[NSI Statement] New Socialist Initiative Condemns Hindutva Engineered and Inspired Atrocities on Dalits

Hardly a day passes without headline news of some or another atrocity on Dalits. On 24 May, a Dalit man in the Ahmedabad district was beaten and his house attacked by a gang of so called ‘upper’ caste men after he had attached Sinh to his name on his facebook post.  On 21 May a dalit ragpicker was beaten to death in a Rajkot factory. Atrocities on Dalits are occurring in the midst of a public ideological environment against them. On 26 May news came of a private school in Delhi asking 8^th class students to write a note on how reservations help undeserving and unqualified people for their summer vacation homework.  According to National Crime Record Bureau reports for recent years, between 10 to 15 thousand cases of crimes are reported under the Prevention of Atrocities act every year; an average of 35 crimes per day. Many times more crimes actually go unreported. In 2016 Indian courts had over 45 thousand cases under this act. Out of the 4048 cases decided, conviction occurred in 659 cases only. That is, five out of six cases of atrocity against Dalits did not result in any punishment. The number of attacks against one of the weakest and the poorest sections of the society, and the abysmal rate of conviction would put any civilized society to shame, but India chugs along.

दक्षिणपंथ की कीलें

जावेद अनीस

Courtesy-dailyo.in

मोदी सरकार के चार साल हो चुके हैं, भारतीय राजनीति और समाज के लिये यह एक भारी उठा-पठक वाला दौर साबित हुआ है. इस दौरान हिन्दू दक्षिणपंथियों के बेलगाम रथ ने एक के बाद एक झंडे गाड़ने में व्यस्त रहा है. उनकी उपलब्धियां अभूतपूर्व है, आज देश में राष्ट्रपति,  उपराष्ट्रपति, लोकसभा अध्यक्ष, प्रधानमंत्री और 15 राज्यों में मुख्यमंत्री सीधे तौर पर भगवा खेमे से हैं और 6 राज्यों में सहयोगी दलों के साथ उनकी सरकारें हैं. भाजपा लोकसभा में सबसे बड़ी पार्टी तो पहले से ही है अब वो राज्यसभा में सबसे बड़ी पार्टी बन चुकी है.

Invisibility of Class in Popular Politics in India

Sanjay Kumar

(This paper was read as part of the workshop on Confronting the Rule of Capital in the Global South: Marxist analysis and class struggle in India on 4 May, 2018, at Marx 200 Congress, Berlin).

The name of the beast Marxists confront everywhere is Capitalism. We want to understand it theoretically and defeat it politically. This requires that we appreciate both its strengths and weaknesses. The exact nature of the rule of Capital in a society is both a reflection of latter’s universal properties, as well particularities of the given society’s politics and culture. Our hope is that an understanding of the rule of the Capital in a society like India will also throw light on its understanding in other countries.