Sunilraj, Balu and Borah, Prithiraj creator text Economic & Political Weekly monographic eng

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61(16), Apr 18, 2026: p.35-40 Focusing on the protests and debates against the recent University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, the article examines how upper-caste common sense manifests as both assertion and victimhood when caste-based policies challenge entrenched exclusions and hierarchies. Recent protests have displayed an unabashed upper-caste assertion in public space, not merely through claims of victimhood but also through open sloganeering such as Brahmanvad Zindabad. This marks a qualitative shift in upper-caste politics, one in which the earlier “cloaks of civility” appear to have been discarded. –Reproduced https://www.epw.in/journal/2026/16/perspectives/between-assertion-and-victimhood.html Economic & Political Weekly 260505