Maanya Anand Week 2

The readings I would be addressing are the ones pertaining to the CAA-NRC debate and the effect it has on Dalits and Muslims and the population of India in general. The anti-CAA and NRC protests came up because of the exclusion of Muslim immigrants from various places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc. who had been living in India for years together would become 'refugees' and would not be regarded as citizens of India. Further, immigrants from these countries who belonged to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian religions would be allowed to continue living in India and further people coming in from these countries would be given refuge in India, all the while excluding Muslims. However, what was not taken into account was that this would also affect the marginalised communities like the Dalits. Most of the marginalised communities of India do not even have documents to prove that they have been living in this country for years together and are citizens of India. Not only that, it is possible that most people do not have documents to prove that they are citizens of India. I remember speaking to my parents when the anti CAA protests had just started. My parents were amongst the majority who had voted Modi into power and it was difficult for them to realise the repercussions of the same. During this time we realised and we also probably did not have documents to prove our citizenship. Both my parents' families were originally from Lahore and Dera in Pakistan and had moved to Delhi during the partition and hence my grandparents were also not sure whether they did have the right documents or any documents at all to prove our citizenship. We only understand the impact of such laws when we realise it will affect us also and not just the marginalised communities of our country. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

week 10- Aishwarya Ramkumar

DALIT MUSIC Arivarsu Kalainesan, fondly called Arivu amongst Tamilians is a popular playback singer who has sung songs for mainstream setups. However, his focus lies on writing music and poems about caste and poverty. He is highly inspired by Ambedkar and Buddha, and his music brings to life many of their ideals. He is a proponent of the Arivoli movement which is a southern left literacy movement and got introduces to these ideas by his parents who discussed these with him. His family used to attend Dalit culture events which celebrated anniversaries of leaders and organized protests. He is currently working on writing lyrics a project called the 'Casteless Collective' and had made raps on Ambedkar by drawing inspiration from various Dalit poems. While many have deemed his raps anti-Indian, others appreciate his ideas and welcome these into mainstream cinema and music. He was written various songs for other pertinent social causes such as the LGBTQIA+ movement, and his rap...
Read more

Nayonika Sen Week 2

Contested Citizenship, Caste, and the Politics of Chandrashekhar Azad ‘Ravan’             The CAA-NRC agitations have perhaps reached a tipping point in mainland India. Yet, the contention and agitation has been brewing in Assam for a while now. Until the threat of a nation-wide NRC, it wasn’t even a peripheral topic of discussion. ‘We people’ were largely unfazed by it. However, a brief reading of the recommended articles and a short explanatory video with Ms. Bina Pallical reaffirms my continuous contention with the NRC. Even the ‘Liberals’ comprising mainly of upper-caste educated persons have bought the narrative of it being an exclusively Hindu-Muslim problem. Yet, how is it going to affect the people who have historically never been considered Hindu? The current political narrative is trying to homogenise the ‘Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan’ identity. The BJP has repeatedly issued statements about how the CAA is pro-Dalit and yet...
Read more

Week 10 - Samyuktha Rao

I'm sharing something interesting that I've come across during my search for dalit music. In the state of telangana, India's largest tribal festival is conducted on an annual basis in the month of February. The festival witnesses largest gathering of dalit communities as the goddess who is worshipped during the festival belongs to the Koya tribe. However, Hinduization of this festival has begun to take place in the last few decades. I'm attaching articles from the wire and feminism in india which talks in detail about how upper castes are controlling the image of the goddess as theirs and their other  other practices of Hinduization that are taking place during the festival. There are multiple songs on the internet (by upper castes) but most of them as talked above, fail to emphasize on the history and story and are centered around celebration of the festival.  https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/feminisminindia.com/2020/03/18/the-medaram-jana-jatara-indias-largest-tri...
Read more