Many non-Indian FB friends may not be familiar with Ambedkar - Dalit leader and one of the greatest voices for freedom, equality and solidarity of the 20th century. The excellent Navayana publishers in India have just brought out a new, annotated edition of Ambedkars magnificent Annihilation of Caste with a lengthy introduction by Arundhati Roy. This has generated extensive controversy: Dalit activists have argued that getting a non-Dalit writer like Roy, born into caste privilege, to mediate between Ambedkar and a popular audience repeats and re-enforces the very caste system Ambedkar wanted to annihilate. Its not an easy debate, as the publisher S. Anand has been ready to acknowledge. His speech at the book launch in Delhi (attached) is well worth reading. Im not a Dalit or an Indian, but Ambedkar speaks powerfully to me and lights up all our struggles against oppression. He is, as Anand says, as universal as the sun. Please, friends in USA, Europe, etc., make the effort to read Ambedkar, in whatever edition. Hell enrich you. From Anands speech at the book launch: While I understand the anxiety and politics over who gets to introduce or annotate Ambedkar, I do strongly believe Ambedkar belongs to all. After all, annihilation of caste is something those who have caste have to undertake—the caste Hindus, Touchables, as Ambedkar called them. And I believe, Ambedkar is like the Sun—he is as universal as the Sun. He illumines the lives of Dalits as much as he illumines the lives of non-Dalits—whether most non-Dalits like it or not, whether most Dalits like it or not. He is the Sun that, as Namdeo Dhasal writes in his powerful “Ode to Dr Ambedkar” in 1972, “moves only from one freedom to the next.” Annihilation of Caste is Ambedkar’s call for rebirth and regeneration—in this life. His was a call to destroy something ugly in those who practice caste so that they may have a sense of the genuine beauty of the humanity nesting in each person. To turn to Dhasal again, “Everyone is, as a matter of fact, as complete as the Sun.” Speaking to a Dalit audience in 1942, Ambedkar said: “The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality.” You can apply this anywhere—to the struggles of Romas in Hungary, in Kashmir, in Manipur, or to the LGBT struggle against 377... navayana.org/ambedkar-universal-as-the-sun/
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:11:11 +0000
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