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anushka_adishka_diaries's review against another edition
5.0
“There cannot be a more degrading system of social organisation than the Caste System. It is the system which deadens, paralyses, and cripples the people, [keeping them] from helpful activity.”
✒️
Dear Diary,
Arundhati Roy's (author of 1997 Booker winner The God of Small Things) exact words for ‘Annihilation of Caste’ are — “When I first read it I felt as though somebody had walked into a dim room & opened the windows” — and after finishing reading it, I couldn't agree more with her.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the prominent face behind the fight against Caste system & untouchability in India—in the book, “Annihilation of Caste” published in 1936, was supposed to be a speech delivered to a gathering of Hindus & Caste Hindu Social Reformers in Lahore (Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal), but was cancelled by the Reception Committee because his views as the President of the meeting wasn't approved.
The undelivered speech, later published, critiques the laws of Hindus—vedas & the shastras and intricately lays down the irreversible link between Hinduism & Caste system, that grows its roots deeper everyday. He calls out the Brahmins & upper caste Savarnas propagating the atrocities of the Caste system for their benefits and raises voice for denunciation of Hinduism & Caste system.
The book also includes Dr. Ambedkar's reply to Mahatma Gandhi's indictments to him, which is a very important section.
If it was in my power to make somebody read this book, I would, because this work remains relevant even after 86 years of its publication.
The atrocities he talks of is very much the reality of today & the religion plays a big role in catering to the sentiments of the privileged upper caste.
While reading this, I had two questions running in my mind—
1. ‘Why Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's ideologies & writings weren't taught to us extensively?'
2. 'Why did our curriculum limit him to 'Father of the Indian Constitution', but never allowed us to explore the atrocities he was subjected to & the fight he fought?’
But strangely I had answers to them.
We weren't taught him because our teachers were mostly upper caste & it's difficult to identify one's privileges & address the biases set in the books that are reverred as religious texts & with Hinduism showcased a ‘Way of Living’ it becomes even more difficult to break apart the notions.
If we were taught Ambedkar then we would've learnt to question—our Religion, our society, its norms & nobody likes that to happen.
I'm not saying I was born aware. I've been protected by my caste privileges, being born an upper caste myself; and as an urban dwellers we feel like 'Caste' isn't inherent to our 'city life' & is a thing of 'uneducated' 'village folks'; but for the urban strata the caste takes up on a different monstrous form & it's reflected in our everyday conversation & the way we perceive things (read the evergoing Reservation & Meritocracy debate); if only we sit to ponder over it.
I've over the time recognised my privileges (and will continue doing so) & reading the voices of dalit activists & personalities have helped me realise the prejudiced notions we've been brought up with & how blind we've been to a section in their fight. Therefore reading Ambedkar was long overdue on my list & I'm glad I read it (Better late than never.)
Read it if you haven't. Please do.
✒️
Dear Diary,
Arundhati Roy's (author of 1997 Booker winner The God of Small Things) exact words for ‘Annihilation of Caste’ are — “When I first read it I felt as though somebody had walked into a dim room & opened the windows” — and after finishing reading it, I couldn't agree more with her.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the prominent face behind the fight against Caste system & untouchability in India—in the book, “Annihilation of Caste” published in 1936, was supposed to be a speech delivered to a gathering of Hindus & Caste Hindu Social Reformers in Lahore (Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal), but was cancelled by the Reception Committee because his views as the President of the meeting wasn't approved.
The undelivered speech, later published, critiques the laws of Hindus—vedas & the shastras and intricately lays down the irreversible link between Hinduism & Caste system, that grows its roots deeper everyday. He calls out the Brahmins & upper caste Savarnas propagating the atrocities of the Caste system for their benefits and raises voice for denunciation of Hinduism & Caste system.
The book also includes Dr. Ambedkar's reply to Mahatma Gandhi's indictments to him, which is a very important section.
If it was in my power to make somebody read this book, I would, because this work remains relevant even after 86 years of its publication.
The atrocities he talks of is very much the reality of today & the religion plays a big role in catering to the sentiments of the privileged upper caste.
While reading this, I had two questions running in my mind—
1. ‘Why Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's ideologies & writings weren't taught to us extensively?'
2. 'Why did our curriculum limit him to 'Father of the Indian Constitution', but never allowed us to explore the atrocities he was subjected to & the fight he fought?’
But strangely I had answers to them.
We weren't taught him because our teachers were mostly upper caste & it's difficult to identify one's privileges & address the biases set in the books that are reverred as religious texts & with Hinduism showcased a ‘Way of Living’ it becomes even more difficult to break apart the notions.
If we were taught Ambedkar then we would've learnt to question—our Religion, our society, its norms & nobody likes that to happen.
I'm not saying I was born aware. I've been protected by my caste privileges, being born an upper caste myself; and as an urban dwellers we feel like 'Caste' isn't inherent to our 'city life' & is a thing of 'uneducated' 'village folks'; but for the urban strata the caste takes up on a different monstrous form & it's reflected in our everyday conversation & the way we perceive things (read the evergoing Reservation & Meritocracy debate); if only we sit to ponder over it.
I've over the time recognised my privileges (and will continue doing so) & reading the voices of dalit activists & personalities have helped me realise the prejudiced notions we've been brought up with & how blind we've been to a section in their fight. Therefore reading Ambedkar was long overdue on my list & I'm glad I read it (Better late than never.)
Read it if you haven't. Please do.
nithin2606's review against another edition
5.0
What a brilliant read. Gives so many insights on the Hindu religion and the caste system. Introduction by Arundati Roy(the Doctor and the Saint) shows the real picture of the Mahatma.
harshithcs's review against another edition
5.0
Eye-opening, humbling and extremely thought-provoking and informative.
gajeam's review against another edition
4.0
Gandhi was a political genius and Ambedkar was an academic one. Gandhi was a rich man who grew up to simulate poverty, Ambedkar was a dirt poor Untouchable who grew up to wear a three-piece suit and write the Indian constitution. Guess which one we remember? Hint: he's also the one with some sketchy segregationist politics.
Roy’s intro and Ambedkar’s speech definitively show that caste, in particular untouchability, is one of the most nefarious institutions in the world today. This is a good primer for the curious but largely ignorant Western reader (like myself), though Roy in particular has a few piles of Hindi proper nouns that can be confusing.
Roy’s intro and Ambedkar’s speech definitively show that caste, in particular untouchability, is one of the most nefarious institutions in the world today. This is a good primer for the curious but largely ignorant Western reader (like myself), though Roy in particular has a few piles of Hindi proper nouns that can be confusing.
tolstoyevski's review against another edition
5.0
The new edition with Indroduction by Arundhati Roy and this speech that was never delivered by B R Ambedkar is greatly relevant even after 70+ years after it was first written. It should be read with an open mind, and acknowleging B R not just as a leader of dalits, but a philosopher and a scholar.
pzp72's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
90 years later, our country is still not ready to face the issues Ambedkar identified.
siddharthagolu's review
5.0
I find India really fascinating sometimes, even though I've lived my whole life here. What the cultural multitudes and colorful festivals hide underneath is an ugly facade which threatens to break everything that has been built over the years. What I find most fascinating is how we've conditioned ourselves to ignore the blatant reality and move ahead with an oblivious calm, living in shit and aspiring for the gold.
Caste and religion are two of the most contentious topics out there, so much ingrained in our day to day life that one cannot even comprehend that any alternatives exist. Ambedkar had tried to show an alternative way out, and it only speaks of the deep-rootedness of the system when all we remember Dr. Ambedkar for is writing the Constitution (albiet not a small feat by any stretch), while all his life he had worked to shake the society off from the chains of caste.
This annotated edition is the perfect way to educate oneself about the almost forgotten history of a radical man who dared to question the status quo and to demand justice, fighting not against a foreign invader but with his fellow countrymen, and who has been sidelined from every history book that is taught in the country.
Caste is part and parcel of a Hindu life. I did not realize or experience this until I entered college. Although it remains rather concealed amongst students, it reared its ugly head whenever the matter of reservation (Affirmative action in west) was discussed. Arundhati Roy put this brilliantly in her forward:
> ‘Merit’ is the weapon of choice for an Indian elite that has dominated a system by allegedly divine authorisation, and denied knowledge—of certain kinds—to the subordinated castes for thousands of years. Now that it is being challenged, there have been passionate privileged-caste protests against the policy of reservation in government jobs and student quotas in universities. The presumption is that ‘merit’ exists in an ahistorical social vacuum and that the advantages that come from privileged-caste social networking and the establishment’s entrenched hostility towards the subordinated castes are not factors that deserve consideration. In truth, ‘merit’ has become a euphemism for nepotism.
Even now when I no longer believe in religion (Hinduism was never my religion, it was my parents' religion which I inherited, much like everyone else), I still get asked for my "last name" as a proxy for my caste. It is so seeped into our consciousness that we can't help but feel a reverence whenever we come across someone from a "higher caste", or to feel discomfort when we meet someone from a "lower caste". This prejudice even trumps religious beliefs in India - even though their
scriptures don't sanction it, the elite Muslims, Sikhs and Christians all practice caste discrimination.
The arguments put forward by Ambedkar for breaking up the entire caste system is a brilliant demonstration of the crystal-clear thinking of a man who left such a huge legacy on the Indian subcontinent and made sure that the future of India is steered in the right direction. He is criticized for asking for a radical transformation of society when India needed to unite everyone to win its freedom. What these criticisms seem to miss is that every radical man/woman is considered
radical precisely because i) they go against the cultural norms and ii) they question the deep-rooted prejudiced beliefs. There will never come an "appropriate" time for reforms, as is sadly evident with the still prevalent caste discrimination almost 90 years after Ambedkar decided to storm the gates.
It's a travesty that he still remains, for the large part, forgotten.
-------------------------------
This is also available on my website here.
Caste and religion are two of the most contentious topics out there, so much ingrained in our day to day life that one cannot even comprehend that any alternatives exist. Ambedkar had tried to show an alternative way out, and it only speaks of the deep-rootedness of the system when all we remember Dr. Ambedkar for is writing the Constitution (albiet not a small feat by any stretch), while all his life he had worked to shake the society off from the chains of caste.
This annotated edition is the perfect way to educate oneself about the almost forgotten history of a radical man who dared to question the status quo and to demand justice, fighting not against a foreign invader but with his fellow countrymen, and who has been sidelined from every history book that is taught in the country.
Caste is part and parcel of a Hindu life. I did not realize or experience this until I entered college. Although it remains rather concealed amongst students, it reared its ugly head whenever the matter of reservation (Affirmative action in west) was discussed. Arundhati Roy put this brilliantly in her forward:
> ‘Merit’ is the weapon of choice for an Indian elite that has dominated a system by allegedly divine authorisation, and denied knowledge—of certain kinds—to the subordinated castes for thousands of years. Now that it is being challenged, there have been passionate privileged-caste protests against the policy of reservation in government jobs and student quotas in universities. The presumption is that ‘merit’ exists in an ahistorical social vacuum and that the advantages that come from privileged-caste social networking and the establishment’s entrenched hostility towards the subordinated castes are not factors that deserve consideration. In truth, ‘merit’ has become a euphemism for nepotism.
Even now when I no longer believe in religion (Hinduism was never my religion, it was my parents' religion which I inherited, much like everyone else), I still get asked for my "last name" as a proxy for my caste. It is so seeped into our consciousness that we can't help but feel a reverence whenever we come across someone from a "higher caste", or to feel discomfort when we meet someone from a "lower caste". This prejudice even trumps religious beliefs in India - even though their
scriptures don't sanction it, the elite Muslims, Sikhs and Christians all practice caste discrimination.
The arguments put forward by Ambedkar for breaking up the entire caste system is a brilliant demonstration of the crystal-clear thinking of a man who left such a huge legacy on the Indian subcontinent and made sure that the future of India is steered in the right direction. He is criticized for asking for a radical transformation of society when India needed to unite everyone to win its freedom. What these criticisms seem to miss is that every radical man/woman is considered
radical precisely because i) they go against the cultural norms and ii) they question the deep-rooted prejudiced beliefs. There will never come an "appropriate" time for reforms, as is sadly evident with the still prevalent caste discrimination almost 90 years after Ambedkar decided to storm the gates.
It's a travesty that he still remains, for the large part, forgotten.
-------------------------------
This is also available on my website here.
thothgodofknowledge's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I will never be the same again. Thankyou.
amishi1712's review
5.0
I don't know why I didn't read this sooner. Ambedkar's writing, logics, and propositions are bullet-proof.
The reality of caste in India is scary, and more often than not the averagely educated person is not adversely impacted by it, thus making it a topic that not many think, and thus learn about. But we learn to revere those who upheld caste, and that is wrong.
Ambedkar's writing is of global relevance, and one of my most favourite parts was about his analysis of religions and cultures as an indicator of the morality and way of life in different societies. Yes, religion is not neutral and no, culture is not a defence for a practice that impedes someone's dignity.
I would love to connect with other people who have read this text, and I hope to introduce a lot of people to this text as well.
The reality of caste in India is scary, and more often than not the averagely educated person is not adversely impacted by it, thus making it a topic that not many think, and thus learn about. But we learn to revere those who upheld caste, and that is wrong.
Ambedkar's writing is of global relevance, and one of my most favourite parts was about his analysis of religions and cultures as an indicator of the morality and way of life in different societies. Yes, religion is not neutral and no, culture is not a defence for a practice that impedes someone's dignity.
I would love to connect with other people who have read this text, and I hope to introduce a lot of people to this text as well.