From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement

by Eleanor Zelliot

On the Dalit Movement started by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 1892-1956, Indian statesman and social reformer, in Maharashtra.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

371 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

Eleanor Zelliot was an American writer, professor of Carleton College and specialist on the History of India, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, women of Asia, Untouchables, social movements.

She wrote over eighty articles and edited three books on the movement among Untouchables in India led by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, on saint-poets of the medieval period, and on the Ambedkar-inspired Buddhist movement. She was one of the most prominent writers on Dalits of India.

Reviews

[Madeline]

The essays in this collection are drawn from a number of sources, originally published over many years (it may even have been something like twenty years). This has the unfortunate side effect of making the book repetitive, since Zelliot repeats information necessary to create a foundation in a number of the essays. However, this is only a problem in a book on the topic, and since I read it over such a long period of time it may actually have improved my take-away. I only knew about Ambedkar from A Suitable Boy, and the Dalit movement from news headlines, and Zelliot's book certainly enriched my understanding of the social, political, and religious movement. I liked that she addressed not only the history of Ambedkar himself, but the contemporary cultural developments, such as Dalit poetry, have emerged. Given the book's date of publication and the fact that many of the essays predate it considerably, I do wonder how things have changed.

[Ali Ahsan]

One of the best works/compilations of essays I have come across and definitely one of the go-to works in the study of Ambedkar.