What price the blood of the women slain in Khairlanji? In Unnao? In Hathras? Who are killed everyday, all over the country, and likely undergo rape several times in their lives, if they do live?
Where are the voices of the feminists who talk of domestic violence
Day in and day out, but have nothing to say about such brutality perpetrated on Dalits women and girls? In Rajasthan, MP, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh?
Where are the media who have so much to say, both good and bad, about women in the film industry?
Where are the women's Commissions, the Durga Vahinis, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevikas? The women's wings of the political parties?
Where are the national NGOs and women's groups which have clustered in Delhi and claim to be "the Indian women's movement"?
I'm getting responses on my Twitter timeline, "rice bag". The reference is to the fact that my ancestors three years ago allegedly converted to Christianity to get rice. I'm glad they did coz they also got education. That's why I can speak of injustice on social media.
If not, I think I could have been in the situation we see Manisha and her family is in. I'm sure anyone with a little commonsense will agree that my grandparents and great grand parents were right in their decision. So I hope I have correctly conveyed why Dalits in India convert.
Also the sheer effrontery of these privileged people who think that people should starve and stay illiterate and live out their lives as unfree citizens for generations even in a 21st C India with a Republican democracy, while they mock oppressed citizens
A foundation stone was laid yesterday, based on an ostensible court order. So it might be legal, but is it moral? South Indian towns and villages are littered with so called ancient temples, actually Jain and Buddhist and animist places of worship appropriated by
Brahminical forces. For instance the Ayyappa temple - within living memory, the Bhagawati temple in Kerala, the famous Manjunath temple in Dharmasthala, even now managed by a Jain head. Even the Tirupati temple was a Buddhist centre of worship before it was appropriated.
Can anyone deny these historical realities? Will anyone concerned about truth and ethical practice really think that the Rama temple in Ayodhya will be a shrine for someone millions revere as the Maryada Purushottam? Really? Or will it be seen as a sign of Mada and Matsara