Ambedkar's World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement

by Eleanor Zelliot

This is a classic monograph on the Mahar movement in western India. It documents the social and political forces that shaped Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), the greatest leader of the Dalits, and the manner in which Ambedkar shaped the destiny of the Dalits of Maharashtra and India. Zelliot chronicles the movement from its origins with the first Mahar petition in 1890 till its culmination in the mass conversion to Buddhism in 1956. She describes the defining influences of the pre-Ambedkar leadership, the Mahar army tradition, the cult of the COkhamela, the Mahad satyagraha, the temple-entry movements, the various newspapers Ambedkar edited, the Round Table conferences and the political parties Ambedkar founded. Using a wide array of primary sources, she offers a rich history of one of modern India's most defining movements. In its scope and depth as a single-cast history, Ambedkar's World remains as yet unsurpassed.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, India

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

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

[Manish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work is Zelliot’s 1969 thesis on Ambedkar and the Mahar movement. While my initial intention was to understand Ambedkar, the route adopted turned out to be a tad complicated. With a heavy focus on the Mahar traditions, their rise in the Post-British period and their evolution during the Indian ‘Refornation’, the book had all the ingredients of a typical academic thesis. Ambedkar’s efforts in the political negotiations with the British, the Round table conferences and his famous tussles with Gandhi are discussed in depth. My search for a more comprehensive work covering the whole of Ambedkar’s life continues. Should also check out Jabbar Patel’s movie on the man!

[Siddharth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first chapter, on why Mahars were uniquely placed among Maharashtra's Dalit castes to organize for their rights, is a tour de force. The rest of Zelliot's 1969 thesis, on how Ambedkar assumed leadership of the Dalit movement, and the movement's success in a nationalist environment determined for the most part to ignore it, is also excellent.

[Pranay Borupothu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleanor Zelliot introduced Dr. B R Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement to the West with this book.

Quite a good read and mainly covers the involvement of Babasaheb in the Mahar Movement or Dalit Movement in Maharashtra.

[Vikas Kataria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good thinking of book

[Goodraeds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Put her own views to belittle dr ambedkar's embracing buddha.

[Arjun Re · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book, not a mere biography of Ambedkar, but a history of the larger Mahar movement from Ambedkar's birth to death. Probably the first scholarly work that presents Ambedkar as a mass leader, and for that it is a trailblazing work, unfortunately leaves him as a 'Mahar leader' alone, even if that was not the intention, sidelining his fight for justice for broader society.

[Shilpa Kalavdikar · Rating 1 out of 5]

it's a wndrfl book which made to understand d fact of dalit peoples conditions one should take dis as a beginning book