1 min read
An Incomplete Caste Census: Not Data, but Illusion
If a census only counts how many people belong to each caste, it produces statistics — not social reality.
Azaad Kalam
Essays
Essays, commentary and ideas drawn from the books — 26 pieces. Most are written in Hindi; each has an English title and summary here.
1 min read
Questioning Is Not Opposition — It Is the First Step to Understanding
Azaad Kalam is not a platform for any ideology or party. It is a space for questions, ideas and dialogue.
Articles in Hindi
These articles are published in Hindi. The titles and summaries below are English translations.
5 min readIn Hindi
From Counting to Prosperity — What Is the Real Path to Making India a Great Power?
गणना से समृद्धि तक — भारत को सचमुच महाशक्ति बनाने का रास्ता क्या है?
If a sick man’s weight and fever are measured day and night but he is given neither food nor medicine, will he grow strong? Prosperity comes not from counting castes alone — this is the real path.
5 min readIn Hindi
Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh and Savarkar — What Was the India Each of Them Dreamed Of?
बाबासाहेब अम्बेडकर, भगत सिंह और सावरकर — तीनों के सपनों का भारत कैसा था?
Every party hangs the poster of whichever great figure suits it. But have we asked what Ambedkar’s fraternity, Bhagat Singh’s socialism and the Patel–Savarkar model of the nation actually were?
5 min readIn Hindi
Farming Hatred in the Name of History — Aurangzeb, Temples and Today’s Hollow Speeches
इतिहास के नाम पर नफ़रत की खेती — औरंगज़ेब, मंदिर और आज के खोखले भाषण
A driver who keeps staring into the rear-view mirror is bound to crash. Why do our leaders give speeches about Mughals of 400 years ago instead of today’s hospitals and jobs?
5 min readIn Hindi
The Poona Pact of 1932 — The Gandhi–Ambedkar Agreement That Changed Indian Politics
पूना पैक्ट 1932 — गांधी और अम्बेडकर का वो समझौता जिसने राजनीति बदल दी
Gandhi’s fast unto death in Yerwada jail and Babasaheb’s reluctant agreement in 1932 — and how today’s reserved-seat MPs have fallen silent for their own communities.
4 min readIn Hindi
Why Does a ₹10 Medicine Cost ₹100? Profiteering from Illness and the Common Person’s Helplessness
10 रुपये की दवा 100 रुपये में क्यों? बीमारी पर धंधा और आम आदमी की बेबसी
Why does a tablet that costs ₹2 to make carry an MRP of ₹100? The decline of government hospitals and the private medical nexus that has driven the poor into ruin.
5 min readIn Hindi
The ₹35,000 Soldier and the Seven-Star Revellers — Who Is the Real Patriot?
35,000 रुपये पाने वाला जवान और 7-स्टार वाले मौज उड़ाने वाले — असली देशभक्त कौन?
At minus 40 degrees, a poor farmer’s son earning ₹35,000 guards the border, while those who evade taxes and party in seven-star hotels call themselves the nation’s masters.
4 min readIn Hindi
Why Does the Farmer Who Grows Our Food Die in Debt?
अनाज उगाने वाला किसान कर्ज़ में क्यों मरता है?
A carmaker sets the price of a car, yet the farmer who feeds 140 crore people cannot set the price of his own crop. The bitter truth, from the market yard to Parliament.
4 min readIn Hindi
Is India Still the ‘Golden Bird’? The New Plunder by Domestic and Foreign Capital
क्या आज भी भारत 'सोने की चिड़िया' है? देशी-विदेशी पूँजीपतियों की नई लूट
History tells us the Mughals and the British plundered India, the ‘golden bird’. But what is the truth of the plunder since independence, through the collusion of industrialists and politicians?
4 min readIn Hindi
A Bold Idea: Why Five Years of Military Service Should Be Required to Contest Elections
एक साहसिक विचार: चुनाव लड़ने के लिए सेना में 5 साल की सेवा अनिवार्य क्यों हो?
The leaders who decide the nation’s future in Parliament — have they ever heard a bullet at the border? N. Singh’s proposal that could rid politics of brokers.
5 min readIn Hindi
Resort Politics in Five-Star Hotels — The People Vote, the Leaders Are Bought
5 सितारा होटलों में रिसॉर्ट-पॉलिटिक्स — जनता वोट देती है, नेता बिक जाते हैं
The person you sweat in the sun to elect is later seen enjoying five-star hotels and being sold for crores. Is our democracy a service, or the most profitable business?
4 min readIn Hindi
From Mandal to the Panchayat — Did Power Reach the Village, or Did the Village Break Apart?
मंडल से पंचायत तक — गाँव में सत्ता आई या गाँव टुकड़ों में बँट गया?
Once, when trouble struck one home, the whole village came running. Today, panchayat elections have turned neighbours who shared one well and one meeting-place into bitter enemies.
5 min readIn Hindi
Country and Nation: What Is the Difference? The Lesson of ‘Hotel’ versus ‘Home’
देश और राष्ट्र में क्या अंतर है? 'होटल' बनाम 'अपना घर' की सीख
In a hotel you pay, stay and enjoy — protecting it is not your responsibility. But you would give your life to protect your own home. Are we treating India like a hotel?
4 min readIn Hindi
Kitchen Politics versus Real Equality — Decisions at Home and Seats in Parliament
किचन पॉलिटिक्स बनाम असली बराबरी — घर के फैसले और संसद की कुर्सी
It is easy to win applause on social media arguing over who makes the tea and who washes the dishes. But are women getting their real due of dignity and merit at home and in society?
5 min readIn Hindi
The Women’s Reservation Act and Delimitation — When and How Will the 33% Promise Come True?
नारी शक्ति वंदन अधिनियम और परिसीमन — 33% का वादा कब और कैसे सच होगा?
Women’s reservation passed to thunderous applause in Parliament, but two conditions attached to it have left the promise hanging for years. The full story of delimitation.
4 min readIn Hindi
A Quota Within the Quota — Will It Help the Woman Who Carries Bricks and Ploughs Fields?
आरक्षण के भीतर आरक्षण — क्या इससे ईंट ढोने और खेत जोतने वाली औरत का भला होगा?
There is a demand for separate OBC and Dalit quotas within women’s reservation. It sounds like justice, but what will happen on the ground? Will the poorest woman’s kitchen fire change?
4 min readIn Hindi
From ‘Pradhan-Pati’ to ‘MP-Pati’ — Will Women’s Reservation Truly Empower Women?
'प्रधानपति' से लेकर 'सांसदपति' तक — क्या महिला आरक्षण से असली औरत को ताकत मिलेगी?
When a woman wins the village headship, her husband sits in the chair. With 33% reservation in Parliament, will we now see ‘MP-husbands’ — someone else’s voice, someone else’s mind?
4 min readIn Hindi
Who Should Get Homes and Welfare? The Truly Landless versus the ‘Poor on Paper’
मकान और योजनाएं किसे मिलें? झुग्गी-झोपड़ी और असली भूमिहीन बनाम कागज़ी गरीब
In villages, people who already own brick houses and land bribe their way into government housing, while the homeless family sleeping under a plastic sheet never makes the list.
5 min readIn Hindi
N. Singh’s Radical Formula: Why Reservation Should Go Only to Children of Government Primary Schools
एन. सिंह का क्रांतिकारी फॉर्मूला: आरक्षण सिर्फ सरकारी प्राइमरी स्कूल के बच्चों को क्यों मिले?
One child studies in an air-conditioned school paying lakhs in fees; another sits on a sack in a crumbling village primary school. Is it fair to weigh both on the same scale just because of caste?
5 min readIn Hindi
The ‘Creamy Layer’ and the Dragon’s Teeth — When the Well-Off Take What Belongs to the Poor
'क्रीमी लेयर' और ड्रैगन के दाँत — जब अपने ही अमीर भाई गरीबों का हक दबा लें
When milk is heated, cream rises to the top. If one cat laps up all the cream, what happens to the hungry ones? Those who have grown rich within reserved groups are that cream.
5 min readIn Hindi
Reservation: A Cure for the Illness, or a Lasting Addiction for Votes?
आरक्षण: बीमारी की दवा या वोटों का पक्का नशा?
When someone has a fever, the doctor gives medicine so the patient can stand on their own feet. But if someone stays in bed on medicine for life, will they ever be healthy?
5 min readIn Hindi
Why a Caste Census Is Not So Simple (Sub-castes, New Surnames and Modern Tangles)
जातीय जनगणना कराना इतना आसान क्यों नहीं है? (उपजातियां, नए सरनेम और आधुनिक उलझनें)
It is easy for leaders to demand a caste count in speeches. But when a census worker arrives at a door with a register, the puzzles they face have no simple answers.
4 min readIn Hindi
The ‘85 versus 15’ Slogan — Does Counting Heads Fill Empty Stomachs?
85 बनाम 15 का नारा — क्या सिर्फ सिर गिनने से पेट भर जाता है?
The ‘85 versus 15’ slogan echoes through election rallies. But has anyone asked why the weakest person within that 85% still stands where they stood 50 years ago?
4 min readIn Hindi
A Society of Half-Truths — We Believe in Caste, Yet Fear to Talk About It
'आधे सच' का समाज — हम जाति मानते भी हैं और बात करने से डरते भी हैं
We say India is changing and caste is disappearing. But if caste has truly gone, why does it still decide elections, and why is it still asked about at weddings?
5 min readIn Hindi
Are We Counting Society to Understand It, or to Divide It?
क्या हम समाज को समझने के लिए गिन रहे हैं या बाँटने के लिए?
Counting is not bad in itself. But when the purpose is only to see which caste can be turned against which, it is not justice — it is tearing society apart.