Sanoop U, claim CPI(M) leader
News

The murder of a Dalit communist

CPI(M) leader Sanoop U was hacked to death on Sunday night (4 October) reportedly by a gang of RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers. Sanoop belonged to a Dalit community, and was the Joint Secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India’s (DYFI) Chovvanur Area Committee. Sanoop is the fourth left activist killed in Kerala by right-wing forces in the past seven weeks. The right forces are emboldened by their faith that the mainstream media would come to their aid as usual by playing down the murders of communists, as if communists are lesser human beings. Even sections who are otherwise vocal about atrocities against Dalits largely tend to ignore the murders of Dalits who are communists, as evidenced by reactions to the murder of DYFI activist Asok in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu in June 2019. [Read more]

Padana Muri (Study Room) for SC students, Kerala
News

Kerala’s Left Government Builds 12,250 study rooms for Dalit students; 8,500 more in the offing

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of Kerala has inaugurated 12,250 study rooms constructed using government funds at the houses of Scheduled Caste students who did not have adequate facilities to study at home. Along with these, another 250 community study rooms for Scheduled Tribe students were also opened on Saturday, 20 September 2020 at an online ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by AK Balan, Minister for SC/ST Development, and the study rooms were inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. [Read more]

Pinarayi Vijayan
News

“They better realise that times have changed” – Pinarayi Vijayan responds to casteist abuses targeting him

Reactionary sections are incensed not just at his political positions, but also the fact that somebody from the thiyya / ezhava caste, a community of former untouchables with traditional occupations such as coconut plucking and toddy tapping, has risen to the position of the Chief Minister of the State. [Read more]

01-kottayam2
News Struggles

SFI and DYFI hold beef festivals across Kerala to protest cattle sale clampdown

Left-wing student and youth organisations held protests throughout Kerala to protest the central government’s order banning the sale of cattle for slaughter in markets. The beef festivals organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) witnessed large participation of students, youth, prominent personalities from various fields and the general public. [Read more]

pinarayi-desh
News

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan condemns Modi govt’s new rules on cattle slaughter and trade; calls the move an attack on the poor

The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the notification by the BJP government at the centre prohibiting the sale of cattle for slaughter in markets. Subsequently he shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, demanding the repeal of the newly imposed restrictions. [Read more]

EMS Namboodiripad taking oath as the First Chief minister of Kerala. (Photo courtesy: Frontline)
Essay

Castes, Classes and Parties in Modern Political Development

EMS Namboodiripad

5 April 2017 marked the 60th anniversary of the swearing in of the First Communist Ministry in Kerala, with Comrade EMS as the Chief Minister. Among the many far-reaching measures of the First Communist Ministry were the pioneering land reforms which abolished statutory landlordism and ‘jenmi’ system in the state, thus breaking the back of Brahminical landlordism and weakening “upper caste” Hindu landlordism as a whole. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the First Communist Ministry, Anticaste.in republishes Comrade EMS’s landmark article “Castes, Classes and Parties in Modern Political Development”, published first in the journal ‘Social Scientist’ in November 1977. [Read more]