 validity in 2008. The Government of Andhra Pradesh took his help as advisor in 2007 to identify the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of Muslims and on the basis of his encyclopaedic analysis, the government enacted legislation providing 4 per cent reservation for them, and to guide its defence in the High Court and later in the Supreme Court.
He is closely associated with a number of NGOs working for the rights of SCs, STs, SEdBCs, including Muslim and other Minority BCs. He has been the chairman and a member of many working groups and steering committees of the Planning Commission and government committees on these communities.
He is the author of many books, documents, papers on the subject of social justice, some published and others in the pipeline. Presently in his mid-80s, he is, in association with younger colleagues and social workers, feverishly working on pushing with governments his road map of comprehensive legislative and programmatic/schematic measures required for the holistic advancement of SCs, STs and SEdBCs, especially the most and extremely backward castes among the SEdBCs, to enable them to reach the level of equality with the socially advanced castes, particularly on securing national and state legislations for Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (SCP) and Tribal sub-Plan (TsP) and SC and ST Development Authorities; securing full implementation of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act; and categorization and socio-economic advancement of the SEdBCs, and travelling all over the country for this cause.
The book has a rather unusual form; it is not an autobiography or reminiscences in the traditional format. It is a long interview of Krishnan by me, the questions merely providing the cue for Krishnan to delve into his monumental work and flesh out the teeming data stored in his amazing memory. It is a themes-based and issues-based account of Krishnan’s life-journey, work and ideas, brought out through my questions on specific issues. Arising from this format, the book does not follow chapterisation based on chronological sequencing as is usual in biographies/autobiographies, but is arranged on the basis of thematic continuity and unity. Originally, these questions were framed by me in a different context, viz., to elicit more information than I already had about him in order to enable me to write an introduction to a book of Mr Krishnan (translated in Tamil by Thiru T. Neethirajan) which was released on 9 January 2017 in Chennai under the title Jaati Ozhippukkaana Chennai Prakatanam (Chennai Declaration for Caste Eradication). I requested him to answer each question in as much detail as possible, unconstrained by considerations of length. This grew into the present full-length book.
The book is an invaluable compendium for all those who believe in justice, human rights, the vision of the Indian Constitution and material and social progress of all Indians. It does not stop with laying down the ideal, but shows how to take on the structure of a caste-class society and the governments that safeguard the unjust structure, all of it, working from within the system. Students and teachers of issues of deprivation, exclusion and policies for inclusion would specially benefit from it. The book must be a prescribed text for trainees of India’s civil and other services, including the judicial service.
Excerpted from A Crusade for Social Justice, published by South Vision Books and available for purchase here
Forward Press also publishes books on Bahujan issues. Forward Press Books sheds light on the widespread problems as well as the finer aspects of Bahujan (Dalit, OBC, Adivasi, Nomadic, Pasmanda) society, culture, literature and politics. Contact us for a list of FP Books’ titles and to order. Mobile: +917827427311, Email: info@forwardmagazine.in)
The titles from Forward Press Books are also available on Kindle and these e-books cost less than their print versions. Browse and buy:
The Case for Bahujan Literature
Mahishasur: A people’s hero
Dalit Panthers: An Authoritative History
Mahishasur: Mithak wa Paramparayen
The Common Man Speaks OutI am living in order to attain the spiritual dimension. And you?
Man very much needs to feel a deficiency for spirituality; otherwise, what is the reason for his living? The wisdom of Kabbalah is a special wisdom because it raises a person, in his life, to the level of eternity, to a dimension of timelessness. When he rises to this level and feels it, this is called that "you will see your world in your lifetime." And then a person feels the spiritual life, the endless flow of nature. He needs his body, i.e., his animal, only to connect to others and in order to execute actions towards them. But the person himself is already in the spiritual dimension.
We must worry that we have a drive for this, a desire for this, to understand how the wisdom of Kabbalah is special. In the beginning the understanding is of an egotistic nature. Afterwards we will understand that the departure to the spiritual dimension is something else, and we receive it in a different way. But in the meantime, we need to worry about ourselves in an egoistic way. From this we will begin to awaken.
What does the term "the coming of the Messiah" mean, and how is it connected to the worldwide global crisis?
"The coming of the Messiah" is the state into which all of humanity is currently entering. This is the beginning of the final redemption, in which the Creator wants to be revealed to everyone, to all humans, and there is a limited time allocated for this. This is the beginning of the revelation that we are not yet familiar with or understand, but it can already be identified according to all the events occurring in the world these days, about which Kabbalists write for us.
Therefore, we are now entering the global crisis; and the Force that requires us to properly connect among us is being revealed. The more we disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, the more we will advance and implement this goal ourselves, which is called the path of Achishena ("I will hasten it."), and the faster and easier we will attain this great goal. And if not, then unfortunately we may suffer until the forces of nature will necessitate us to implement it, in any case.Premise & Hypothesis & Options: People are sitting together and smiling.
People are sitting together and smiling outside.
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no
Is the hypothesis true or not: it is not possible to tell
Premise & hypothesis: Is the premise "a brown labradoodle retrieves a tennis ball in a lake" true if "Cat sleeps in windowsill"?
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no
A: no
Premise & hypothesis.
A white and black dog is running out of a yellow and orange tube.

Two dogs are running out of a tube.
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no
++++++++++
true or not.
yes
Premise: A boy lying on a floral department store couch with his feet in a girl's lap.

Hypothesis: The boy is resting.
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no
it is not possible to tell
Question:
Premise: Four cowboys sitting at a table drinking Jack Daniels in the middle of a rodeo arena.

Hypothesis: Four cowboys and their dogs are drinking in the middle of a rodeo arena.
Is the hypothesis true?
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no

Answer:
no
Premise & Hypothesis & Options: A woman in white is throwing a boy into the air.
The child is not the woman's.
OPTIONS:
- yes
- it is not possible to tell
- no
Is the hypothesis true or not:
noCAT has seen quite a few changes recently. It turned online in 2009, it turned online without glitches in 2010 (could not resist the dig even though I think the CAT is a great exam), became a partial linear on-the-fly exam in 2011 and could soon become a round-the-year exam. Now, what does all this mean, and what are the implications?
A fixed form method of testing is a method of testing where all applicants write the same exam, get to see the same set of questions and are given percentile-based scores after the scores are computed. An on-the-fly exam is a paper where different candidates are given different questions but overall percentiles are calculated post normalizing the scores for varying levels of difficulty (on a per-question basis). A completely on-the-fly exam would probably be one where questions are dynamically selected from a database based on some dynamically changing parameter(s). This changing parameter is usually the candidate's performance in the exam up to that point. This is popularly known as the adaptive testing model.
Why this shift from fixed-form testing to on-the-fly testing?
To start with, the fixed form testing is simpler. One paper for all applicants ensures fair testing, removes randomness, and provides an ideal benchmark. But it has certain constraints - two very important ones stand out.
1. The most important is the fact that it is difficult to design an exam