Today India is celebrating its 74th Republic Day. Team Parivrajaka Foundation wishes all the citizen of India a very happy Republic Day.
On this day on January 26, 1950, the Constitution of India came into effect, and the then Government of India declared our nation as Republic – to be governed by its citizens. The constitution was adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly on 26 November, 1949.
On this day and on all days, all parents must inform the importance of Indian Constitution to their wards. They should be taught about the freedom struggles, the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution, and duties they should perform towards nation.
Members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should learn and adopt English as a language for their day-to-day functioning. It sounds highly impossible, but this is what Dr. Ambedkar had also envisioned this long back. Majority of his writings are in English. He once said, in his response to a news reporter, that, the day will come when his people will be able to read and understand him. India is a highly populated country with limited resources. Getting opportunities for good earning and good respectable living will always be a challenge. Knowledge of English opens up gates to different parts of the world. Socially, in India, a person with fairly good knowledge of English receives more respect. Also, for moving between states, the knowledge of English gives an added advantage. Knowledge of English will provide an extra edge over other fellow citizens and our people will be able to make better use of Government and Legal systems which primarily works in English.
History of English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language)
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then most closely related to the Low German and Frisian languages. English is genealogically West German. However, its vocabulary also shows major influences from French and Latin, plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language) Speaker of English are called Anglophones.
The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th Century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th centuries. Middle English began in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest of England, when considerable Old French and Latin-derived vocabulary was incorporated into English over some three hundred years. Early modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots into English, concurrent with the introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and plays of William Shakespeare.
Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent-marking pattern, with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order, to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, and fairly fixed subject-verb word order. Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation.
Pluricentric English
English is a Pluricentric language, which means that no one national authority sets the standard for use of the language. The norms of standard written English are maintained purely by the consensus of educated English-speakers around the world, without any oversight by any government or international organiation.
Why learn English?
Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States of America. Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca (bridge language) in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law. English is the most spoken language in the world and the third-most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers. As of 2005, it was estimated that there were over 2 billion speakers of English. English is the majority native language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland, and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organizations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch.
English has ceased to be an “English language” in the sense of belonging only to people who are ethnically English. Use of English is growing country-by-country internally and for international communication.
Most people learn English for practical rather than ideological reasons.
English language among many Indians have gone from associating it with colonialism to associating it with economic progress, and English continues to be an official language of India.
English is also widely used in media and literature, and the number of English language books published annually in India is the third largest in the world after the US and UK.
A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of occupations and professions such as medicine and computing.
Mahaparinirvana is one of the major goals of Buddhism. It means “Nirvana after death”. The death annivarsary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, which fall on December 6, is observed as Mahaparinirvana Divas. On this day each year, millions of people throng to Dr. Ambedkar’s Samadhi in Mumbai, which is called Chaitya Bhoomi to pay respect to the chief architect of Indian Constitution.
Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism, after studying the religion for years together, on October 14, 1956 in Nagpur along with 5 lakh supporters. These supporters considered Dr. Ambedkar as their Buddhist leader and guru for his contributions to the eradication of untouchability. Dr. Ambedkar’s death anniversary is therefore observed as Mahaparivirvana Divas.
The Pune-based Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) was established in 2005 by Milind Kamble, a civil engineer and entrepreneur. While Mr. Kamble is currently the Chairman, the organization has grown with the help of 29 state chapters & 7 International Chapters. Its membership base is rapidly expanding as more Dalit entrepreneurs become aware of its activities and what it can offer them.
The activities of its members are quite diversified ranging from manufacturing (sectors such as chemicals, agri-products, frozen foods, plastics, textiles, pest control, metals and metallurgy, marine engineering, solar energy, sugar refining), construction and services (health care, hospitality industries, education and international trade).
DICCI’s tag line explains its philosophy and its raison d’etre : Be Job Givers – Not Job Seekers
Constitution Day (Samvidhāna Divasa), also known as “National Law Day” , is celebrated in India on 26 November every year to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India. On 26 November 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted to the Constitution of India, and it came into effect on 26 January 1950.
The Government of India declared 26 November as Constitution Day on 19 November 2015 by a gazette notification. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi made the declaration on 11 October 2015 while laying the foundation stone of the B. R. Ambedkar’s Statue of Equality memorial in Mumbai. The year of 2021 was the 131st birth anniversary of Ambedkar, who had chaired the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly and played a pivotal role in the drafting of the constitution. Previously this day was celebrated as Law Day. 26 November was chosen to spread the importance of the constitution and to spread thoughts and ideas of Ambedkar. PM Modi Speech On National Law Day 2021, 26 November, and also The President , Vice President and Lok Sabha Speaker also addressed the program
As a part of celebrations in schools, colleges and government organizations various quiz and literary events are organised. The Preamble to the Constitution of India is also read by one and all.
Ayyankali (28 August 1863 – 18 June 1941) was an Indian politician, prominent social reformer, educator, economist, lawmaker, and a revolutionary leader. He worked for the advancement of the oppressed people in the princely state of Travancore. His struggle resulted in many changes that improved the socio-political structure of Kerala. His determined and relentless efforts changed the lives of Dalits.[2]
Ayyankali was born on 28 August 1863 in Venganoor, Thiruvananthapuram, Travancore. He was the first of eight children born to Ayyan and Mala, who were members of the Pulayar community. The family led a marginally better life compared to other Pulayars as they were given 5 acres (2.0 ha) of land by the landlord with whom Ayyan was an Adiyalan spending all his time to serve the Janmi or Zamindar (feudal landlord). Members of the Pulayar community generally worked as bonded labor to the Janmis during this time and did not have the right to own land or even enter temples to pray.
The region in which Ayyankali lived, which now forms a part of the state of Kerala, was particularly affected by social divisions during his lifetime and was described as a “mad house” of castes. The Pulayars were regarded as the slaves of the agrarian society in the kingdom and they suffered greatly from oppressive discrimination, particularly from the landowning castes including the Nair caste. Robin Jeffrey, a professor specializing in the modern history and politics of India, quotes the wife of a Christian missionary, who wrote in 1860 of the complex social code that:
… a Nair can approach but not touch a Namboodiri Brahmin: Ezhava must remain thirty-six paces off, and a Pulayan ninety-six steps distant. A Ezhava must remain twelve steps away from a Nair, and a Pulayan sixty-six steps off, and a Parayan some distance farther still. A Syrian Christian may touch a Nair (though this is not allowed in some parts of the country) but the latter may not eat with each other. Parayars, who are at the apartheid position of a savage caste discriminated society, can approach but not touch, much less may they eat with each other.
Suffering from this social injustice caused Ayyankali to join his Pulayar friends who gathered at the end of their workday to sing and dance to folk music that protested the situation.
Some joined him in forming a group that challenged the members of the oppressor castes sometimes leading to physical fights. His popularity earned him the names of Urpillai and Moothapullai translated roughly as ‘Leader of the Land’ or ‘Elder Leader’.
Ayyankali married Chellamma in 1888. The couple had seven children.
Anand Teltumbde (born 15 July 1950) is an Indian scholar, writer, and civil rights activist who is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management. He has written extensively about the caste system in India and has advocated for the rights of Dalits. He was imprisoned in 2020 along with other activists and intellectuals who were critical of the government.
Teltumbde was born on 15 July 1950 in Rajur, a village in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra state, to a family of Dalit farm labourers. He is the oldest among eight siblings. He is married to Rama Teltumbde who is a granddaughter of B. R. Ambedkar. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in 1973, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1982 and a PhD from the University of Mumbai in cybernetic modelling in 1993 while working as an executive at Bharat Petroleum. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate (D.Litt.) from the Karnataka State Open University.
Teltumbde was an executive at Bharat Petroleum and managing director of Petronet India Limited before becoming an academic. He was a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and later became a senior professor at the Goa Institute of Management. He contributes a column titled “Margin Speak” to Economic and Political Weekly, and has also contributed to Outlook, Tehelka, and Seminar. His 2018 book, Republic of Caste, is a collection of essays that assesses the position of Dalits, including the relationship between caste and class. Teltumbde advocates for a closer relationship between Marxism and the Ambedkarite movements in fighting for Dalit liberation, as well as reform of the reservation system.
Selected publications
The Radical in Ambedkar (ed.) (Penguin Random House, New Delhi, 2018) ISBN 978-0670091157
Republic of Caste: Thinking of Equality in the Era of Neoliberalism and Hindutva (Navayana, New Delhi, 2018) ISBN 978-8189059842
Dalits: Past, Present and Future (Routledge, London and New York, 2016) ISBN 978-1138688759
Mahad: The Making of the First Dalit Revolt (Aakar, New Delhi, 2015) ISBN 978-9350023983
The Persistence of Caste (Zed Books, London, 2010) ISBN 9781848134492
Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop (Navayana, Delhi, 2008) ISBN 978-8189059156
Annihilation of Caste (Ramai, Mumbai, 2005) ISBN 978-9353040772
Hindutva and Dalits: Perspectives for Understanding Communal Praxis (ed.) (Samya, Kolkata, 2005) ISBN 978-8185604756
‘Ambedkar’ in and for the Post-Ambedkar Dalit Movement (Sugawa, Pune, 1997) ISBN 978-8186182291
P. K. Rosy (Rajamma, Rosamma, Rajammal) was an Indian actress in Malayalam cinema. Her Pulaya (Dalit) caste background caused controversy. She was the heroine of Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child), directed by J. C. Daniel. She was the first heroine in Malayalam cinema and the first Dalit actress in Indian cinema.
Early life
She was born to Paulose and Kunji, as Rajamma, in 1903 at Nandankode, Trivandrum to a Pulaya family. Her living relatives confirm that her father died when she was very young leaving her family steeped in poverty. Her younger years were spent as a grass-cutter. She was also very interested in the arts and was encouraged in this by her uncle, who found for her a teacher for music and acting. She also regularly went to the local school of performing arts to study Kakkirasi Nattakam, a form of Tamil folk theatre in a mix of Tamil and Malayalam revolving around stories of Siva and Parvati arriving on Earth as nomads.
During those days, acting was typically not a woman’s work and women who considered acting as a serious profession were labeled licentious or “loose”. Rosy’s love for acting seems to have surpassed concerns she may have held for what society would call her.
Of the origin of her name “Rosy,” many claim her family converted to Christianity and changed her name from Rajamma to Rosamma. However others claim it was Daniel who gave her a more ‘glamorous’ name. Members of her family dispute the claim she converted one nephew saying “To send Rosy to study, he converted to Christianity at the LMS Church. That was the basis on which children were given education in those days. No one else had converted. Her mother lived as a Hindu.”
Career
By 1928, she had become skilled in Kaakirasi. From this she stepped in to become the heroine of JC Daniel’s film after his first prospective heroine proved unsuited for the role. She played the character of Sarojini, a Nair woman, in the movie. When Vigathukumaran was released, members of the Nair community were enraged to see a Dalit woman portray a Nair. Many eminent members of the film industry at the time refused to come and inaugurate the opening of Vigathakumaran if Rosy was to be physically present there, including the famous lawyer Madhoor Govindan Pillai. Following a scene in which the main character kissed a flower in her hair, the audience threw stones at the screen. The director, Daniel, himself didn’t invite her to the opening at Capitol theatre in Thiruvananthapuram, fearing a backlash. But Rosy had attended anyway, but was still made to watch a second showing by those boycotting the event.
Due to her “crime” of acting as a Nair, her home was reportedly burnt down by upper castes. Reports then state that she fled in a lorry that was headed to Tamil Nadu, married the lorry driver, Kesavan Pillai and lived her life quietly in Tamil Nadu as “Rajammal”. Her children knew nothing of her brief stardom other than she was a theatre artist and currently live as Nairs, Pillai’s caste.
Legacy
The story of the film was first rediscovered in the late 1960s by Chengalatt Gopalakrishnan while in 1971 Kunnukuzhi published his first article about her.
In 2013, Kamal directed a biopic on Daniel, titled Celluloid. The film is partially based on the novel Nashta Naayika by Vinu Abraham, and also deals with the life of Rosy. Newcomer Chandni Geetha portrays her. It faced criticism for portraying Rosy as mindless and submissive to upper castes. Two other films about her life have also been made: The Lost Child and Ithu Rosiyude Katha (This is Rosy’s Story). A society of women actors in Malayalam cinema named itself the PK Rosy film society.
Pa. Ranjith is an Indian filmmaker who works in Tamil films. He made his directorial debut with the 2012 romantic comedy Attakathi, before earning unanimously positive reviews for his second film, the political drama Madras (2014). In 2016, he wrote and directed the gangster-drama Kabali and in 2018, Kaala both starring Rajinikanth. In 2021, he directed the highly acclaimed Sarpatta Parambarai, starring Arya and Pasupathy.
Pa. Ranjith was born at Karalapakkam, Avadi, Chennai. He has two brothers – Prabhu and Saravana. He graduated from Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, and has described how his travels to and from his college often helped create inspiration for film ideas.
Sociocultural Initiatives
Ranjith extended his social work in another form, which is ‘Neelam Panpaatu Maiyam’ (Neelam Cultural Center). As part of this initiative, in honour of the 100 years of Dalit struggle, life-sized sculptures were established and the efforts of the Dalit activists were documented.
Neelam Panpaatu maiyam also conducted the three day arts festival – ‘Vaanam’ in Chennai between December 29 to 31, 2018. The festival was unticketed and many artists across Tamil Nadu participated in it. Also many artifacts were presented. Ranjith explained that this festival would act as a platform to discuss more complex social issues through art.
Neelam cultural center launched ‘Koogai Thiraipada Iyakkam’ (Koogai Film Movement). This movement was started to bridge the gap between literature and cinema. As part of this movement, the first initiative was to set up a library named ‘Koogai’.
Neelam cultural center rolled out their new campaign ‘#VoteOutHate’ and started producing short films on the same for a release in their official YouTube channel. The first film was Lovers in the afternoon directed by Rajesh Rajamani and the second film was ‘Share Auto’ directed by Jenny Dolly.
The Casteless Collective
Ranjith’s organisation, Neelam Cultural Centre, collaborated with the label Madras Records to form a 19-piece band called The Casteless Collective that includes four rappers, seven instrumentalists and eight gaana musicians, a popular folk music style in Tamil Nadu. The name of the band was inspired by a phrase – “jaathi bedha matra Tamilargal” – used by Tamil anti-caste activist and writer C Iyothee Thass. Iyothee Thassa Pandithar (1845-1914) was the first to moot the phrase “Jaathi Bedha Matra Tamizhargal” in the early 20th century by publishing the same in his Tamil Journal Tamizhan (1907-1914).
Sukhadeo Thorat (born 12 July 1949) an Indian economist, educationist, professor and writer. He is the former chairman of the University Grants Commission. He is professor emeritus in Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is an expert on B. R. Ambedkar.
Thorat hails from Mahar community of Maharashta. Thorat graduated with a B.A. from Milind College of Arts, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. He obtained an M.A. in Economics from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, M.Phil/PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Diploma in Economic Planning, Main School of Planning, Warsaw, Poland.
