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Seeking Begumpura
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.
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.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Gail Omvedt
34 books67 followersDr. Gail Omvedt is an American-born Indian scholar, sociologist and human rights activist. Omvedt has been involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental, farmers' and women's movements.
She was born in Minneapolis, and studied at Carleton College, and at UC Berkeley where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. She has been an Indian citizen since 1983.
In recent years she has been working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam Novib (NOVIB) and other institutions.
Wikipedia
She was born in Minneapolis, and studied at Carleton College, and at UC Berkeley where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. She has been an Indian citizen since 1983.
In recent years she has been working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam Novib (NOVIB) and other institutions.
Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 22, 2021
"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.
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October 15, 2020Reading 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.
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.
August 8, 2026
The book left me with a more clarity and conviction that any political project of fundamental transformation is a constant power negotiation with forces all around, it cannot stand outside of it. I’m just noting down things that kept circling in my head:
Bhakti started as a set of local, emotionally charged practices, often unsettling the caste system. However, the growth of this as a social reform movement ended up feeding regional-nationalist formations led by landed elites. Though the idea of social equality was the original motivating force, it later got limited to spiritual equality leading to social mobility for only few and denial of justice for most subaltern castes. By the 18th century, brahminical orthodoxy had recognised the Bhakti sants and co-opted the movement while burying the claims for social justice. Similarly, to underline the co-opting as a survival strategy of brahmanism, there are multiple references to Shivaji, who Phule and other anticaste movements tried to project as the “farmer king,” non-Brahmin assertion and then the gradual brahmanised icon of Maharashtrian unity. In her account of bhakti, religion comes out as not just opium; sometimes it can be weapon, and sometimes can be cage.
There is a detailed discussion of the tension between brahmanism / Vedic / sanatan versus “other Hinduisms”. Rammohan Roy and the reformist lineage who focused on distilling the “core” of hinduism, remove the embarrassing parts, redeem or restore Hinduism to a pure state before the British/Mughal influence. This lineage emphasized on a rationalist and elite self-image. The closely related project for rehabilitation of hinduism of which the most iconic proponent was Gandhi, with a major distinction that he moved away from an exclusive use of rationalist arguments to creation and propagation of a mass emotional vocabulary inspired by the bhakti movement.
Now, rationalist critique and ecstatic bhakti both challenge the caste system which (as the history of social movements recorded in this thesis suggests) is constantly under attack with challenges mounting from other varnas to Brahmin supremacy. Brahmanism survives by adapting to, aligning with new political conditions as and when those emerge and recalibrates the orbit of “Hindu” with different tools like myth, symbolism, malleability around exclusions, and even reason.
But when we look outward, in face of forces, particularly Islam, seen both as challenge and mirror, caste system has solidified defensively. Caste system then acts for both differentiation and exclusion.
There is a interesting framing of Bengal Renaissance as the birthplace of “Hinduism” as a modern construct. Modernist progressives of the time were essentially arguing that Vedic past was perfect which only later degenerated with introduction of practices like sati, child marriage, etc. (however the personal practices of these progressives were often in contradiction of what they were arguing in public life). At the same time, conservatives like Tilak were gaining ground by closing the moral gap between preaching and practice. The projects of national unification folded Vedic, Saiva, Vaishnava (very distinct social-cultural currents) into one “prakrit mat” and thus absorbing bhakti into the eternal tradition of Sanatana. That explains suspicion from Jyotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar who could later see ecstatic bhakti as safety valve for hinduism rather than structural break from caste system. The reformers in this period were mostly looking to build legitimacy in the eyes of rulers.
Sometimes the subaltern movements replicate hierarchy while resisting it, which comes out most clearly in the study of Matuas in Bengal. Matuas were peasant caste and mixed rationalist intellect and ecstasy of bhakti in their movement. They emphasised on self-respect as the key political idea and promoted wealth creation through commerce. As they gained more social power and accumulated wealth, they strategically resorted to moral over-corrections through puritanical family norms to counter elite ridicule of Sudra sexuality. For example, love without sexual passion was preached as ideal. With the upward transformation of the community into landed elites, they ended up replicating social hierarchy rather than dismantling varna. Omvedt refers to this as the spreading of varna beyond elites in the form of idea of merit.
About the colonialism's role, Omvedt describes the process of consolidation of Brahmin elites while at the same attributing it with opening of bureaucratic space to subordinated castes. In Phule's Gulamgiri, Aryan theory is used polemically and the mythological character Bali Raja is reinterpreted. to create a mock avatar theory with efforts to give it empirical groundings. In contrast to bhakti, Phule's line of attack on caste system can thus be seen as rational (rather than emotive) reinterpretation of history. In his Shetkaryacha Asud, he took on a political economic study that directly addressed British. It thanked them for bringing industry and new technological powers but condemned their taxation and revenue policies. Bureaucracy of the time was identified as a collusion of British and Brahminical elite which consolidated brahim powers. As we are much familiar now thanks to recent surge of Dalit movements in India and popularizing of Mahatma Phule as social icons, the constant theme in Phule's writings is to prioritize mass education, particularly literacy (before elite higher education).
In his Sarvajanik Satyadharma, Phule attempted to describe a universal religion. He argued if humans are alike in form and intelligence, how could holiness be hereditary. Thus, he critiqued Rama/Krishna as improbable and introduced rational rituals to replace the orthodox social rituals. Interesting to note that all this was happening parallel to Congress under the leadership of Gandhi constructing nationalist Hindu unity.
In Omvedt's reading, Iyothee Thass carved out a different route. He was well-versed in Sanskrit and Pali and produced anti-Brahmanic etiology. He was the earliest to recognise "Paraiyar" as a slur and declared that Paraiyars were not Hindu but non-caste Tamils / Tamil Buddhists. He was also one of the earliest to profess the belief that the emancipation was impossible under Hinduism. Therefore, he called for undermining of caste difference among the Paraiya/subaltern castes to build an alternative unity. He also called out British erasure of early non-Brahmin participation in administration.
Throughout, but more so in the discussions of later modern period, the subject if religious conversion keeps resurfacing. Omvedt points out the pitribhumi–punyabhumi logic by Gandhi and Savarkar, and how Gandhi opposed mass conversion by Ambedkar by arguing for reform from within vs exit.
Pandita Ramabai was crucial in this context who converted to Christianity because she saw patriarchy as core to brahmanism. Initially she retained the reformist line of early modern era (that varna was a division of labour that later corrupted) but later could see caste as article of faith which was pervasive even among those who converted to other religions. Mukti Sadan was a radical social experiment that she set up to reintegrate widows into society and redefine the idea of womanhood.
Periyar's self-respect movement had some influence from Marxism and critiqued khadi and Wardha plan by aruging that handicraft romanticism traps caste occupations. Periya's movement was pro-machinisation, pro-technology, centering on state-led development, municipal power and cooperatives. There are similarities between the individual in the 'Self-respect' movement and Phule’s satya shodhak (both emphasizing on the idea of individual is itself a major and interesting commonality). Like Iyothee Thass, Periyar also rejected the notion of “Sudra” as degrading. In Omvedt's descriptions, he comes across as a political intellectual-strategist who pushed for big-tent non-Brahmin, linguistic nationalism that could blur caste lines (however, the same is usually criticised as it meant sidelining of Dalits in favour of dominant non-Brahmin castes)
Ambedkar’s journey, as is more well-known, was full of tactical shifts. For example, his early openness to socialism that turned later into scepticism when witnessing working class being fragmented by caste. In conventional marxist teminlogy, he turned his attention to dismantling superstructure first. In Omvedt's analysis, Ambedkar does not seem particularly enthusiastic about Dalit-Marxism either. Again, in Omvedt's accounts, Ambedkar was optimistic about capitalism potentially loosening caste-bound labour markets. Omvedt was vocal against communist/social movement in India which is apparent in her discussion of Marxism’s role in anti-caste movements (and in her discussions of Ambedkar's relation with Marxism). She argues that communist attack on religion pushed caste into background. She also mentions failure to learn from indigenous anti-caste visions and communist growth siphoning support from Ambedkarite movement, particularly in Maharashtra.
With the approaching independence, there was much consolidation of Hindu nationalisms around Gandhi. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Ambedkar were largely alienated and this creates an unexpected parallels between demand for separate nations Pakistan and Dravidanadu (or Ambedkar's original demand for separate electorates). Omvedt pours some thoughts on the directions of the anti-caste/Dalit movements and remains enthusiastic (but cautious) about the newly unleashed powers of the time: internet and globalisation. In her characteristic push for a middle path, she lays it out that "creative response from the subalterns.. (from) Dalits and bahujans themselves... and the articulation of how to deal with it (globalisation) still remains caught within old shibboleths—either simple support of globalization without nuances, or an updating of the old Left paradigm of opposition to ‘LPG’ (liberalization, privatization and globalization)".
Perhaps, a good way to conclude and depart is to remind ourselves about the richness of anti-caste visions right from Ravidas' spiritual Begumpura to Ambedkar's idea of Prabuddha Bharat, and that these are spaces where ecstasy and reason can meet.
Bhakti started as a set of local, emotionally charged practices, often unsettling the caste system. However, the growth of this as a social reform movement ended up feeding regional-nationalist formations led by landed elites. Though the idea of social equality was the original motivating force, it later got limited to spiritual equality leading to social mobility for only few and denial of justice for most subaltern castes. By the 18th century, brahminical orthodoxy had recognised the Bhakti sants and co-opted the movement while burying the claims for social justice. Similarly, to underline the co-opting as a survival strategy of brahmanism, there are multiple references to Shivaji, who Phule and other anticaste movements tried to project as the “farmer king,” non-Brahmin assertion and then the gradual brahmanised icon of Maharashtrian unity. In her account of bhakti, religion comes out as not just opium; sometimes it can be weapon, and sometimes can be cage.
There is a detailed discussion of the tension between brahmanism / Vedic / sanatan versus “other Hinduisms”. Rammohan Roy and the reformist lineage who focused on distilling the “core” of hinduism, remove the embarrassing parts, redeem or restore Hinduism to a pure state before the British/Mughal influence. This lineage emphasized on a rationalist and elite self-image. The closely related project for rehabilitation of hinduism of which the most iconic proponent was Gandhi, with a major distinction that he moved away from an exclusive use of rationalist arguments to creation and propagation of a mass emotional vocabulary inspired by the bhakti movement.
Now, rationalist critique and ecstatic bhakti both challenge the caste system which (as the history of social movements recorded in this thesis suggests) is constantly under attack with challenges mounting from other varnas to Brahmin supremacy. Brahmanism survives by adapting to, aligning with new political conditions as and when those emerge and recalibrates the orbit of “Hindu” with different tools like myth, symbolism, malleability around exclusions, and even reason.
But when we look outward, in face of forces, particularly Islam, seen both as challenge and mirror, caste system has solidified defensively. Caste system then acts for both differentiation and exclusion.
There is a interesting framing of Bengal Renaissance as the birthplace of “Hinduism” as a modern construct. Modernist progressives of the time were essentially arguing that Vedic past was perfect which only later degenerated with introduction of practices like sati, child marriage, etc. (however the personal practices of these progressives were often in contradiction of what they were arguing in public life). At the same time, conservatives like Tilak were gaining ground by closing the moral gap between preaching and practice. The projects of national unification folded Vedic, Saiva, Vaishnava (very distinct social-cultural currents) into one “prakrit mat” and thus absorbing bhakti into the eternal tradition of Sanatana. That explains suspicion from Jyotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar who could later see ecstatic bhakti as safety valve for hinduism rather than structural break from caste system. The reformers in this period were mostly looking to build legitimacy in the eyes of rulers.
Sometimes the subaltern movements replicate hierarchy while resisting it, which comes out most clearly in the study of Matuas in Bengal. Matuas were peasant caste and mixed rationalist intellect and ecstasy of bhakti in their movement. They emphasised on self-respect as the key political idea and promoted wealth creation through commerce. As they gained more social power and accumulated wealth, they strategically resorted to moral over-corrections through puritanical family norms to counter elite ridicule of Sudra sexuality. For example, love without sexual passion was preached as ideal. With the upward transformation of the community into landed elites, they ended up replicating social hierarchy rather than dismantling varna. Omvedt refers to this as the spreading of varna beyond elites in the form of idea of merit.
About the colonialism's role, Omvedt describes the process of consolidation of Brahmin elites while at the same attributing it with opening of bureaucratic space to subordinated castes. In Phule's Gulamgiri, Aryan theory is used polemically and the mythological character Bali Raja is reinterpreted. to create a mock avatar theory with efforts to give it empirical groundings. In contrast to bhakti, Phule's line of attack on caste system can thus be seen as rational (rather than emotive) reinterpretation of history. In his Shetkaryacha Asud, he took on a political economic study that directly addressed British. It thanked them for bringing industry and new technological powers but condemned their taxation and revenue policies. Bureaucracy of the time was identified as a collusion of British and Brahminical elite which consolidated brahim powers. As we are much familiar now thanks to recent surge of Dalit movements in India and popularizing of Mahatma Phule as social icons, the constant theme in Phule's writings is to prioritize mass education, particularly literacy (before elite higher education).
In his Sarvajanik Satyadharma, Phule attempted to describe a universal religion. He argued if humans are alike in form and intelligence, how could holiness be hereditary. Thus, he critiqued Rama/Krishna as improbable and introduced rational rituals to replace the orthodox social rituals. Interesting to note that all this was happening parallel to Congress under the leadership of Gandhi constructing nationalist Hindu unity.
In Omvedt's reading, Iyothee Thass carved out a different route. He was well-versed in Sanskrit and Pali and produced anti-Brahmanic etiology. He was the earliest to recognise "Paraiyar" as a slur and declared that Paraiyars were not Hindu but non-caste Tamils / Tamil Buddhists. He was also one of the earliest to profess the belief that the emancipation was impossible under Hinduism. Therefore, he called for undermining of caste difference among the Paraiya/subaltern castes to build an alternative unity. He also called out British erasure of early non-Brahmin participation in administration.
Throughout, but more so in the discussions of later modern period, the subject if religious conversion keeps resurfacing. Omvedt points out the pitribhumi–punyabhumi logic by Gandhi and Savarkar, and how Gandhi opposed mass conversion by Ambedkar by arguing for reform from within vs exit.
Pandita Ramabai was crucial in this context who converted to Christianity because she saw patriarchy as core to brahmanism. Initially she retained the reformist line of early modern era (that varna was a division of labour that later corrupted) but later could see caste as article of faith which was pervasive even among those who converted to other religions. Mukti Sadan was a radical social experiment that she set up to reintegrate widows into society and redefine the idea of womanhood.
Periyar's self-respect movement had some influence from Marxism and critiqued khadi and Wardha plan by aruging that handicraft romanticism traps caste occupations. Periya's movement was pro-machinisation, pro-technology, centering on state-led development, municipal power and cooperatives. There are similarities between the individual in the 'Self-respect' movement and Phule’s satya shodhak (both emphasizing on the idea of individual is itself a major and interesting commonality). Like Iyothee Thass, Periyar also rejected the notion of “Sudra” as degrading. In Omvedt's descriptions, he comes across as a political intellectual-strategist who pushed for big-tent non-Brahmin, linguistic nationalism that could blur caste lines (however, the same is usually criticised as it meant sidelining of Dalits in favour of dominant non-Brahmin castes)
Ambedkar’s journey, as is more well-known, was full of tactical shifts. For example, his early openness to socialism that turned later into scepticism when witnessing working class being fragmented by caste. In conventional marxist teminlogy, he turned his attention to dismantling superstructure first. In Omvedt's analysis, Ambedkar does not seem particularly enthusiastic about Dalit-Marxism either. Again, in Omvedt's accounts, Ambedkar was optimistic about capitalism potentially loosening caste-bound labour markets. Omvedt was vocal against communist/social movement in India which is apparent in her discussion of Marxism’s role in anti-caste movements (and in her discussions of Ambedkar's relation with Marxism). She argues that communist attack on religion pushed caste into background. She also mentions failure to learn from indigenous anti-caste visions and communist growth siphoning support from Ambedkarite movement, particularly in Maharashtra.
With the approaching independence, there was much consolidation of Hindu nationalisms around Gandhi. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Ambedkar were largely alienated and this creates an unexpected parallels between demand for separate nations Pakistan and Dravidanadu (or Ambedkar's original demand for separate electorates). Omvedt pours some thoughts on the directions of the anti-caste/Dalit movements and remains enthusiastic (but cautious) about the newly unleashed powers of the time: internet and globalisation. In her characteristic push for a middle path, she lays it out that "creative response from the subalterns.. (from) Dalits and bahujans themselves... and the articulation of how to deal with it (globalisation) still remains caught within old shibboleths—either simple support of globalization without nuances, or an updating of the old Left paradigm of opposition to ‘LPG’ (liberalization, privatization and globalization)".
Perhaps, a good way to conclude and depart is to remind ourselves about the richness of anti-caste visions right from Ravidas' spiritual Begumpura to Ambedkar's idea of Prabuddha Bharat, and that these are spaces where ecstasy and reason can meet.
May 1, 2024
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.
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.
Read
March 6, 2024decent 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.
January 14, 2023
A Buddhist outlook of the anti caste movement.
July 14, 2023
Insightful. Wonderfully written in parts.
July 26, 2023
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?!
June 16, 2021
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.
Don't just 'pity' people at the margins, read & understand their history of marginalization as well as their foresight, learn & make amends.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews