikala

In Telugu cinema, caste issues and atrocities were untouched concepts on the big screen until late. In 2020, Palasa 1978, a period-revenge-drama set in the 80's, was released. Debut director Karuna Kumar said that the film was based on real incidents. The movie acknowledged the deep rooted reality of castesim in the Telugu states through the lens of a Dalit film maker. This film was appreciated at many levels, mainly for being able to shape the Dalit resistance on screen and the entry of the Dalit film maker into main stream film making which was absent till now.

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Chanchal Kumar

Anybody who has tried reading 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' will accede to the fact that it is a text rooted in the academic discourse. Perhaps that's the reason why the ideas propounded therein are still considered to be unchallenged, or at least impossible to ignore. I am undertaking the task to bust a few myths surrounding the logic of this essay by Dr Spivak, and I realize I may not be perfect in doing so. My attempt is rather an effort to anticipate more engagements with Dr Spivak's work through the lens of Bahujan thought. This is my intention behind writing this critique.

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JS Vinay

“Be thy own light- Atta Deepa Bhava”

~ Buddha

"You must abolish your slavery yourselves. Do not depend for its abolition upon god or a superman. Remember that it is not enough that people are numerically in the majority. They must be always watchful, strong and self-respecting to attain and maintain success. We must shape our course ourselves and by ourselves."

~ Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar, Vol 1, Page 212, BAWS..

A few days back the Tamil movie Sarpatta Parambarai was released on Amazon Prime. Directed by Pa Ranjith and starring actors like Arya, Pasupathy, John Vijay, John Vijay, Dushara Vijayan, Kalaiyarasan, Shabeer Kallarakkal, etc. The film is a tribute to the greatest sportsperson of the world, the boxer Mohammad Ali.

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I am a Dalit poet writing in the English language for about ten years and I have been offered admission for MA Creative Writing (Full time), Poetry at University of East Anglia, UK- one of the most prestigious creative writing programs in the UK. I am probably the only Indian student in a class of 15, out of 117 applicants from all over the world.

I have been residing at Trivandrum for the past 10 years. I have two collections of poetry to my credit "Letters to Namdeo Dhasal" (2016, Desirepaths, Baroda); and "Love after Babel" (2020, Daraja Press, Canada) both of which were shortlisted for the YUVA PURASKAR of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, the former was a runner-up at M.Harish Govind Memorial Prize (2017) instituted by Poetry Chain, Trivandrum and the latter had won The Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award (2020) from the Caribbean Philosophical Association (CPA). One of my individual poems was in a shortlist for the prestigious Srinivasa Rayaparol Poetry prize. I was a fellow at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (2018).

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Ajay Pateer

Following the innumerable COVID-19 deaths across the country during the second wave, more Indians are getting health conscious than there used to be. There is a noticeable rise in fitness cultures. People can be seen walking, running and cycling on public roads in urban spaces since aerobic exercises help us strengthen our pulmonary and cardiovascular system which are attacked by the coronavirus. Fitness content is trending and pharma stocks are rising. In such a context, Sarpatta and Toofaan have been released in a week's gap on Amazon Prime. The flashiest things in both the films are male bodies. The films are visually plagued by ugly and toxic musculature.

Gaining or losing weight in a short period of time for a film shooting has become a cliché even in Indian cinema. Perhaps Amir Khan started it with Dangal or Dhoom 3. It is unhealthy. The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) by celebrities for such transformations is an open secret in fitness industry but the fans are not informed by their favourite stars and their trainers.

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Hardik Parmar 

Caste Background of Archaeology in India

Archaeology as a subject is a rational and logical inquiry into the past using scientific methods. Its primary interest lies with understanding the complex question of how we [humans] came into existence but more importantly what processes and interactions involved in the making of civilizations in the past led to the concept of what we call today a “society”. 

Initially the discipline emerged as a treasure hunting and romantic travelogue by colonials in the Global South, later it evolved to become a systematic inquiry into the past. In the footsteps of Alexander Cunningham [first director of Archaeological Survey of India] and Mortimer Wheeler, many Brahmins like Bhagwanlal Indraji (Nagar Brahmin), Dr. Bhau Daji lad (Saraswat Brahmin), Rakhal Das Benerji, P K Mishra, Dayaram Sahni, Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankhalia, and many others joined them as assistants and did field research activities. Having a monopoly over Sanskrit language, Brahmins were often invited by Britishers to translate manuscripts which led to many of them later taking up archaeology as a profession. They have become pioneers in many important archaeological discoveries in India but one must recognize the fact that they benefited from a higher  position within the social, cultural and material [caste] reality of India with opportunities open only for them unlike for Shudras and Dalits. 

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Umar Nizarudeen 

Fahadh Faasil, the Malayalam film actor has come into national as well as global limelight, much more than any other actor from Kerala has ever managed to do before. From his heterodox acting style, body language and physique to an unconventional choice of roles, Fahadh Faasil has helped break stale notions of masculinity in an exceedingly patriarchal Malayalam movie industry. Like AR Rahman and Shah Rukh Khan, Fahadh Faasil too has combined exceptional talent with a shrewd manipulation of generational transitions and rapid technological transformations within the film industry. Much like Dhanush and Nawazuddin Siddiqui have done before, Fahadh Faasil’s career graph has transcended the petty elitism of the local culture industry to the point where global media outlets such as `The New Yorker’ have devoted its pages to his movies. 

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