Chandrabhan Prasad
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Chandra Bhan Prasad has become famous as the first Dalit to have a regular column in a Leading English Indian newspaper.
Chandra started writing a weekly column titled Dalit Diary for The Pioneer in 1999, and continues to do so. Recently Navayana published a compilation of all the articles in the column from 1999 - 2003 as a book of the same name. Through his column, Chandra Bhan Prasad wages an untiring battle to present a point of view that he sees as being completely ignored by the Chaturvarna society, who, he feels, continue to deny the Dalits their rightful place in Indian society as a result.
Chandra Bhan Prasad was born in September 1958 in a village in Azamgarh district of East Uttar Pradesh. Both his parents were illiterate, but the family had sufficient agricultural land. His family valued education, and was also able to afford education for their children. Chandra went to JNU, where he did his MA in International Politics, M. Phil. on China's Technology Acquisition in the Post-Mao Era, and enrolled for a Ph.D. project to study the Development of Science in Communist China. Chandra got involved in student politics during his BA studies, and joined the CPI[L] party. He continued his involvement with radical politics in JNU.
At JNU Chandra read Ambedkar, became heavily influenced, and threw himself into the activities of SC/ST student associations. In the May 1983 JNU movement Chandra was at the forefront, was arrested along with 600 other JNU students, including some 200 women students, and spent time in Delhi's Tihar Jail. Chandra was once again in the thick of things during the Mandal agitations, by organizing pro-Mandal agitations in JNU and Delhi.
In 1991 Chandra launched Dalit Shiksha Andolan, which spread to almost all districts of Uttar Pradesh. Since then he has involved himself in issues other than literacy and education, hoping to bring greater visibility to the Dalit cause.
But Chandrabhan, who intitally aligned with pro-Dalit forces and espoused the cause of dalits, shifted his loyalty to the BJP and theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). His shift in ideology has been criticised by many anti-Hindu people.
[edit] External links
- Quota benefits should go to new social proletariat By Chandra Bhan Prasad
