A challenge is mounted against the widespread assumption that Ambedkar was prejudiced against “tribe,” by revealing acts of academic carelessness that occur in the writings of some scholars through the cherry-picking of quotes and failure to historically contextualise the same. Some such popular (mis)quotes and Ambedkar’s writings on tribe over a period of time are investigated, taking into account both their immediate and larger historical context, to argue that there are better ways to make sense of Ambedkar’s stance on the subject.
In response to the discussions around Arundhati Roy’s introduction to B R Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, this article draws on Ambedkar’s views on caste in government policy to reiterate his continuing relevance today.
Responses around the beef ban have focused on the anxiety of the liberal middle class which construed the ban as curbing its consumption choice. But absent from this was the voice of the Dalits, who have come to be defined by what they consume, and whose relationship with beef is marked by caste, poverty and hunger. An exploration of the practice of beef consumption through the prism of destitution, and its relation with the poor to whom it provides the bare minimum.
Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi, and the Risk of Democracy by Aishwary Kumar; Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2015; pp xiv + 393, price notindicated.
For an act of representation by savarnas to seem fair and unremarkable to dalits, we need to have achieved a society in which to be a dalit is not a stigma, and to be a savarna is not a marker of superior status. Until that day arrives in India, the dalit objection to B R Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste being introduced and annotated by savarnas will remain a worthy objection.
