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| Multiple, Shifting and Contested: Dalit Writings and Dr. Ambedkar Today — A representative image. |
File Information
| Document Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Multiple, Shifting and Contested: Dalit Writings and Dr. Ambedkar Today |
| Article Credit | (Pubd in: Academia.edu) |
| Author | Dr. Preeti Oza (St. Andrew's College, Mumbai University) |
| Subject | This paper examines Dalit identity politics in modern India, focusing on how Ambedkar, Dalit writings, and caste resistance shape changing ideas of identity, autonomy, and social struggle. |
| Category | Academic article |
| Institution | St. Andrew's College, Mumbai University |
| Main Topics | identity politics, Dalit identity, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, caste and untouchability, Dalit-Buddhist conversion, Gandhi and Ambedkar, Bahujan identity, marginalized groups in South Asia |
| Number of Pages | 10 |
| Language | English |
| File Type | |
| File Size | 105.1 KB |
Summary Note of this Document
Multiple, Shifting and Contested: Dalit Writings and Dr. Ambedkar Today
This document analyzes Dalit identity politics and the changing place of Dr. Ambedkar in contemporary Dalit writings. It argues that identity politics in South Asia should be read through the struggles of marginalized groups, especially Dalits, whose claims for dignity, autonomy, and representation emerge in opposition to caste hierarchy and majoritarian power. The paper connects this discussion to Ambedkar's interventions, including his criticism of untouchability, his demand for separate political representation, and his later turn toward Buddhism as a route to emancipation. It also considers the tensions between Dalit self-articulation and competing identities such as Harijan, proletarian, or broader Bahujan formations. A substantial part of the paper places Dalit politics within wider debates on ethnicity, nationalism, and resistance, contrasting politics of domination with politics of resistance. The discussion extends to Dalit Christians, Neo-Buddhists, the Dalit-Buddhist equation, and the relationship between caste, religion, and social mobility. Overall, the paper presents identity politics as a contested field in which Dalit history, anti-caste struggle, and Ambedkar's legacy remain central to debates about equality and recognition.
Core Themes
- Dalit identity and self-articulation
- identity politics as resistance
- Ambedkar's political and religious thought
- caste hierarchy and untouchability
- Dalit conversion and Neo-Buddhism
Keywords
About Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891 as the fourteenth and youngest child of an army Subedar in Mhow. Born into the Mahar caste, which was considered untouchable, Bhimrao faced many hardships at school. He had to sit on a gunny sack that he brought from home. He was not allowed to touch the water vessel or cup, so he could drink water only when the school peon was present to pour it for him. He later described this experience with the words, “No peon, no water.” His mother died when he was very young, and he had a difficult childhood. However, he was the only one of his siblings to pass his examinations and continue to high school, becoming the first person from his community to attend Elphinstone College. With a scholarship from the Maharaja of Baroda, he went on to study at Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He earned doctorates in economics and trained as a barrister at Gray’s Inn. According to the account supplied for this biography, his books were lost when his ship was torpedoed during the First World War.
Despite his education, Ambedkar continued to face prejudice. When he returned to India, he was required to work in Baroda but had to leave the position because of discrimination. His business providing investment consultancy failed when clients learned that he belonged to a community considered untouchable. While working as a professor in Mumbai, his colleagues objected to the idea of him sharing a water jug with his students. These experiences helped spur his activism. He established newspapers to give a voice to marginalized people. He led the Mahad Satyagraha, asserting Dalits’ right to collect water from a public tank, and publicly burned the Manusmriti in 1927. In 1932, he negotiated the Poona Pact with Mahatma Gandhi. Although it involved a difficult compromise, the pact provided reserved seats in legislatures for the Depressed Classes. Ambedkar was outspoken in public life but private by nature. His wife Ramabai died in 1935, and he filled his home in Bombay with a large personal library reported to contain more than 50,000 books. He declared, “I am born a Hindu, but I will not die as one.”
During the period of Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru invited Ambedkar to become India’s first Law Minister. Ambedkar chaired the Drafting Committee that prepared the Constitution of India, which abolished the practice of untouchability and established civil liberties and constitutional safeguards, including reservations for historically oppressed communities. He acknowledged the contribution of other constitutional experts, including B. N. Rau, who had prepared an earlier draft. Because of his poor health, including diabetes, Ambedkar married Savita, a doctor who cared for him. In October 1956, he converted to Buddhism in Nagpur along with a vast gathering of followers, commonly estimated at around half a million. He died in his sleep just weeks later, shortly after completing his final major work, The Buddha and His Dhamma. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1990. His message, “Educate, agitate, organise,” continues to inspire people seeking equality and social justice.
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