What's your ism?

May 11 2024 6
What's your ism? Podcast artwork

What's your ism is a podcast about ideas and ideologies that claim to liberate the world and somehow always fall short. TNM's Sudipto Mondal and his guests grapple with impressive sounding isms -- Marxism, Feminism, Ambedkarism, religious systems -- and their inherent contradictions. An attempt to understand academics, activists, politicians, artists, rebels and wannabe revolutionaries who are in search of grand unified theories to solve the problems of the world.
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‘Dalit Muslims are striving for legitimacy’: Prof Khalid Anis Ansari on anti-caste discourse in Muslims

May 11 2024 65 mins  
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?

What’s Your Ism? Ep 9. feat Shalin Maria Lawrence on Dalit Christians in anti-caste discourse

May 08 2024 71 mins  
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-prof

‘Caste census not poll issue for OBCs’: Sumeet Mhasker on reservation, Hindutva

Apr 26 2024 54 mins  
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 ag

‘Time to revise theoretical positions’: D Raja on communists, caste, Buddha

Apr 19 2024 78 mins  
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

‘Slur to say communists are anti-Dalit’: Sitaram Yechury on caste, capitalism, international Left

Apr 19 2024 59 mins  
Amid the ongoing election fever, the Left parties are looking to regain their lost ground. But what are the limitations facing the Red Flag? Why do Indian communists share a difficult relationship with the anti-caste movement? And what is happening in the international communist movement?   In this special two-part episode on What's Your Ism, Sudipto Mondal speaks to

‘BSP, Mayawati losing relevance’: RS Praveen Kumar on anti-caste movement, switch to BRS

Apr 05 2024 74 mins  
RS Praveen Kumar, a former IPS officer, who had quit the civil services to join the Bahujan Samaj Party, has once again taken a u-turn. Last month, the popular Ambedkarite jumped to the BRS – a party he had earlier described as “casteist” and “feudal”. So what triggered this shift? What are his views on the anti-caste movement?      In this e

‘Mainstream media trumpeter of regime’: Sagarika Ghose on Hindutva, media, liberalism

Mar 29 2024 62 mins  
Sagarika Ghose, the journalist-turned-politician who recently made headlines for joining the Trinamool Congress, is set to contest the Rajya Sabha polls. Has she abandoned the journalism front? How does she look at Hindutva? What made her pull out of mainstream media? In this candid conversation with Sudipto Mondal for What’s your ism? – a podcast by The News Minute and Ne

Suniti Bhikkuni on caste, gender and Buddhism

Nov 30 2023 171 mins  
Bhante Suniti Bhikkuni is the founder of India’s first order of ‘Bhikkunis’ or female monks, a small group of committed Ambedkarite Dalit women who are striving to carve out an identity for themselves within the larger anti-caste movement. She talks about the dilemmas of associating with men and identifying with what passes for Navayana or Ambedkarite Buddhism in the country.

Kavita Krishnan on marxist parties and the feminist cause.

Oct 31 2023 95 mins  
India's leading feminist voice from a Marxist perspective, Kavita Krishnan, who was also one of the few women to ever enter the powerful politburo of the CPI (ML), speaks about the moral dilemmas of identifying with the formal left in the country. She also delved into the complications in Marxist thought arising out of questions concerning women, Dalits and other groups that have b

Suraj Yengde on caste and Christianity

Oct 16 2023 144 mins  
Global anti-caste scholar and activist Suraj Yegde, who's also a post doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, speaks about the future of the Ambedkarite anti-caste struggle, woke culture, Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA alliance. He also elaborates his position on the question of categorising Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims under Scheduled Castes. Hosted on Acast. Se