Publications

2018
Suraj Yengde. 6/8/2018. “Dalit Cinema.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 14, 3. Publisher's VersionAbstract

This article offers introductory remarks on the position of the Dalit in Indian cinema. It starts with the observation that the Indian film industry is an inherently caste-based, biased, mechanised product of technological industrialisation in which Dalit inclusion is not a moral concern. The mainstream film industry in India delivers the desires and principles of market and society by excluding a Dalit framework outright—a problem now being addressed by the entry of an explicitly Dalit cinema. By briefly looking at two films, Fandry (2013) and Sairat (2016), both written and directed by Dalit film- maker Nagraj Manjule, I offer a critical reading of ‘Dalit Cinema’. Taking the work of Manjule, a maverick film-maker who is establishing a new discourse of Dalit-centred socio-culturism, I demonstrate the extent to which caste narratives are absent in the Indian film industry.

dalit_cinema_june_2018.pdf
2017
Suraj Yengde. 11/30/2017. “ Free the Freedom: Where Untouchability is Locked Away in Prisons .” The Citizen. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

he National Securities Act slapped on a Dalit leader of Bhim Army organization, Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan is indicative of the fact that the greatest threat to this country is Dalit humanism. Ambedkar was deemed as anti-national for his outward resignation of the Brahmin-Baniyas (caste-capitalists) nationhood. His followers are still forced to carry that mantle.

Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan.jpg
Suraj Yengde. 11/5/2017. “ India: Discarding the Upper-Lower Caste Identities.” The Globe Post. Publisher's VersionAbstract

How do we address a person who

— kills another person? A murderer
— slaughters a child? A monster
— rapes a woman? A rapist
— burns down houses of others? An arsonist
— steals from another person? A thug
— commits pillage? A devil
— commits a crime without remorse? A savage
— fails to perform the duties of being human? A cruel person
— constantly lies to hide? A fraud
— is a cheat? A scoundrel
— taunts the glorification of the lower groups? A prisoner of the past
— thinks him/er is superior to others? An insecure sadist
— is insecure about equality? Incompetent
— loots out of someone’s unpaid labor? A dacoit
— cannot love? Heartless
— exploits? exploiter

Suraj Yengde. 8/15/2017. “How To Counter Rise of Fascism?” The Globe Post. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Charlottesville rally awakens us from the rhetoric of “don’t worry …it will be fine” blabbering heard in the suburbs of middle-class households and neighborhoods. The audacious presentation of Nazified insignias and the Confederate flag offers us a glimpse of unified mobility of alt-right fringes.
Suraj Yengde and Margareta Matache. 6/13/2017. “Roma and Dalit experiences of persecution pave way for solidarity.” openDemocracy. Publisher's VersionAbstract
The present age of anger is also an age of solidarities. The Dalits march for the Roma around the world – their extended human selves – as the Roma adopt Ambedkar’s tactic to hit hard on the oppressor.
Cornel West and Suraj Yengde. 6/12/2017. “A Shared History of Struggle Should Unite India’s Dalits and African Americans in the Fight for Equality.” The Root. Publisher's VersionAbstract

For more than 4,000 years, the Dalits of India were called “the untouchables,” the lowest of the low. The Dalits are at the bottom of the Indian caste hierarchy and are currently the oldest surviving oppressed group in the world. They suffer the worst of human miseries and were once deemed impure and polluted human beings.

Even though they are separated by geography, the Dalits and African Americans have a similar story in the struggle for equality. Like African Americans during slavery, Jim Crow and today, in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Dalits are outcasts who continue to bear the brunt of being born in the wrong social order.

2/25/2017. “Protection Outclasses Humanity.” Saturday Star, Pp. 13. Publisher's VersionAbstract

 

There is something wrong with a society where a dog leads a better life than some of the people it is protecting its owners from.

 

2016
11/16/2016. “#GandhiForComeDown: Ghana University row reignites debate about Gandhi's racism .” Mail & Guardian Africa.
11/15/2016. “Ghana University row re-ignites debate about Mahatma Ghandi's racism .” The Conversation. Publisher's Version
10/1/2016. “Perils of Gandhiplomacy.” The Indian Express.
8/14/2016. “Send 10,000 Dalit students every semester to foreign universities: Suraj Milind Yengde.” The Economic Times magazine. Publisher's Version
8/8/2016. “A Call For A Dalit Revolution.” The Huffington Post. Publisher's VersionAbstract

After every reported Dalit atrocity, impassioned pronouncements are heard on the condition of Dalits in the public realm. Before we start rambling, let us practice speaking truth to the present -- the moment we are all co-makers of.

6/22/2016. “How Racism And Casteism Feed Into Each Other In India.” The Huffington Post. Publisher's VersionAbstract

India as a State needs to explore the possibilities of educating its gullible masses on the cultural significances of tolerance. India, which is still grappling with caste prejudices, is yet to mentally break free of the European constructs of pale dominance/White supremacy and the non-personhood of the darker-skinned. The ethnocentrism of race combined with a virulently casteist culture creates a deadly environment for African immigrants

5/20/2016. “Why Hinduism And The Violence Of Caste Are Two Sides Of A Coin.” The Huffington Post. Publisher's Version
3/23/2016. “Nationalism, Communism, Gandhism Have Failed India Dismally.” The Mexican Times. Publisher's Version
1/20/2016. “Casteist India is becoming for Dalits what Western Europe was for Jews.” The Indian Express. Publisher's Version
2015
9/12/2015. “Caste Among Indian Diaspora In Africa.” Economic & Political Weekly, 50, 37. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Caste consciousness is common among the Indian diaspora worldwide, so is the practice of the caste system. This article looks at the Indian diaspora in Africa and tries to understand how Indians of various castes responded to life there. It argues that caste has changed form in the new social and geographical context but it has not been eliminated. A majority of the Indian diaspora in Africa still looks to marry within caste and endorses caste identities. This article also touches upon Gandhi's role in organising Indians in South Africa and tries to interrogate his understanding of the caste scenario there.

2014
2/28/2014. ““Smartphone Migration” Emerging Lifestyle and Changing Habits of Indian Labor Migrants in Johannesburg.” Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South, 2, 1, Pp. 3-33. Publisher's VersionAbstract

This paper aims to understand the life of Indian labor migrants in the post-migration phase. To understand the cultural aspects of labor migrants is to understand their everyday life activities. Migration for contemporary young migrants, which is the core interest of this paper, is about experiencing a new life in a new country, thinking about the present, and planning the future. Getting a job, starting a business, partnering with fellow Indian workers, or marrying a local South African—these encompass the idea of assimilation and adaptation. This paper looks at the cultural aspects of migration that drive labor migrants to South Africa, with a focus on the Indian business district in Johannesburg, Fordsburg.