This new collection on Ambedkar brings together international scholars to explore hitherto unexamined aspects of Ambedkar바카라s praxis and writings. The book is unique in several respects. First is the very thorough comparisons between Ambedkar바카라s emancipatory struggle for the Dalits and the Black liberation movement(s) in the US. Five chapters address the issue, reflecting on caste and colour, discussing Ambedkar within the contexts of W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, as well as the anti-apartheid movement.
Second, continuing this effort to see Ambedkar within a global relevance is the pioneering contribution of co-editor Suraj Yengde, who reconstructs and analyses Ambedkar바카라s foreign policy, tracing the Dalit movement vis-a-vis international and trans-national activism.
Third is just the high standard of scholarship. The contributions by Partha Chatterjee (on Ambedkar바카라s evolving theory of minority rights) and Rohit De (on Ambedkar바카라s legal career) are unexpectedly rewarding. There are also excellent chapters by Jean Dreze (on whether contemporary Indian democracy lives up to Ambedkar바카라s conception), Nicolas Jaoul (on Ambedkar바카라s conversion), Anupama Rao (on Ambedkar바카라s figuration of Dalit) and, expectedly, from Sukhadeo Thorat and Anand Teltumbde.
But there is a problem lying hidden in my praise. For the editors did not aim this book to be 바카라a major contribution바카라; rather, they aimed to challenge and subvert the ever-growing field of Ambedkar studies. This brings us to the volume바카라s most UNIque characteristic: it was conceived within the penumbra of a conspiracy theory.
This is articulated in the editors바카라 introduction, Reclaiming the Radical in Ambedkar바카라s Praxis. They assert that the increase in interest in Ambedkar is in inverse proportion to how radical he is depicted as being. As Ambedkar is deradicalised more, his decaffeinated ideology and persona are promoted more and more: 바카라The ruling classes realised the strategic necessity of appropriating Ambedkar to achieve many of the emergent goals바카라containing the immediate risk of Dalits raising material demands, deradicalising Ambedkar for the longer term, co-opting Dalit leaders, promoting identitarian politics among them and severally preventing the possibility of the Dalit movement drifting towards radicalism.바카라
Although Yengde and Teltumbde refer to this strategising as 바카라machinations of the ruling classes바카라, it is presented as a conspiracy theory: 바카라After 1990바카라government began promoting Ambedkar바카라s image by encouraging universities to begin studies on Ambedkar바카라. These activities established the Ambedkar icon...but lost the real Ambedkar to the Dalit masses.바카라
According to this narrative, the increase in political-scholarly attention to Ambedkar has been engineered to dupe and pacify Dalits who, for their part, have thrown themselves headlong into the trap by deifying a deradicalised Ambedkar.
What, then, do the editors believe must be done? Two things, both reflected in the book바카라s title: (1) to recover the 바카라real바카라, or the radical, Ambedkar; and (2) to break out from the deifying, hagiographic model dominating Ambedkar studies. Hence, this book is designed to be doubly different: it aims to retrieve the radical in Ambedkar, and to do so not hagiographically but to present critical reflections.
But here바카라s the rub: the book fails to deliver on either. Neither do we encounter an Ambedkar decisively more 바카라real바카라 or 바카라radical바카라. Nor do we encounter reflections on Ambedkar that are any more 바카라critical바카라 than may be found in works of this calibre. The editors themselves admit to the latter: 바카라바카라[A] critical examination of Ambedkar바카라s praxis has obviously not worked fully바카라.[I]t was perhaps too ambitious to sublimate spontaneously from frigid hagiography to critical reflection.바카라
They also seem, by the end of their introduction, to have surmised the former: 바카라We hope the readers will appreciate this modest attempt at examining Ambedkar바카라s praxis바카라바카라 Modest? It was not a modest attempt but the retrieval of the 바카라real바카라 Ambedkar that was promised.
But this volume rightfully merits praise. For, as someone who does not subscribe to the conspiracy theory, it hardly makes any difference whether the editors managed to find a solution.
These contributions may not have presented an Ambedkar more 바카라real바카라, but they do manage to interface Ambedkar into hitherto unexplored terrain, and to do so in exemplary ways. The volume is indispensable for anyone working seriously in Ambedkar studies. At least in this respect, if not quite in the way that the editors had hoped, The Radical in Ambedkar is not just another book on the pile.
(Rathore is author of A Philosophy of Autobiography: Body & Text)
