An Ambedkar for our times
10 years, 11 months ago

An Ambedkar for our times

The Hindu  

In an interview published in Outlook, Arundhati Roy says, “We need Ambedkar — now, urgently” — it was in connection with the publication of a new annotated edition of Ambedkar’s text, TheAnnihilation of Caste, brought out by Navayana, a New Delhi-based publishing house. A young Ambedkar who theorised castes as the enclosed classes, the enclosure being provided by the system of endogamy and exogamy, expecting the larger Hindu society to wake up and undertake social reforms like intermarriage in order to open up castes into classes is in contrast to the post-Mahad Ambedkar, disillusioned by the rabid reactions from caste Hindus, turning his sights to politics to accomplish his objective. What about the Ambedkar of the 1940s, who returns to the caste, dissolves the ILP and forms the Scheduled Castes Federation, shuns agitational politics and joins the colonial government as labour minister or the one who wrote States and Minorities, propounding state socialism be hardcoded into the proposed Constitution of free India? Ambedkar is surely needed as long as the virus of caste lingers in this land but not as a reincarnation of the old one as most Dalits emotionally reflect on.

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History of this topic

Ambedkar statue vandalised in Ahmedabad amid controversy; Congress MLA Mevani warns agitation
Trending News
3 months, 1 week ago

Ambedkar statue vandalised in Ahmedabad amid controversy; Congress MLA Mevani warns agitation

New Indian Express  

"We have registered a complaint in the matter and are actively working to apprehend the accused," said Ahmedabad ACP Krunal Desai regarding the vandalism of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue in the Khokhra area. "The comments made by Home Minister Amit Shah against Babasaheb Ambedkar in Parliament have sparked widespread anger among Dalits across India and Gujarat," said Congress MLA Jignesh …

DC Edit | The battle over Ambedkar’s legacy mainly for dalit votes
3 months, 1 week ago

DC Edit | The battle over Ambedkar’s legacy mainly for dalit votes

Deccan Chronicle  

The political slugfest that is on nationally and which led to a day in the Winter Session becoming its worst in India’s parliamentary history may be owed to the facetious comments the home minister Amit Shah made on the floor. Ambedkar is no less than a god to his followers who constitute about 17 per cent of India’s 968 million …

Not in the name of Ambedkar
3 months, 1 week ago

Not in the name of Ambedkar

Hindustan Times  

The winter session of Parliament that ended on Friday saw a new low in the functioning of the august institution as lawmakers first squabbled over their interpretations of history and then, filed police complaints alleging assault by an Opposition MP on two Treasury bench representatives. The consensus to have a four-day discussion to mark 75 years of the Indian Constitution …

Why Ambedkar issue has got BJP scrambling
3 months, 1 week ago

Why Ambedkar issue has got BJP scrambling

India Today  

There are very few leaders who reached the status of a demigod, like Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar has. On Wednesday, a day after the remark by Shah in the Rajya Sabha, the entire BJP brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah himself, stepped in to counter the Opposition's allegations of "insulting Babasaheb". AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal responded to Prime …

Kamal Hassan on Ambedkar row: Will not tolerate his legacy being tarnished
3 months, 1 week ago

Kamal Hassan on Ambedkar row: Will not tolerate his legacy being tarnished

India Today  

Amid a row over Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remark on Dr BR Ambedkar, actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan on Thursday said that the ideas crafted by the architect of India's Constitution should inspire progress, rather than be misused to offend people's sentiments. This remark came as Parliament witnessed a high-voltage drama, with BJP and INDIA bloc MPs holding protests over Amit …

Ambedkar remarks: Shah should either step down or PM should sack him, says Congress chief
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Ambedkar remarks: Shah should either step down or PM should sack him, says Congress chief

The Hindu  

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stated on Wednesday that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds any respect for B.R. Accusing Mr. Shah of disrespecting the architect of the Constitution, Mr. Kharge said he should apologise to the nation for the “insult” and said that the Home Minister’s comment reflects the mindset of Manusmriti. “We want Amit Shah to quit his post …

BOOK REVIEW | Iconoclast by Anand Teltumbde Discusses Rescuing Ambedkar from Right-Wing Appropriation
4 months ago

BOOK REVIEW | Iconoclast by Anand Teltumbde Discusses Rescuing Ambedkar from Right-Wing Appropriation

The Hindu  

Published : Nov 27, 2024 08:49 IST - 8 MINS READ There have been quite a few biographies of B.R. Iconoclast: A Reflective Biography of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar attempts to revisit and analyse Ambedkar’s life and ideas in the light of the rise of Hindutva and the failure of anti-caste struggles to counter both “Brahminism and capitalism”. Recalling Ambedkar’s stringent …

Two Dalit narratives in Kharge heartland
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Two Dalit narratives in Kharge heartland

Hindustan Times  

Among the politicians with the highest stakes in the constituencies that go to the polls today is one who is not contesting. Irrespective of the specific type of Dalit identity that was being highlighted, identity politics eroded Kharge’s Dalit-led inclusive politics. His son, Priyank Kharge, has used his position as minister in the Karnataka government to present a much more …

Urbanisation, no liberating force for Dalits
11 months, 2 weeks ago

Urbanisation, no liberating force for Dalits

The Hindu  

A quick look at the nameplates in India’s neighbourhoods will show you that caste is the primary language of spatiality in Indian cities. Ambedkar said that an Indian village is “the working plant of the Hindu social order” and argued that it is the ideal place to understand caste. In strong opposition, Ambedkar believed that the idealisation of Indian village …

Review of Syed Sayeed’s Understanding B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste: Missing the point
1 year, 7 months ago

Review of Syed Sayeed’s Understanding B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste: Missing the point

The Hindu  

Ambedkar Jayanti 2023 ushered in a slew of new books on Babasaheb Ambedkar on an unprecedented scale — seven volumes in as many months. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, is distinct from all the others, in that it closely analyses only one single text, and does so — in the author’s own words — by wrenching “the text out of its …

After US, Ambedkarites in UK Renew Their Fight for Caste Legislation
1 year, 8 months ago

After US, Ambedkarites in UK Renew Their Fight for Caste Legislation

The Quint  

A 68-year-old man of Indian origin in the United Kingdom, Amrik Bajwa, was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail in April this year for posting a TikTok video in which he was abusing Dalit women and threatening to rape them. Santosh Dass, an Ambedkarite activist and chair of Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, who has been lobbying for a legislation against …

Academia Will Suffer a Great Loss if Ambedkar is Removed from DU's Discourse
1 year, 10 months ago

Academia Will Suffer a Great Loss if Ambedkar is Removed from DU's Discourse

The Quint  

His scholarship was truly wide ranging and rooted in interdisciplinarity, decades before the ascendance of the same as a dominant paradigm within academic circles. He was probably the first Indian to undertake a scientific approach to south Asian historiography grounding it in the cultural politics pertaining to the rise of caste as a social organising system. Building on the framework …

It is important to find pathways to make India a casteless nation
1 year, 10 months ago

It is important to find pathways to make India a casteless nation

Live Mint  

I am of the opinion" Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly, “that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. Yet in politics, public policy and daily life, caste remains a major factor even if overt discrimination and violence have declined. But it is also a practical matter: a society divided by caste cannot achieve social …

Setting the record straight on Ambedkar
1 year, 11 months ago

Setting the record straight on Ambedkar

Live Mint  

For a figure larger than life and still very much in the public eye more than 66 years after his death, very little is known about the inner life, influences and inspirations of B.R. In an interview, Gopal discusses Ambedkar’s pragmatism, the way he thought about issues, his reading habits, and his sense of loneliness at being misunderstood for the …

Shashi Tharoor: Have we annihilated caste as Ambedkar sought? Clearly not
1 year, 11 months ago

Shashi Tharoor: Have we annihilated caste as Ambedkar sought? Clearly not

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Ambedkar’s remarkable journey saw him start as out as …

The Hindu on Books | Ambedkar biographies, Mughals in books, talking to Karan Thapar, Jeyamohan’s world view and more
1 year, 11 months ago

The Hindu on Books | Ambedkar biographies, Mughals in books, talking to Karan Thapar, Jeyamohan’s world view and more

The Hindu  

Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. I spoke about such gaps to a few friends, and they suggested I should write about it.” Aakash Singh Rathore’s biography of Ambedkar aims to bring readers closer to Ambedkar’s experiences and personality, “to his life and times.” Syed Sayeed, a retired professor of philosophy, has written a new book, …

INTERVIEW | Ashwini K.P: ‘Ambedkar’s views on gender ignored’
2 years, 4 months ago

INTERVIEW | Ashwini K.P: ‘Ambedkar’s views on gender ignored’

The Hindu  

Published : Dec 01, 2022 10:35 IST Ashwini K.P., 36, is the first Asian to be appointed as Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance by the United Nations Human Rights Council. My mandate explicitly focusses on the rampant racism across the globe, and in view of this I will have to focus on …

Shashi Tharoor's Biography of Ambedkar Reveals Upper Caste Concerns & Anxieties
2 years, 5 months ago

Shashi Tharoor's Biography of Ambedkar Reveals Upper Caste Concerns & Anxieties

The Quint  

Thus, the task before Ambedkar’s biographer is not simply to sketch a personality from his writings, but to limn together the traces of his thinking by animating the psychic and social negotiations undertaken by him during his lifetime. Yet, Tharoor is captivated by Ambedkar as a politician, and sets out to explore this facet of his identity without espousing an …

Members of Lingayat and Dalit communities take objection to new textbooks
2 years, 10 months ago

Members of Lingayat and Dalit communities take objection to new textbooks

The Hindu  

The editing of lessons on Basavanna and B.R. Ambedkar in the new textbooks have drawn the ire of Lingayat and Dalit communities, respectively, and members of the communities have threatened State-wide protests if the “misinformation” is not removed. The “Bharatada Mata Pravartakaru” chapter in revised class IX social science textbook has edited out Basavanna’s criticism of caste hierarchy and that …

The legacy of Ambedkar is our quest for harmony
2 years, 10 months ago

The legacy of Ambedkar is our quest for harmony

Live Mint  

If stone could speak, Ambedkar statues could tell many stories. In villages and cities segregated by caste, every Ambedkar statue—typically clad in a blue suit, a copy of the Constitution in hand and a finger raised towards a future—is a claim that India’s Dalits make on the public space, a way for long-oppressed people to affirm their equality and dignity …

‘Indians First, Indians Last’: Those Appropriating Ambedkar Never Understood Him
2 years, 11 months ago

‘Indians First, Indians Last’: Those Appropriating Ambedkar Never Understood Him

The Quint  

Babasaheb Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Mhow, a garrison town near Indore, though his family hailed from Maharashtra. But all those who extol Ambedkar for votes should also try to explore the intellectual and political ideas he left behind. This is particularly essential today when some of us are busy defining the identity of our fellow citizens, …

Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire misses path to Dalit liberation
3 years ago

Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire misses path to Dalit liberation

Al Jazeera  

As a Bahujan woman, and a filmmaker who comes from a legacy of the anti-caste movement in India, I watched the Academy Award-nominated documentary feature, Writing With Fire, with the gaze of a sceptic. But the filmmakers, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, do not come from the Dalit community and lack the lived experience of being positioned at the lower …

Ambedkar Jayanti 2021 Date: Facts About Architect of Indian Constitution Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar
3 years, 11 months ago

Ambedkar Jayanti 2021 Date: Facts About Architect of Indian Constitution Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar

News 18  

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was a social reformer and the principal author of the Indian Constitution. After returning to India during the independence movement, in 1936, Ambedkar wrote his magnum opus ‘Annihilation of Caste’, a fiery critique of the caste system. Babasaheb’s personal library “Rajgirh” had more than 50,000 books and it was said to be …

'Casteism is Ancestry-based Discrimination': Ambedkar International Center Files Amicus Brief in US Court on CISCO Caste Row
4 years, 1 month ago

'Casteism is Ancestry-based Discrimination': Ambedkar International Center Files Amicus Brief in US Court on CISCO Caste Row

News 18  

The United States of America had little experience of the South Asian caste system. AIC along with others filed an amicus brief in court, drawing to their attention that caste-based discrimination is unacceptable under their own local laws, like FEHA, which is California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act that “protects employees against discrimination based on a number of protected characteristics, …

Caste in the USA, Episode 1: Conversations about casteism in Indian diaspora are vital to challenging its impact
4 years, 5 months ago

Caste in the USA, Episode 1: Conversations about casteism in Indian diaspora are vital to challenging its impact

Firstpost  

Editor’s note: Firstpost is holding a series of conversations with Indians in the US, across its campuses, offices and households, to understand how caste discrimination pervades the community just as much as it does back home in India. Sharing her experience from having steered a caste survey which brought forth the extent of caste discrimination prevalent among South Asian communities, …

It is high time savarna Indians confronted their role as conspirators in perpetuating casteism, Brahminical patriarchy
4 years, 5 months ago

It is high time savarna Indians confronted their role as conspirators in perpetuating casteism, Brahminical patriarchy

Firstpost  

We perpetuate the caste system by negating the existence of caste, trivialising the experience of people from marginalised castes, unseeing the absence of a large part of the country’s population from institutions. Our caste pride ensures that we study a Europe-centric history of Feminism rather than studying Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule’s work against the Brahminical patriarchy. With increasing …

Constitution Day: Do We Truly Know the ‘Real’ Ambedkar?
5 years, 4 months ago

Constitution Day: Do We Truly Know the ‘Real’ Ambedkar?

The Quint  

The second class of perpetrators who have synthesised a cloud of disinformation around Ambedkar’s work is the one that I consider unforgivable. I should make it clear though, that the kind of activism I am referring to is the one that creates headlines, runs the prime-time debates, orchestrates forms of aggression that never intend to — yet always manage to …

Firstpost Editor's Picks: Politics over Ambedkar, fate of BJP-led model, Game of Thrones recap; today's must-read stories
5 years, 11 months ago

Firstpost Editor's Picks: Politics over Ambedkar, fate of BJP-led model, Game of Thrones recap; today's must-read stories

Firstpost  

In such a heated atmosphere, Ambedkar’s lifelong fight for an equal and independent India ridden of the caste system seems like a distant dream. Ambedkar Jayanti: Current politics of polarisation, hero worship could have disappointed Constitution’s architect April, it is said, is the cruelest month, and today, India is at the crossroads as rising communal violence, hatred, murders of journalists, …

Ambedkar Jayanti: Current politics of polarisation, hero worship could have disappointed Constitution's architect
5 years, 11 months ago

Ambedkar Jayanti: Current politics of polarisation, hero worship could have disappointed Constitution's architect

Firstpost  

For Ambedkar, the constitutional pillars of liberty, equality and fraternity could operate only in a trinity and could not be divorced from each other. If BR Ambedkar, Dalit leader and architect of the Indian Constitution, were alive today as the 90-crore strong electorate votes to elect its next set of leaders who would govern the country, he would be surprised …

For a ‘Dalitariat’ revolution
6 years, 6 months ago

For a ‘Dalitariat’ revolution

The Hindu  

M ANY writers have attempted to study the manifold fault lines underlying the Indian republic that cause perpetual tremors debilitating the polity continually despite the socio-economic revolution famously promised by the Constitution of India. Ambedkar, critiquing the reservation imbroglio, identifying the class-caste bias inbuilt in the Constitution, exposing the game plan of the ruling classes representing neoliberal forces and Hindutva …

‘Ambedkarites and the Left should come together ’
7 years, 2 months ago

‘Ambedkarites and the Left should come together ’

The Hindu  

This interview with Jignesh Mevani, the Dalit leader and newly elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Vadgam, Gujarat, evolved over a number of short interactions spread over a couple of days during his visit to New Delhi in early January for the Yuva Hunkar Rally, and was completed after a long telephone conversation while he was travelling out of …

No casteism at Ambedkar Colony: Report
7 years, 8 months ago

No casteism at Ambedkar Colony: Report

Deccan Chronicle  

PALAKKAD: The district police chief and Palakkad district collector have given a report to the State Human Rights Commission categorically stating that there is no caste discrimination against the Dalit Chakkaliya community in the Ambedkar Colony in Muthalamada. Superintendent of police Pratheesh Kumar and collector P. Marykutty has said that even after holding adalats and visits of different government officials …

Ambedkar Jayanti: Why Rohith Vemula was a truer Ambedkarite than any politician will ever be
7 years, 11 months ago

Ambedkar Jayanti: Why Rohith Vemula was a truer Ambedkarite than any politician will ever be

Firstpost  

Come 14 April and the politics of appropriating, or misappropriating, Ambedkar’s legacy gathers momentum. While Ambedkar, who liked to be identified as a political liberal, tirelessly batted for the complete ‘annhilation of caste,’ Vemula too in his parting letter to the world, lamented the fact that “the value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility.” …

BJP’s love for Dr BR Ambedkar is superficial like Congress' and circumvents his core ideas
7 years, 11 months ago

BJP’s love for Dr BR Ambedkar is superficial like Congress' and circumvents his core ideas

Firstpost  

While the BJP, after selectively appropriating Dr BR Ambedkar like the Congress and the Leftist parties, is masquerading as his apostle, the fact remains that it is just political tokenism that circumvents his core ideas. The BJP — that now has an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha — like the Congress had under leaders like Indira Gandhi, has appropriated …

RSS says Dalit icon BR Ambedkar never represented any caste, favoured religion and was pro-Vedic
8 years, 2 months ago

RSS says Dalit icon BR Ambedkar never represented any caste, favoured religion and was pro-Vedic

Firstpost  

In the latest of the many “correct the past” assertions, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh recently stated that contrary to what is believed, Ambedkar was never opposed to the Vedic religion and didn’t represent any caste, The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has many records to set straight, especially from its past. The Hindu nationalist organisation, perhaps in order to appeal to the …

Atrocity Act will stay despite demands from Maratha community to repeal it: Fadnavis assures Dalits
8 years, 5 months ago

Atrocity Act will stay despite demands from Maratha community to repeal it: Fadnavis assures Dalits

Firstpost  

On Tuesday Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the Dalit community that notwithstanding the demand from a section of the society, a legislation on prevention of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes will not be abolished. Addressing a huge gathering at ‘Deekshabhoomi’ on 60th Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Day, which marks the mass conversion to Buddhism by B R Ambedkar and …

The Caste Formerly Known As 'Untouchables' Demands A New Role In India
8 years, 7 months ago

The Caste Formerly Known As 'Untouchables' Demands A New Role In India

NPR  

The Caste Formerly Known As 'Untouchables' Demands A New Role In India Enlarge this image toggle caption Hindustan Times via Getty Images Hindustan Times via Getty Images In an amateur video, four frightened men, stripped to the waist and tethered to a truck, are publicly flogged on a busy street in broad daylight. The attack in the Indian state of …

Ambedkar worked for social equality in the country: PM Modi assures Dalits that BJP govt will not scrap quotas
9 years ago

Ambedkar worked for social equality in the country: PM Modi assures Dalits that BJP govt will not scrap quotas

Firstpost  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hailed BR Ambedkar at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the BR Ambedkar National Memorial in New Delhi. Promising the people that the Ambedkar Memorial will be established by 14 April, 2018, Modi further said, “26, Alipur Road will be an iconic building of Delhi and for us, it will be a source of inspiration.” …

Minorities, Dalits living in fear: Arundhati Roy
9 years, 4 months ago

Minorities, Dalits living in fear: Arundhati Roy

The Hindu  

Novelist and Booker Prize-winner Arundhati Roy on Saturday said ‘intolerance’ was “too mild” a word to describe the grave state of current socio-political affairs. Ms. Roy, who earlier this month joined the swelling numbers of artists and writers returning their National and Sahitya Akademi awards to protest the climate of intolerance, was in the city to accept the Mahatma Phule …

Owning Ambedkar sans his views
9 years, 7 months ago

Owning Ambedkar sans his views

The Hindu  

Earlier this month, on August 12, several media outlets reported that the Gujarat government’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment withdrew four lakh copies of a Gujarati textbook meant for students of classes VI to VIII, titled Rashtriya Mahapurush Bharat Ratna Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Kapadia, the Director of Scheduled Caste Welfare, “The publisher added some things in the book …

The relevance of Ambedkar
9 years, 11 months ago

The relevance of Ambedkar

The Hindu  

AS democratic India prepares to celebrate the 125th year of his birth, Babasaheb Ambedkar stands taller than he ever did before—his role in the struggle for a modern, democratic, and socially just India greatly enhanced at the expense of various other outstanding national figures who were contemporaries and opponents during the great battles of the freedom movement era. Unfortunately, some …

Rescuing Ambedkar from pure Dalitism: He would've been India's best Prime Minister
9 years, 11 months ago

Rescuing Ambedkar from pure Dalitism: He would've been India's best Prime Minister

Firstpost  

Ambedkar’s legacy is far more than just Dalit iconhood. But in politics, bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.” It is surmised that Ambedkar may have had Gandhi or Nehru in mind when he wrote this, but this statement is truer today of Dalit parties than anyone else. Patel died too soon after Independence …

A rightward shift in Dalit politics
10 years, 6 months ago

A rightward shift in Dalit politics

The Hindu  

Where is Dalit politics heading in India today? The dynamics in rural Dalit politics seems to have moved from challenging the upper castes to finding acceptance and becoming a part of the majoritarian polity that is under construction. Fractured identity Dalit identity is itself internally fractured as the issue of conflicting interests, including the practice of untouchability between various Dalit …

Ambedkar and Gandhi
10 years, 8 months ago

Ambedkar and Gandhi

The Hindu  

THE seminal text Annihilation of Caste, which Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar self-published almost 78 years ago, was republished by Navayana Publishing Pvt. The way Ambedkar’s speech was aimed at an upper-caste audience to jolt it into seeing the “veritable chamber of horrors” that Hinduism is for Dalits, women and other suppressed groups in society, this new edition, it would seem, is …

Rescuing Ambedkar
12 years, 5 months ago

Rescuing Ambedkar

The Hindu  

The desecration of B.R. Ambedkar statues, in other words, have become synonymous with Dalit assertion, which in turn occasions an antipathy towards him from intermediate castes. The historian Janaki Nair says that the new trend of deploying statues of Ambedkar in public spaces in cities and villages symbolises the self-assertion on the part of Dalits. V. Purdie-Vaughns and R. Eibach …

Ambedkar conversion led to Dalit metamorphosis
15 years, 5 months ago

Ambedkar conversion led to Dalit metamorphosis

Live Mint  

Today is a very special day for millions of former untouchables in India. It was exactly 53 years ago on this very day i.e., on 14 October 1956, that Babasaheb Ambedkar ceremoniously led his 500,000 followers assembled in Nagpur to convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. This conversion from the Hindu religion to Buddhism was based entirely on their unswerving faith …

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