The Blog of Cafe Dissensus Magazine – we DISSENT

Posts from the ‘Poverty’ category

The Less Fortunate

By Haris Ahmed
The man was shivering; a young lad shoved him down on his knees. Another man loaded his rifle. Before the crowd could react, the man lay lifeless in a pool of blood. The crowd began cheering and roaring in frenzy.


The Privileged Indian: Liberal or Otherwise

By Raj Shekhar Sen
There is nothing like a Dalit history month on public TV or exhibits in museums that seek to educate the upper-castes in India about a long and dark chapter of their past (and present).

My Gift

By Sutapa Basu
What had I done? Was it their hunger I had appeased or assuaged my guilt? Here I was, unthinkingly buying inessential food to mark just a festive occasion and there they were… starving for just a morsel!

Rohingya Muslim Persecution in Myanmar

By Syed Kamran Ali

Nirbhaya and Korpan Shah: Two Stories, Two Trajectories

By Nandini Ghosh
Korpan, on the other hand, is just the opposite of all that Nirbhaya represented – a mentally ill man, with little education and no stable job, hence with very few aspirations in life. Moreover, the aspersion of theft of a mobile phone made him more culpable for the crime he was accused of. It is almost believable that a mentally ill man with little money would be prone to committing such a crime.

Flying Birds of India

By Joyce Yarrow
Many of the films made by the Flying Birds documented the lives of working artists or were made during field trips throughout the city or holiday celebrations. When, after the screening, a young man presented me with an embroidered portrait of Tagore, I made no attempt to hide my tears of gratitude. Being with the Flying Birds had changed me in ways I knew I had yet to acknowledge.

Book Review: Akhil Gupta’s ‘Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India’

By EPM Swalih
Akhil Gupta’s study is different from other postcolonial scholars working within a western theoretical framework. He shows a unique way to engage with Euro-American theories. And that is why I began to love his work. His interrogation of the theories of governmentality, biopolitics, and sovereign ban results from his grounding in Mandi district of Western Uttar Pradesh, India. He compels us to think with the Euro-American theories only if we are able to critically approach them. I find his attempts in provincializing Europe[1] as one of the most rewarding tasks ever undertaken by the postcolonial scholars.

World Cup: The Power of Football

By Mosarrap H. Khan
What is it about football that resonates with billions of people around the globe? Is it just the sheer magic, wizardry, skill, stamina, pace, grace, and beauty? Is it because football is perhaps one of the very few games that depend on the use of limited body parts? Or is it that football has always stood for a means of social mobility for the underdogs?