Mahishasur was the mythological hero of the Bahujan communities of India. According to D.D. Kaushambi, Mahishasur’s realm was Mahoba in Bundelkhand. In connection with the research for my book, I reached Mahoba on 2 October 2015. Mahishasur’s memories still survive in the folk traditions of Mahoba. He is known as Maikasur, Kaaras Dev, Gwal Bab…[Read more]

Their words might have been different but both Ambedkar and Phule talked of the slavery of women and Shudras and Ati-shudras, their liberation and their unity. The concept of ‘Bahujan Literature’ was born to highlight the need to explore the socio-cultural foundation of the liberation and unity of Bahujans.

there is a broad unanimity among Hin…[Read more]

इस संपादकीय लेख में कहा गया है कि जोतिबा फुले और आम्बेडकर दोनों ने मुख्य रूप से अलग-अलग शब्दावली में शूदों-अतिशूद्रों तथा स्त्री की गुलामी और इससे मुक्ति के लिए इनकी एकता की बात की है। हिंदी में ‘बहुजन साहित्य’ का जन्म प्रकारांतर से इसी विचार के सांस्कृतिक-सामाजिक आधार की खोज की जरूरत पर बल देने के लिए हुआ है।
मध्यवर्ती जातियों और दलित जाति…[Read more]

We wrote this report in December 2015. In this report, we have tried to bring out the ideology of the organisers of Mahishasur Day, and their strategy for cultural-social change.
When, on 25 October 2011, a handful of students of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University celebrated Mahishasur Martyrdom Day for the first time, no one could have i…[Read more]

दिल्ली के जवाहरलाल नेहरू विश्वविद्यालय में मुट्ठी भर अन्य पिछड़ा वर्ग और दलित छात्रों ने जब 25 अक्टूबर, 2011 को पहली बार ‘महिषासुर शहादत दिवस’ मनाया था, तब शायद किसी ने सोचा भी नहीं होगा कि यह दावनल की आग सिद्ध होगा। 2015 तक, महज चार सालों में ही इन आयोजनों ने न सिर्फ देशव्यापी सामाजिक आलोडऩ पैदा कर दिया था, बल्कि ये आदिवासियों, अन्य पिछडा वर्ग…[Read more]

This article reassesses the metaphors found in Isa 49.26a and 63.6 in their historical and socio-religious context of alcohol production. Using interdisciplinary approaches from archaeology and anthropology, traditional interpretations that have emphasised a context of alcohol consumption and drunkenness, rather than wine production, are…[Read more]

This essay examines the Book of Revelation in dialogue with the films of Christopher Nolan, with particular attention to the use of nonlinear narrative. The approach taken to Nolan’s work is that of auteur theory, a pattern theory which traces the distinctive technical and artistic voice of the director across a wide range of films (e.g. M…[Read more]

This is a slightly revised version of the text of a talk that I (Seo-Young Chu) gave as part of the Fall 2014 Franke Lectures in the Humanities at Yale University. I’m sharing the text here to make the lecture more accessible. Topics include: North Korea/the DPRK, the “uncanny body politic,” the uncanny valley, “dystopian poetics,” what it means…[Read more]

“The Bible” does not exist as material reality, and yet as a cultural icon “the Bible” animates institutions and enterprises devoted to it. This article assesses the short history of scholarship on one such institution, the controversial Museum of the Bible (MOTB) in Washington, D.C., in order to highlight and critique the fantasy of “the Bi…[Read more]

In this essay, we will explore information-seeking behavior as exhibited by Doja Cat on her 2021 record, Need to Know, using Kuhlthau’s (1993) six-stage Information Search Process.