For An Informed Ambedkar Age
Sanjay Jothe उत्तर प्रदेश के चुनाव परिणाम जितने बीजेपी के लिए महत्वपूर्ण हैं उससे कहीं अधिक दलित बहुजन राजनीति के लिए महत्वपूर्ण हैं. दलित बहुजन राजनीति के एक लंबे और संघर्षपूर्ण सफ़र का यह परिणाम दुखद है. लेकिन यह होना ही था. इस पराजय की प्रष्ठभूमि लंबे समय से निर्मित हो रही थी. ज्ञान, …
A.K.D. Jadhav Chetan Bhagat’s article “Creaming the People” (TOI October 3, 2015) is a piece with the general stream of thinking in educated upper middle class India. In terms of its response to the genesis and consequences of reservations this stream of thinking is based on certain fundamental but fallacious assumptions regarding the raison …
(This reply was included as Appendix II in the second edition of Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar‘s ‘Annihilation of Caste’) I appreciate greatly the honour done me by the Mahatma in taking notice in his Harijan of the speech on Caste which I had prepared for the Jat Pat Todak Mandal. From a perusal …
Gail Omvedt (Written in November 2003) M V Nadkarni’s recent article “Is Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism?: Demolishing a Myth”, (EPW, November 8, 2003) comes as a follow-up to his earlier article “Ethics and Relevance of Conversions: A Critical Assessment of Religious and Social Dimensions in a Gandhian Perspective” (Januay 18). Both articles show the fundamental stamp of Hindutva ideology, …
Rahul Bhalerao Continued from here. To the question ‘what do Karma and Guna exactly mean according to Gita?’ a generic and philosophical meaning is proffered as the answer. According to this response, Karma is any act or deed, be it good or bad, which in turn produces good Karma or bad Karma respectively. But, irrespective …
Rahul Bhalerao Continued from here. Coming back to the justifications given by the supporters of Gita, one finds that they are merely based on a few ambiguous individual verses scattered around the Gita. They certainly lack the holistic understanding and message that Gita preaches; let alone the interpretations that have evolved in practice since the …
Gail Omvedt [Written in the year 2008] (A Reply to the Hindu Council of UK essay on “The Caste System”) * I owe thanks to Michael Witzel for his note citing Vedic references on caste and his careful reading of an earlier version of this essay. Introduction The essay submitted by the Hindu Council of …
Kuffir As the court in the Siberian town of Tomsk deliberates on whether the Bhagvat Gita is ‘extremist’ literature, the Indian government and parliament seem to have forgotten their own sanctimonious injunction of ‘non-inteference in the internal affairs of other countries’ (used traditionally to defend such obnoxious pratices as ‘untouchability’ and ‘caste discrimination’) to …
Gail Omvedt [An excerpt from the chapter ‘The Background to Buddhism’ in her book, ‘Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste’] Indian Brahmans as they have evolved over the centuries represent one of the most unique elites that any society has produced. They trace their origins back to Vedic times, where they were priests …