caste politics

Return of the Brahmin

Kumar Anshuman

Who will win the race for the highest caste vote in UP? Kumar Anshuman reports on a community’s struggle to regain political glory

Shahabuddin: “What Should I Kill People For? My Ego?”

Kumar Anshuman

An unrepentant Shahabuddin returns home and the rift in Bihar’s ruling coalition gets wider

End of an Illusion

Rahul Verma and Pranav Gupta

Mayawati needs to build a coalition that goes beyond mere social identities

Beware the Cow Boys and Girls

Haima Deshpande

Cow vigilantes come in all shades—from a man who maintains peace with Muslim neighbours to a woman who gave up a glamorous career for it

Dalit: The Overcomers

Kumar Anshuman

A warmer Dalit story beyond the familiar narrative of discrimination, dispossession and brutalisation. Open portrays lives that have turned adversity into opportunity

For Whom the Drums Beat

Shiv Visvanathan

Dalit ethics and aesthetics have the power to disrupt the grammar of caste

Tariq Thachil: The Anti-Elitist

Open

He examines how India’s disadvantaged groups are taken for a ride by certain political parties

125 Years of Babasaheb: Editor’s Note

S Prasannarajan

We have made most of our heroes question-proof. We have made them private collections, labelled and indexed. Thoughts on Ambedkar’s 125th anniversary

Bihar: Land without Justice

PR Ramesh

As Bihar is set to become a defining battle for Narendra Modi, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, the political cartel of backward castes faces a mortal threat from the underdogs