Freedom of Fantasy: An Insightful Conversation with Activist & Author Anand Teltumbde ✨

Anand Teltumbde’s room has a single bed, a large window and a bookshelf. This is where he lives and writes. The old building is inside the premises of the famous Rajgruha, a memorial and a museum dedicated to B. R. Ambedkar at Hindu colony of Dadar in Mumbai.<br />Teltumbde, who was arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon violence that happened on January 1, 2018, was released jn November 2022. <br />In an interview with Outlook, he talks about freedom of fantasy and class and caste in India.<br />Casteism is more pronounced than ever, he says. <br />For the scholar who was once a CEO, caste is like amoeba. <br />“It splits,” he says.<br />In his article on freedom for Outlook’s special issue on Independence Day, he writes, “The very basic freedoms that enable people to live as humans, such as freedom from hunger, freedom from disease, freedom from livelihood uncertainties (lack of means of production and employment) and freedom from injustice appear to be meaningless rhetoric for a vast majority of our people.”<br /><br />In Video: Chinki Sinha, Editor, Outlook and Anand Teltumbde, Scholar, Author and Activist <br />Camera: Dinesh Parab