For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Gail Omvedt (From her blog ‘seeking begumpura‘) An article by Anand Telbumbde, “Not Red versus Blue” has been recently arousing controversy. Dalits have attacked it. In attempting to “mediate” between Ambedkarites and Leftists, Teltumbe according to many has fallen into the trap of turning Ambedkar into a semi-Marxist. In fact, Teltumbe does distort Ambedkar in …
Gail Omvedt “Dalit”, “Scheduled Caste”, “Ex-Untouchable” and “Harijan”. These are only some of the many words used to refer to the most oppressed sections of Indian society, “untouchable” in the traditional caste order, performers of the most degrading task, and still today caught in the throes of poverty, discrimination and the remnants of untouchability. “Dalit” …
Gail Omvedt (Posted yesterday on her blog, ‘seeking begumpura’) The Thorat Committee has recommended that the term “dalit” used in textbooks should be expunged and replaced by the legalistic terminology “scheduled caste.” The reasoning for this is not clear. “Dalit” has become partly a controversial term, and it is true that not all who fall …
Gail Omvedt (An excerpt from her book ‘Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India’) Less than two months after the huge conversion ceremony, Bhimrao Ambedkar was dead, found on the morning of 6 December, slumped over the papers he had been working on late at night. His death was followed by outpouring of grief as great as …
Gail Omvedt (First published in May, 2002) The publication of a collection of English translations of the writings of Jotirao Phule, the nineteenth century social radical, by LeftWord publications marks, hopefully, a transition in the attitude of the left towards the struggle against Brahmanism. It also marks an increasing recognition of the importance of Phule, …
Gail Omvedt (An excerpt from her book ‘Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste’) Jotirao Phule (1827–1890) is considered a founder not only of the anti-caste movement in India as a whole, but also of the farmers’ movement and even the women’s movement in Maharashtra. He was born in a Mali (gardener caste) community of …
Gail Omvedt & Bharat Patankar Continued from here. The Rise of Dalit Movements Though attempts were begun by the dalit castes from the late 19th century to organise themselves, the various sections of the dalit liberation movement really began to take off from the 1920s, in the context of the strong social reform and anti-caste …
Gail Omvedt (First published in September 1990) Any caste based reservation system, in this case the Mandal Commission, has to be judged in terms of what it can do and not in terms of what it is not supposed to do—and in this case its goal is the limited but important one of ending caste …
Translated by Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar Chapter 5 Our suggestions to the Arya Bhat-Brahmans regarding the Shudra farmers and the remedies which the current government should follow: — Before beginning this final chapter, I would like to make some suggestions to the greatly cunning Arya Bhat-Brahmans of the country, with the aim that they should not obstruct …