Seeking Begumpura

by Omvedt Gail

The bhakti radical Ravidas (c 1450–1520), calling himself a ‘tanner now set free’, was the first to envision an Indian utopia in his song “Begumpura”—a modern casteless, classless, tax-free city without sorrow. This was in contrast to the dystopia of the brahmanical kaliyuga. Anticaste intellectuals in India posited utopias much before Thomas More, in 1516, articulated a Renaissance humanist version.

Gail Omvedt, in this study, focuses on the worldviews of subaltern visionaries spanning five centuries—Chokhamela, Janabai, Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram, the Kartabhajas, Phule, Iyothee Thass, Pandita Ramabai, Periyar and Ambedkar. She charts the development of their utopian visions and the socioeconomic characteristics of the societies conceived through this long period.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, India, Politics, Academic

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Utopias exist because the promise and a partial, fragmented reality of a prosperous society exist in the productive possibilities of the present, promising ecstasies of living in this world—but not allowing them to be realized. In an era where they can only foreshadow a distant future, utopias provide hope and even ecstasy for the masses."

Omvedt envisioned utopias as the unification of dnyan and bhakti, reason and ecstasy, "giving inspiration and outlining a path for the creation of the new society". The positions of nationalist leaders like Nehru and Gandhi, full of blind spots, have dominated popular conception of the nation for far too long to our detriment "It is time to look at the "Dalit-Bahujan alternatives in imagining India", learn from the past and get ourselves out of our present morass into a brighter future.

To that effect, Omvedt looks at a few prominent Bhakti sants from the early modern period (15th-17th Centuries) and the socio-political leaders who emerged during colonial rule. In an astonishing historiographic project looking at co-opted figures and de-fanged philosophies, she provides us a radical reading of the archive, a plethora of utopian configurations, and attempts at their fulfillment, delineating how they were gradually appropriated and erased from the mainstream. It deftly exhibits transformative visions of subaltern thinkers.

[Mridula]

Reading this book has been like a window to the history of "India" for me. Not British colonialism, not Gandhi, not Nehru and not even the communists. A history which is deliberately kept from us. A history of the vision for a casteless society which we are yet to grapple with in any meaningful way.

It has also made me think how access to knowledge is governed through hegemonic power structures in the society. Must learn to look where we're deliberately not being pointed towards.

[Divya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wealth of information and insights. While the writing can be a bit academic, it helps to stick with it and re-read sentences and paragraphs if you need, to process and assimilate the incredible history of a social vision by anticaste intellectuals.

Spanning five centuries, Omveldt traces the vision of a ‘Begumpura’, as named by Ravidas and imagined successively by others, a city with no sorrow or taxes or toil, no exploitation or hierarchy, a casteless classless world. While those powerful thinkers of the 15th to 17th centuries could dream more without being reigned in by pragmatism, those who came later like Periyar and Ambedkar tried to tackle building a similar ideal vision of this world that was more grounded in reality. A remarkably tougher challenge indeed. Omveldt presents comprehensive theses on each visionary and sunmarises remarkably, the impacts of their thoughts and actions, and how we may see such a movement emerge beyond country borders to a global stage.

Reason and ecstasy. These are the two values that govern these thinkers, the lens through which Omveldt analyses their visions for creating an ideal world.

[Siddharth Karandikar]

decent history of various anticaste movements, all chapters basically highlight how radical saints and activists worked to alleviate the oppressed people, but a lot of their ideas were cleansed and coopted and presented just as spiritual equality, while quietly not talking about how they also mentioned harsh social critiques of oppression and exploitation, in order to create a false sense of egalitarianism, while maintaining power structures and hegemony.

[Pradeep Kirubagaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Buddhist outlook of the anti caste movement.

[SIDDHARTH SHIRUR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful. Wonderfully written in parts.

[Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gail traces the journey of reason and ecstasy in the land of India in the last 500 years thru many anti caste intellectuals and their visions of an utopia. Begumpura where art thou?!

[Ashna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book describing, summarizing, analyzing all the important anti-caste intellectuals in chronological order. A very very good book on subaltern history that unfortunately is not taught in the mainstream. After reading this, one can perhaps appreciate how the cultures of the subalterns are appropriated & coopted by the elite without any credit & all the while oppressing them too. It's the case of great intellectual & cultural theft.

Don't just 'pity' people at the margins, read & understand their history of marginalization as well as their foresight, learn & make amends.