What's your ism‪?‬ Sudipto Mondal, The News Minute

People are not happy with the Election Commission: Major General Sudhir Vombatkere, a prominent voice in anti-Hindutva civil society circles, said that the conduct of the Election Commission and its openly partisan positions has eroded people's trust in these Lok Sabha elections. 
In the last set of critical political conversations in this season of What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal spoke to three leading civil society intellectuals and leaders days before the Lok Sabha results: Major General Vombatkere, founder of eedina.com and left activist Vasu and the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad.
In this part, General Vombatkere expressed fears that the supporters of the BJP might trigger a law and order situation irrespective of the outcome in these elections. If things go out of hand, central forces and even the army could be called in, he said. This led to an interesting deviation in the conversation with Vombatkere and Sudipto discussing the culture of the Indian army and its history.

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The Congress and opposition parties are increasingly occupying left spaces. The founder of eedina.com and prominent left activist from Karnataka, H V Vasu responds to criticism that progressive mass movements have been co-opted by the Congress and other non-BJP opposition parties.
In the last set of critical political conversations in this season of What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal spoke to three leading civil society intellectuals and leaders days before the Lok Sabha results: Major General Vombatkere, H V Vasu and Teesta Setalvad, the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace.
In this part, Vasu said that the Congress and other so-called secular parties have serious contradictions but are not impossible to collaborate with. "If they can use us, we can also use them," he said while underlining that there is growing sentiment in activist groups that they should independently enter electoral politics.

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Caste and untouchability are widely perceived as a Hindu phenomenon – orthodoxically, they are categorised as “illegitimate” in the Muslim community. But the Dalit Muslims facing caste oppression strive for legitimacy. So, what is the complex history and dynamics of castes among Muslims? How is it perceived in the political economy amid scarcity mongering around reservations? 
In this two-part episode on What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal speaks to Ambedkarite author Shalin Maria Lawrence and sociologist-professor Khalid Anis Ansari about the complexities of anti-caste politics  among Christians and Muslims in South Asia.
In part two, Ansari sheds light on the history of Dalit Muslims, religious nationalism, the anti-caste movement in pre-partition India, the caste census, and anti-caste mobilisation within Muslims.   
On the Muslim imagination of a sovereign nation, Ansari says, “I think there are also regional histories.” He adds, “The experience of a Kashmiri Gujjar Muslim is very different from the experience of a Shia Muslim or the ones in the Valley. Caste is written all across…There are all kinds of cleavages and contradictions.”    
Tune in.

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Caste and untouchability owe their origins to brahmanical Hinduism. But caste oppression is not restricted to the Hindu community. Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims face challenges in asserting their rights and demanding affirmative action.  
In this two-part episode on What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal speaks to Ambedkarite author Shalin Maria Lawrence and sociologist-professor Khalid Aniz Ansari about the complexities of anti-caste politics  among Christians and Muslims in South Asia.
In part one, Lawrence talks about caste oppression in the Christian community, Periyar, caste identity, political lobbying in Tamil Nadu, the POA Act, and laws to protect the rights of minorities at the intersection of caste.  
She also recounts her lived experiences of discrimination in church. “Within my church, I’m an untouchable. Within the church my ancestors built. The church I stopped going to. For generations, only Dalit women have been sweeping the church. Why?”   
Tune in. 


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Sumeet Mhasker, a labour sociologist and professor at OP Jindal Global University, has been analysing non-Brahmin and OBC politics over the last century and how these communities respond to the question of Hindutva and their economic hardship.
In this episode of What’s Your Ism, host Sudipto Mondal and professor Mhasker discuss the premise of Maharashtra’s Maratha reservation agitation and the sentiments driving other non-Brahmin communities to launch similar struggles.
 
As one of the few academics in India to study the economic factors behind the unrest within the socially dominant Shudra communities, Mhasker applies the Ambedkarite lens to his economic and class analysis. Ambedkarism, he contends, is “misunderstood” to be primarily concerned with caste when it is also focused on class.
Watch.


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D Raja, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India, says a communist revolution is not possible in India by only focussing on economic concerns.
In this special two-part episode on What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal earlier spoke to the CPIM’s Sitaram Yechury. In this part, Raja reflects on the role of BR Ambedkar and the Buddha in shaping his communist ideology, Modi’s India, and international conflicts.  
Although communists have traditionally been at loggerheads with identity movements, Raja says it's time to revise the theoretical positions held by classical Marxists. He also talks about why the CPI and the CPIM continue to be separate political parties despite being ideological twins. 
Watch. 


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