Arundhati lecture: Anti-caste publisher releases video, transcript which termed Gandhiji a "false Mahatma"

By A Representative
Well-known writer and Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy has created flutter once again, this time by calling Gandhiji a “false Mahatma”. Delivered as Ayyankali Memorial lecture Kerala University, Trivandrum, on July 17, 2014, the lecture evoked such sharp reaction that Speaker of the Kerala Assembly G. Karthikeyan said Roy’s views on Gandhiji must “hurt anyone who was born in India”. Now, Navayana, which claims to be the only publishing programme “focusing on case from an anti-caste perspective programme”, has hit back: “We think many of Gandhi’s views should hurt a lot of people—irrespective of where they are born.”
Even as there are reports that the police is searching of the transcript and the video of Roy’s lecture, the Delhi-based publishing house has released both, declaring, “It’s indeed time we decided whom we celebrated as heroes.” It says, after outlining Ayyankali’s radicalism, Roy “asked people to question the political conspiracy that kept a person of Ayyankali’s stature away from the popular imagination, giving details of Gandhi’s views on Blacks and ‘bhangis’ (Dalits), and ‘cautioning against celebrating wrong heroes’.”
During the 2,900-word lecture, released by Navayana, Roy compares Ayyakali and Gandhiji saying, “In 1904, when here in Kerala there was a movement led by Ayyankali that was fighting for the rights of Dalits to be educated, the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi was in South Africa. What is the legend of Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa? That he fought caste, that he fought race in South Africa…”
Saying that this type of image, which "we are taught in school and that we are made to believe is a lie and it’s time we faced up to it", Roy insists, "It is time we unveiled some real truths here because we cannot be basing our ideas of ourselves as a nation on a lie.” Reading out what Gandhiji “said about Dalit peoples in South Africa”, she quotes his views about bonded labour: “Whether they are Hindus or Mahommedans, they are absolutely without any moral or religious instruction worthy of the name. They have not learned enough to educate themselves without any outside help. Placed thus, they are apt to yield to the slightest temptation to tell a lie.”
Then, she quotes Gandhiji as objecting to being placed with the blacks in South African jail: “We could understand not being classed with the whites, but to be placed on the same level with the natives seemed to be too much to put up with.” Calling the “natives” Kaffirs, Gandhiji said, “Kaffirs as a rule are uncivilized, the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, and dirty and live like animals. Then he goes on to call them savages…”
Suggesting that Gandhiji had a similar view of “bhangis”, Roy quotes from his essay “The Ideal Bhangi” (in "Harijan", 1936): “He should know how a right kind of latrine is constructed and the correct way of cleaning it. He should know how to overcome and destroy the odour of excreta and the various disinfectants to render them innocuous. He should likewise know the process of converting urine and night soil into manure. But that is not all. My ideal Bhangi would know the quality of night-soil and urine. He would keep a close watch on these and give a timely warning to the individual concerned.”
Comparing this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's view who in 2007 said in his now withdrawn book “Karmayog”, Roy quotes Modi as saying, “I do not believe that they (Valmikis) are doing this job to sustain their livelihood. Had this been so, they would not have continued with this type of job generation after generation. At some point of time, somebody must have got the enlightenment that it is their (the Valmikis’) duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods and that they have to do this job bestowed upon them by Gods and that this job of cleaning up should continue as an internal spiritual activity for centuries.”
Calling Hindutva a "conspiracy" by the upper caste Hindus, who thought it would be terrible if the 40 million Dalits would convert to other religions, Roy calls Gandhiji as one a "legatee" of this "reform". Pointing out that earlier “Hindus never referred to themselves as Hindu; they used to refer themselves as only their caste names”, she insisted, “Hindu became not a religious but a political identity. They started to talk about the Hindu nation, the Hindu race and that’s how Hindutava started.”

Comments

Academics urge Azim Premji University to drop FIR against Student Reading Circle

By A Representative A group of academics and civil society members has issued an open letter to the leadership of Azim Premji University expressing concern over the filing of a police complaint that led to an FIR against a student-run reading circle following a recent incident of violence on campus. The signatories state that they hold the university in high regard for its commitment to constitutional values, critical inquiry and ethical public engagement, and argue that it is precisely because of this reputation that the present development is troubling.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

UAPA action against Telangana activist: Criminalising legitimate democratic activity?

By A Representative The National Investigation Agency's Hyderabad branch has issued notices to more than ten individuals in Telangana in connection with FIR No. RC-04/2025. Those served include activists, former student leaders, civil rights advocates, poets, writers, retired schoolteachers, and local leaders associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Indian National Congress.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Aligning too closely with U.S., allies, India’s silence on IRIS Dena raises troubling questions

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The reported sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka raises troubling questions about international norms and the credibility of the so-called rule-based order. If indeed the vessel was attacked by the American Navy while returning from a joint exercise in Visakhapatnam, it would represent a serious breach of trust and a violation of the principles that govern such cooperative engagements. Warships participating in these exercises are generally not armed for combat; they are meant to symbolize solidarity and friendship. The incident, therefore, is not only shocking but also deeply ironic.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

India’s foreign policy at crossroads: Cost of silence in the face of aggression

By Venkatesh Narayanan, Sandeep Pandey The widely anticipated yet unprovoked attack on Iran on March 1 by the United States and Israel has drawn sharp criticism from several quarters around the world. Reports indicate that the strikes have resulted in significant civilian casualties, including 165 elementary school girls, 20 female volleyball players, and many other civilians.

Search This Blog