Just last month, Anagha Shashi, a Dalit PhD scholar in the Department of Environmental Science at Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University in Kerala, was forced to clean toilet and perform clerical work in the department. Her research guide once told her: “If there is no chair, stand in the corridor.” Priyanshu Kashyap, a young Adivasi PhD scholar and labour activist from Bastar pursuing his studies in Delhi, spent a year in a Lucknow jail in a case that has yet to be substantiated or even brought to trial. During the intervening night of August 13 and 14, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attacked the students at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Hyderabad, leaving several students injured. After nationwide protests on NEET reform, National Testing Agency (NTA) ordered a re-examination for UGC-NET English, Commerce and Sociology after an inquiry found several errors in the question papers.
As we sit in the aftermath of the spontaneity of protest we witnessed in the country in the past months, led by the youth, where many others in the country found a commons to agitate against the government, this TAC issue invites contributors to Issue 7: Students’ Movement and Anti-Caste Politics. From the Campaign for the Rohith Act urging the Karnataka government to enact the Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Discrimination, Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill to the Ban NEET movement, we welcome a wide range of critical reflections, long-form essays, creative writings, literary and cultural criticism, interviews and conversations around the shapeshifting students’ movement and caste politics. On the challenges, tensions, solidarities, and possibilities of how they intersect, complement, and complicate one another.
For essays, a brief abstract, not exceeding 250 words, is required to be submitted by the contributors to The Ambedkarian Chronicle by 15 September 2026. If approved, final submissions of 800-1500 words should ideally be submitted by 25 September 2026. The submission deadline is fairly flexible, keep in touch with our editor. We aim to tentatively publish the issue by 1 October 2026.
For interviews and short films, please send us a short pitch outlining what you intend to work on before 20 September, 2026.
All submissions (abstracts, pitches and final submissions) are to be made as a Google Doc to the email theambedkarianchronicle@gmail.com