Rethinking untouchability: The political thought of B. R. Ambedkar

by Jesús F. Cháirez-Garza

This book examines the transformation of untouchability into a political idea in India during the first half of the twentieth century. At its heart is Ambedkar’s role and the concepts he used to champion untouchability as a political problem. Ambedkar’s main objective was to comprehend the numerous avatars of untouchability in order to eradicate this practice. Ambedkar understood untouchability beyond aspects of ritual purity and pollution by stressing its complex nature and uncovering the political, historical, racial, spatial and emotional characteristics contained in this concept. Ambedkar believed the abolition of untouchability depended on a widespread alteration of India’s political, economic and cultural systems. Ambedkar reframed the problem of untouchability by linking it to larger concepts floating in the political environment of late colonial India such as representation, slavery, race, the Indian village, internationalism and even the creation of Pakistan.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2024

Reviews

[Arjun C · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, there was a lot in this book, that I hadn't got in other books around Ambedkar. The various theorizations worked well in painting a clear picture of the nexus of national movement and colonialism and their ventriloquist politics. The impact of international events on Ambedkar's struggle put a lot of things in new perspective. At the end, I was wondering how history could have been different for untouchables, if partition had not occurred or British hadn't back stabbed.