Dear Friends,
last evening I saw a documentary film, Landless by my friend and guide Randeep Maddoke. It is truly an eye-opener but I was disappointed to note it is not being screened in Panjab.
I wrote an appeal to Panjab which Punjab Today has very kindly accepted to publish.
‘Being ignored is the worst fate an artist can face. That the artist’s work is not acknowledged at all is worse than even being censored or boycotted. In censor and boycott, at least the artist’s work is acknowledged. When ignored, the artist is consigned to the dungeons of pubic space without even a hearing. It is erasure of the artist, it is death.’
Please read here…
Tags: Dalit, Landless, peasant, Randeep Maddoke, ZPSC
Friends, this time when Lakshmi Karunakaran travelled with me to Punjab she saw things that even I was blinded to because of my gender and caste and class privilege. Things that shame me and keep Punjab violently feudal.
We know Punjab is hurting. We also hope elections will bring a change to Punjab. No, they won’t. Unless, Punjab seriously mends its deepest faultlines: land and caste.
My piece in The Caravan Magazine. Thank you Surabhi Kanga. I strongly believe our education is no use if it does not help us examine and correct ourselves. The Dalits of Punjab too march to emancipate themselves, like Dalits around the nation. The time has come!
Please read … please support.
Tags: Balad Kalan, Benra, Dalit, Jhaloor, Land, Panchayat Land, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Punjab, Sangrur, ZPSC
Friends, upon learning of Rohith Vemula’s death on the University of Hyderabad campus, I looked back at my own time in the same university twenty years back.
‘… I relate to his (Vemula’s) emptiness.
While mental illness in my family had scarred me, and separatist violence in my state had scared me, seeing a united movement for equality break down into such factionalism in an institute of higher learning broke me. After university, for a long time I lost my voice… I will always remember Rohith Vemula’s final letter. To me, he is a writer who has ignited the country. His words will live on.’
Please read …
Tags: Dalit, HCU, Rohith Vemula, student, suicide, University of Hyderabad