Editor
A tribute to BR Ambedkar on his birth anniversary will be meaningless if we ignore the fundamental questions of caste, egalitarian social order, and social democracy. Under the current regime, Bahujan autonomy, assertion and inclusion of the Dalit independent movement needs renewal, which means renewing the focus on varied issues.
In India, the violence against reservation policy till now has been indirect as Dalits have been attacked for keeping moustaches or riding horses, i.e. over cultural symbols. But those attacks are not just about cultural symbols but also have an economic angle.
In 2007, when questions emerged about how to address former President Pratibha Patil in Hindi, the late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackrey argued for replacing the word ‘Rashtrapati’ with ‘Rashtra-adhyaksh’, a more apt and gender-neutral Hindi translation of the word President.
Droupadi Murmu’s victory is the victory of representation. She carries the dual identities of marginalisation that have been a hurdle to India’s reputation as an otherwise progressive and rapidly growing position in world politics — gender and ethnicity.
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