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4.66 AVERAGE
4.66 AVERAGE
I learned a lot and the reader did a great job too with a dynamic voice that I enjoyed listening to.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Annihilation of caste is a reasonable, rational and very real piece of literature. I have learned a lot and the book provides a brilliant articulation of how to counter many irrational arguments that are thrown against anti-caste, pro-minority narratives. Ambedkar was an intelligent and brave man who spoke his truth fearlessly.
He provides a perspective that is very different and almost antidotal to the systemic poison that plagues our society and our constitution. It is wrongly positioned as an affront on hinduism. It challenges the Hindu society I an attempt to improve it rather than apologize or rationalize for it. Hinduism is a religion without a rulebook which is why there are so many rulebooks that are manipulated as propaganda. This book questions that as one should. The modern society is both worst and better than the society we left behind. We have to be able to question it, mould it and make the society a more equitable one, with equality as a guiding principle. I would recommend anyone and everyone to read this speech, this book and to get to know Ambedkar.
He provides a perspective that is very different and almost antidotal to the systemic poison that plagues our society and our constitution. It is wrongly positioned as an affront on hinduism. It challenges the Hindu society I an attempt to improve it rather than apologize or rationalize for it. Hinduism is a religion without a rulebook which is why there are so many rulebooks that are manipulated as propaganda. This book questions that as one should. The modern society is both worst and better than the society we left behind. We have to be able to question it, mould it and make the society a more equitable one, with equality as a guiding principle. I would recommend anyone and everyone to read this speech, this book and to get to know Ambedkar.
“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.
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.
Eye-opening, humbling and extremely thought-provoking and informative.
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.
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.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
90 years later, our country is still not ready to face the issues Ambedkar identified.