Reminiscences and Rememberances of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar


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Reminiscences of life and work of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 1892- 1956, Indian statesman, by his private secretary and close associates.




The Foresighted Ambedkar


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‘A great man in Indian politics’ —Dr Ram Manohar Lohia on Dr Ambedkar Dr Ambedkar’s role in the cause of social emancipation has been researched and written about extensively. His part in the drafting of the Indian Constitution between 1946 and 1950 has also received considerable attention. In The Foresighted Ambedkar, Anurag Bhaskar argues that India’s Constitution was drafted not just between 1946 and 1950 but over the course of four decades. Dr Ambedkar was the only person to have been involved at all the stages related to the drafting of the Indian constitutional document since 1919. These stages bear the imprint of his contribution and role. This book seeks to focus on Dr Ambedkar’s influence on the Indian constitutional discourse from 1919, when he entered public life, until the actual writing of the Constitution and even beyond. Covering the different constitutional moments as and when they happened, it highlights Dr Ambedkar’s role in those moments. A seminal work of intellectual and constitutional history, this volume demonstrates why Dr Ambedkar is rightly called the ‘Father of the Indian Constitution’.




Ambedkar's Political Philosophy


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Ambedkar's Political Philosophy is a critical exploration of the political theory of B R Ambedkar, the Indian thinker and leader who championed the cause of the socially oppressed. Rodrigues examines the key concepts that Ambedkar used to envision a new framework of public life that would overcome the problems of marginality, degradation, and domination. This framework is based upon an idea of the human endowed with the attributes of reasoning, moral capacity, self-respect, and a unique dignity that collectively entitles human beings to a distinct consideration as moral equals despite other differences. Ambedkar deployed the idea of the human not merely to contend against the social institutions of caste, untouchability, and other forms of marginalities but also to interrogate texts, traditions, and modes of social dominance. In a democracy, the representational, constitutional, and institutional architecture of state power is geared to sustain and reinforce itself. Such an architecture, however, may prove feeble unless shored up by the moral foundations of societies and backed by religious sanction. In Ambedkar's view, only Buddhism, as a religion, fits the bill. In this book, the author engages with Ambedkar's primary works in both English and Marathi and the debates around them, and situates his ideas in the South Asian context, making it a comprehensive and insightful commentary on his political philosophy and its relevance for contemporary society.




World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth


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“Lays out a novel and provocative argument . . . Essential reading for those concerned with the future of comparative literature and the world.” ―Natalie Melas, Cornell University World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth recovers a genealogy of anticolonial thought that advocated collective inexpertise, unknowing, and unrecognizability. Early-twentieth-century anticolonial thinkers endeavored to imagine a world emancipated from colonial rule, but it was a world they knew they would likely not live to see. Written in exile, in abjection, or in the face of death, anticolonial thought could not afford to base its politics on the hope of eventual success, mastery, or national sovereignty. J. Daniel Elam shows how anticolonial thinkers theorized inconsequential practices of egalitarianism in the service of an impossibility: a world without colonialism. Framed by a suggestive reading of the surprising affinities between Frantz Fanon’s political writings and Erich Auerbach’s philological project, World Literature for the Wretched of the Earth foregrounds anticolonial theories of reading and critique in the writing of Lala Har Dayal, B.R. Ambedkar, M.K. Gandhi, and Bhagat Singh. These anticolonial activists theorized reading not as a way to cultivate mastery and expertise but as a way, rather, to disavow mastery altogether. To become or remain an inexpert reader, divesting oneself of authorial claims, was to fundamentally challenge the logic of the British Empire and European fascism, which prized self-mastery, authority, and national sovereignty. Bringing together the histories of comparative literature and anticolonial thought, Elam demonstrates how these early-twentieth-century theories of reading force us to reconsider the commitments of humanistic critique and egalitarian politics in the still-colonial present.




Karmveer Bhaurao Patil an Egalitarian Nativist


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In India, there are not one but several literary traditions. They exist in literature simultaneously, but one of them represents the canonized crest. The others are not canonized and placed, obscurely. Ganesh Devy conceptualized the other, obscure, suppressed or sub-cultural literary phenomena by using the term para-literature (Of many Heroes, 134). This kind of institutionalization of literature has a greater connection with the power-structure and power-relations of the society we live in.







The Evolution of Pragmatism in India


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The story of how the Indian reformer Bhimrao Ambedkar reimagined John Dewey's pragmatism. In The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, Scott R. Stroud delivers a comprehensive exploration of the influence of John Dewey's pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Republic of India's constitution. Stroud traces Ambedkar's development in Dewey's Columbia University classes in 1913-1916 through his final years in 1950s India when he rewrote the story of Buddhism. Stroud examines pragmatism's influence not only on the philosophical ideas underpinning Ambedkar's fight against caste oppression but also how his persuasive techniques drew on pragmatism's commitment to reconstruction and meliorism. At the same time, Stroud is careful to point out the ways that Ambedkar pushed back against Dewey's paradigm and developed his own approach to challenges in India. The result is a nuanced study of one of the most important figures in Indian history.




Indian Books in Print


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Indian Sociology


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This book presents a critical and reflective view of fundamental theoretical orientations, thematic domains, and current debates in Indian sociology. It covers the growth of sociology as an academic and pedagogical subject, with four main parts. Part I discusses important theoretical orientations in Indian sociology, including Indological and civilizational approaches, as well as the contributions of an eminent sociologist and pioneer in Indian sociology, Professor Yogendra Singh, concerning the sociology of knowledge, liberal democracy, and the relevance of his concept of Islamization in the study of Indian society. Part II examines substantive areas of study such as caste, class, and tribe. Part III reflects on specific topics of current concern in Indian sociology, such as emerging vistas and futures, globalization, and rethinking area studies for planetary conversations. This book is highly relevant for postgraduate students and researchers in sociology, social anthropology, and social sciences.




Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar


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