South Asia Citizens Web

The mindless destruction of Ganga Devi’s extraordinary last works at the Crafts Museum is terribly sad. It highlights the caste system between art and craft, the indifference to the creative integrity of a craftsperson’s vision. The quoted reaction of a Crafts Museum official, “Don’t worry, I’ll get another kohbar ghar painted” shows that, even for someone who claims to have worked there for 30 years, one piece of craft is much like another. So Ganga Devi is no more, let’s get Sita Devi or Champa Devi or Ambika Devi.

As the strike by students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) enters its fourth month, and the condition of students on hunger strike deteriorating alarmingly, we join the distinguished alumni of the institute, national award winning film personalities and others of the artistic fraternity, in extending our solidarity to the cause they are fighting for.

Symptomatic of the superficiality of our times, the murder of Kalburgi, a scholar who considered knowledge essential for understanding society, was seen as the murder of a rationalist and an atheist

The volume engages with writers such as Namdeo Dhasal, Baby Halder, Sharankumar Limbale, Bama, Kallen Pokkudan, Manohar Mouli Biswas, Praveeen Gadhvi and others. Bringing together incisive essays by renowned and emerging scholars in the field, it initiates a dialogue between Dalit writing and Western literary theory and compares Dalit writings with other forms of subaltern writings from across the world, as also explores the literatures of Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.

It is deceitful of the RSS to compare themselves to any other civil society organization, rather than to the National Advisory Council to which they had strenuously objected. No other NGO exercises ideological control over the government and maintains a vast cadre of political activists, many of whom undergo arms training. None of them can summon government ministers for discussions.