Intersection of claim for Scheduled Tribe Status and Identity Politics among the Kurmi Mahto of Chotanagpur Region in India

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Various forms of protest such as rail-road roko and election boycott have been displayed by the Kurmi community to show their strength and legitimacy in their claim for Scheduled tribe status. By analysing pre-independence census data by British anthropologists, their study of culture and tribal way of life, and current socio-economic and political standing, the authors have attempted to trace the location of Kurmis (Mahto) of Chotanagpur region in the indigeneity discourse and their claim for ST status.

The Dalit Panthers: A Voice From the Below

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This article investigates the process of the domestication of ideas by the Dalit intellectuals leading to its radical assertion of ‘Dalit Consciousness’. A chance encounter with an article about the US Black Panthers in the Time magazine proved to be a wake-up call for the subalterns in India. The present paper centres around the ideologies adopted by the Dalit Panthers, the syncretism of ideas of B. R. Ambedkar, Jyotirao Phule and Karl Marx. Delving deeper into Ambedkar’s American academic background and his intellectual odyssey at Columbia University during the Harlem Renaissance, the article will look into the politics of emancipation, exchanges and similarities of both the intellectuals, W. E. B. Du Bois and B. R. Ambedkar as well as the influence of the Black Power movement on the Dalit movement and its literature. Tracing the trajectory of intersectional political and ideological diffusion between the two movements, this article, in addition to the above observations, will draw parallels by underlining the texts and themes of oppression present in both caste and race.