caste

Poor or Backward? (that is the question)

The poster prefers reservations for the poor over caste-based claims to backwardness, arguing that the current contest only sharpens grievance, with a report on the Supreme Court refusing to stay…

Brown Pundits Archive9 April 20140 comments
Indian representative

On the model Koyal Rana, the poster traces the Rana name to Rajput kings of Rajasthan and Nepal and lists Pakistani public figures with the surname, remarking that caste survives…

Brown Pundits Archive6 April 20140 comments
Many Poonams required for (social) revolution

A comment tying the polio victory to social revolution against caste, with a WHO interview on the Endgame Strategy and a joke about the two Poonams.

Brown Pundits Archive28 March 20140 comments
The new un-touchables are rising

A short argument that Indian political dynasties, which held 29 per cent of seats in 2009, form a new untouchable caste of power, and that Brahmanism will outlast Brahmins because…

Brown Pundits Archive27 March 20141 comment
The Dalits need no religion

A comment on the religious affiliation of Dalits, recalling Mayawati and Kanshi Ram’s anger at the caste order and the neo-Buddhism and Bhim Sena movements of Maharashtra, with the poster’s…

Brown Pundits Archive23 March 20140 comments
“…abundance of everything but …no izzat”

A note arguing that izzat, tied to the conduct of women, held colonial rank in place and that Indian soldiers’ contact with French women in the First World War damaged…

Brown Pundits Archive23 March 20140 comments
Varanasi- Waterloo of the East

A comment framing the Varanasi contest as the Waterloo of the East, a Congress Brahmin against a BJP Shudra favoured to win, and as the end of a slow 67-year…

Brown Pundits Archive23 March 20141 comment
Caste (and sect) of dead people?

A note linking Samuel Kuruvilla’s 2012 article on the dilemma of Kerala fishermen’s families over the killing of their relatives by Italian marines, and their later decision to forgive.

Brown Pundits Archive21 March 20140 comments
An advocate for “radical social transformation”

The poster responds to Saroj Giri’s call for radical social transformation against communalism, arguing the Indian left offers no way to win the masses back and has long been led…

Brown Pundits Archive15 March 20140 comments
the 14th Ferozepur Sikh regiment…and some others

Hamid Hussain traces the 14th Ferozepore Sikhs from their raising in 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War, covering the 1857 uprising, Lieutenant Brasyer’s role, its First World War service and…

Brown Pundits Archive14 March 20140 comments