By Palla Trinadha Rao The history of tribal struggles in Andhra Pradesh is not merely a history of economic deprivation or social exclusion. It is fundamentally a political history of communities asserting control over their land, forests, resources, identity, and systems of governance against powerful external forces. From the colonial period to the present day, tribal regions have witnessed numerous struggles against exploitation, land alienation, administrative domination, and political marginalisation. These struggles shaped many of the legal and constitutional safeguards that exist today. Yet while the issues confronting tribal communities remain largely unchanged, the political character of tribal struggles has undergone profound transformation.
By Mythri Tewary The establishment laughed. Twenty-two million people didn’t. What unfolds when a generation loses faith in its institutions and finds faith in a joke instead? There is something deeply fascinating as well as humorously unsettling about the fact that an entire generation has started identifying with cockroaches. Not lions. Not eagles. Not lotus flowers, national animals, or glorifying symbols. But cockroaches. An insect everyone wants dead, yet one that survives everything. That alone is a gruesome representation of the times we live in. The origin of any movement holds a story. In politics, it might emerge with manifestos, rebellion, revolutions, or a single vote. The ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ (CJP), though, has its origin as an insult—rather, a sentence that millions of youngsters heard as one. “They (youngsters) are like cockroaches,” or “parasites” in society, were the words of the Honourable Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, during a court hearing...