Until Indian booksellers keep displaying and selling more Mein Kampf than Annihilation of Caste, my birth country is going to keep flirting with fascism more than social justice.
Read Ambedkar. It's all free online. He still is THE most brilliant Indian scholar of all time.
Read Ambedkar. It's all free online. He still is THE most brilliant Indian scholar of all time.
Growing up in brahminical Pune, I was taught about Savarkar in excessively effusive ways and about Ambedkar in excessively condescending ways.
So we were told how Bhimrao studied hard. Beat odds. Wrote the constitution.
Everything Ambedkar I read was about him not by him.
So we were told how Bhimrao studied hard. Beat odds. Wrote the constitution.
Everything Ambedkar I read was about him not by him.
I read mein Kampf (hated it), Gandhi's autobiography (liked it), Nehru's books (loved them), Savarkar (mixed feelings) in my teens.
I didn't even see an actual physical copy of an Ambedkar book in India until the 2010s!
I only really read Ambedkar in my 30s.
I didn't even see an actual physical copy of an Ambedkar book in India until the 2010s!
I only really read Ambedkar in my 30s.
And whoa! WHOA! Mind was totally blown.
Bhimrao Ambedkar was a true genius scholar who diagnosed the key problems with Indian society and the possible solutions a century ago! What intellectual heft and cogent argumentation!
Gandhi Nehru writings paled in comparison.
Bhimrao Ambedkar was a true genius scholar who diagnosed the key problems with Indian society and the possible solutions a century ago! What intellectual heft and cogent argumentation!
Gandhi Nehru writings paled in comparison.
If I had to describe my opinion of Ambedkar in my late 20s, it was still respectful. But it wasn't respectful enough by a long shot.
Fascists dream of Bose or Patel being the first PM.
I dream of an India where Babasaheb Ambedkar was the first PM.
Fascists dream of Bose or Patel being the first PM.
I dream of an India where Babasaheb Ambedkar was the first PM.
A small tangent to remind non Marathi fans of Ambedkar that B.R.A. is not Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
B.R.A. is Bhimrao Raoji Ambedkar.
This tangent because it really annoys me when people write his name as Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Some respect please.
B.R.A. is Bhimrao Raoji Ambedkar.
This tangent because it really annoys me when people write his name as Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
Some respect please.
Anyway, go to Ambedkar.org and read everything he wrote. It's all free. Also check out Columbia University's resources on him, cos he was their alum a century ago.
No Indian university gives Babasaheb as much respect as Columbia University does.
No Indian university gives Babasaheb as much respect as Columbia University does.
You literally need to read a couple of essays by Dr. Ambedkar and the scales fall from your eyes about the real problems in India and their real solutions.
Be an Ambedkar stan not a Savarkar stan.
Be an Ambedkar stan not a Savarkar stan.
Oh yes, the Phule's!
Will do a separate thread about them. Another example of growing up thinking of them as great but in a way narrower sense than they were great.
They were portrayed in very narrow terms of girls education, not larger Hindu society.
Will do a separate thread about them. Another example of growing up thinking of them as great but in a way narrower sense than they were great.
They were portrayed in very narrow terms of girls education, not larger Hindu society.
https://twitter.com/GanaK_/status/1500800693417877504?t=FwRTj6l3IvxdRb9o9nWN5g&s=19
When I read what Jyotiba and Savitribai actually had to say, and again, this was in my mid 30s though I grew up in Pune, I was like, damn! They were this wise in the 1800s.
Again, the problem was whatever Phule I read was written by others about them. Not their own thoughts.
Again, the problem was whatever Phule I read was written by others about them. Not their own thoughts.
The India I grew up in, Ambedkar and Phule's were given some respect, but any recognition of them was tied to "vote bank politics".
I remember joining in the ridicule of how Mayawati was renaming so much stuff after Ambedkar and putting his statues up all over Uttar Pradesh.
I remember joining in the ridicule of how Mayawati was renaming so much stuff after Ambedkar and putting his statues up all over Uttar Pradesh.
Only a couple of decades later did I get the point of why it was necessary to have Ambedkar everywhere in India.
When they decided to name my own Pune university after Savitribai Phule, I thought it was "nice". Now I think it was essential and inevitable. Who did more for education in Pune than her?
Ambedkar made a few political compromises, because as Uncle Joe keeps saying "Politics is the art of the possible".
Ambedkar never EVER made any ideological compromises. He staked out brilliant incisive morally unimpeachable positions and drew people to them all the time.
Ambedkar never EVER made any ideological compromises. He staked out brilliant incisive morally unimpeachable positions and drew people to them all the time.
When I was a kid in brahminical Pune, I was taught of his "neo-Buddhism" or even the annual #BhimaKoregaon New Years Eve celebrations he started in a very condescending way.
Even the most charitable take was "yes casteism is wrong but this is too much".
Nope, wasn't too much.
Even the most charitable take was "yes casteism is wrong but this is too much".
Nope, wasn't too much.
Today I see the 1956 started Navabauddha (as we call it in Marathi) movement as one of the greatest acts of morally upright ideologically flawless public phenomena of all time.
It's Rosa parks, Selma, March on Washington, Woolworths sit-in, BLM category
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Bud…
It's Rosa parks, Selma, March on Washington, Woolworths sit-in, BLM category
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Bud…
I'm not religious. At all. I've been aggressively atheist since young days, actively rejecting organized religions in general.
But if I were forced to pick a "religion", of course it would be Buddhism over Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.
Wouldn't you?
But if I were forced to pick a "religion", of course it would be Buddhism over Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.
Wouldn't you?
Even in his choice of an alternative religion, Babasaheb had such detailed and convincing reasons for choosing Buddhism.
And remember, this was 1956.
He was already an "insider" then, having written the constitution and been the first Law Minister of independent India.
And remember, this was 1956.
He was already an "insider" then, having written the constitution and been the first Law Minister of independent India.
The last major thing Dr. Ambedkar did before he died was this mass conversion to Buddhism.
Sanghis try to show it as some assault on them. Why #BhimaKoregaon was specifically targeted after 100 peaceful years of celebrations of Dalits getting their first real win in history.
Sanghis try to show it as some assault on them. Why #BhimaKoregaon was specifically targeted after 100 peaceful years of celebrations of Dalits getting their first real win in history.
Babasaheb did that mass conversion out of his ideological convictions. And history has shown how absolutely right he was in everything.
It is sad that Hindu elites responded, not with honest introspection about why that happened, but with hate.
Even in the 21st century.
It is sad that Hindu elites responded, not with honest introspection about why that happened, but with hate.
Even in the 21st century.
Just a reminder that #BhimaKoregaon celebrations had been happening in Pune for a hundred years peacefully and uneventfully.
Until Sambhaji Bhide type sanghis, emboldened by Dev Fadvya, decided to attack them with violence. And then arrest them.
#ElgarParishad
Until Sambhaji Bhide type sanghis, emboldened by Dev Fadvya, decided to attack them with violence. And then arrest them.
#ElgarParishad
I explain the arrests and even deaths of #BhimaKoregaon activists to my American friends by saying, imagine if Trump arrested people celebrating anniversaries of Little Rock or Selma or Birmingham etc in 2018.
Even Trump wouldn't do it.
But Fadvya did. Cos brahminical supremacy
Even Trump wouldn't do it.
But Fadvya did. Cos brahminical supremacy
I keep talking about #BhimaKoregaon arrests etc because it is for me, as a Pune kid, THE most shameless example of people even in the 21st century being so shamelessly bigoted, cruel, and violent.
They literally killed people for saying they aren't sub human.
They literally killed people for saying they aren't sub human.
The greatest shame I carry as a Marathi is how the #BhimaKoregaon activists have been treated by the state and how many Marathis seem to think it's okay to just arrest and kill non violent activists for saying historically accurate things.
Dr. "Babasaheb" Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in his own voice.
What a brain! What a heart!
What a brain! What a heart!
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