Round Table India brings together perspectives from Dalit and Bahujan communities.
Does Ambedkar Posthumously Have a ‘Homeland’?
Challenging the Narrative: A Review of Teltumbde’s Iconoclast
Abhishek Kumar Singh Iconoclast by Anand Teltumbde is a timely book that has arrived when political jostling for Ambedkar’s legacy has become a feature of Indian politics. This book analyses Ambedkar’s life and presents him as a pragmatist rather than a sanctified figure. Meticulously researched, detailed, and yet accessible to all readers, the book offers …
Dr Ambedkar-The Blueprint for India’s Unfinished Revolution
Dr Md Afroz & Dr Tabrez Alam “We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well.”–B.R. Ambedkar Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, envisioned a republic built not just on paper laws but on the lived reality of social justice, liberty, and fraternity. His foresight was prophetic. As India …
Liberal Anxieties on Caste: Incorrigible corrosion of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s limited Cognition
Anshul Kumar “A deputation of Harijans waited on Gandhiji at Sevagram with the request that members of the castes grouped under the head of ‘Scheduled Castes’ should be allowed representation on the governing body of the Harijan Sevak Sangh. Gandhiji is reported to have replied that the Sangh is meant to help Harijans and was …
Expanding Dewey’s Part of the Dewey-Ambedkar Story
Scott R. Stroud The relationship between Bhimrao Ambedkar, anti-caste thinker and activist, and John Dewey, his teacher at Columbia University, is significant and unique. Ambedkar sat in three of Dewey’s courses while he was studying at Columbia University and kept up with the American thinker’s philosophical evolution over the following four decades largely through collecting …
Academic Dishonesty of Shashi Tharoor Towards Dr BR Ambedkar’s Scholarship
Jyoti Bania & Ashok Danavath Shashi Tharoor is the fox that Malcolm X warned of Shashi Tharoor, a Nair liberal, member of the Indian Parliament (MP) and author of many books made many inaccurate, controversial and contradictory comments in a recent talk on Ambedkar: The Quest for Equality held on June 13, 2023, at Selwyn …
Manusmriti: A Threat to Constitutional Values and Social Justice
Ashutosh Singh Boddh (Vidrohi) Recently there was a news that, Delhi University’s Faculty of Law was planning to introduce the Manusmriti, the ancient Sanskrit & Casteist text, in its undergraduate programme under the paper called Jurisprudence (Legal Method), prompting a certain section of faculty members in the varsity to raise concern over the move. In …
Kaala: A Critique of the Communists, and a Call for them to join the Dalit movement
Sree Govind Bharatvaraj Pa. Ranjith’s Kaala makes an Ambedkarite critique of the communists yet calls for their participation in a collective battle against Hindutva. Keywords: caste; Hindutva; communist; Ranjith; Kaala Tamil filmmaker Ranjith (well known as Pa. Ranjith) is an Ambedkarite who is influenced by the 1990s Dalit political movements. In his movie Kaala, he …
Prabuddha Bharata: Ambedkar’s Buddhist Rashtra-Nation
Rahul Sonpimple In my Ph.D. fieldwork in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, I encountered two contrasting assertions regarding the role of Buddhism in the everyday lives of Dalits. The first assertion, claiming “Buddha is our god; Babasaheb gave us, we are not Hindus,” was prevalent among poor and illiterate Dalits in slums and villages. The …