Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men, by B. R. Ambedkar (introduction)

No democracy without beef: Ambedkar, Identity and Nationhood Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd

We would have felt proud if the Vice Chancellor has told that we were suspended because we organized Ambedkar Vardhanthi, Babri Masjid demolition day and Beef festival LQ WKH ODVW ZHHN $Q\ZD\V WKLV LV QRW WKH ÀUVW $VVHUWLRQ RI 'DOLWV KDV EHHQ PHW ZLWK WKHVH NLQG RI FXQQLQJ VXSSUHVVLRQ all over India—It’s Christmas month, resurrection is more than likely in this season. ³5RKLWK 9HPXOD 'HFHPEHU )DFHERRN SRVW

In April 2012, a beef-themed food festival was organized by WKH 'DOLW VWXGHQWV RI 2VPDQLD 8QLYHUVLW\ LQ +\GHUDEDG 7KLV ZDV D JRRG WZR \HDUV EHIRUH WKH %KDUDWL\D -DQDWD 3DUW\ %-3

took control of the Indian parliament with Narendra Modi as prime minister with the brazenly stated religious agenda called +LQGXWYD WKDW LV DW RGGV ZLWK WKH &RQVWLWXWLRQ DQG VHYHQ \HDUV before it renewed its pincer-like hold on state and society in May 2019. The festival was part of B.R. Ambedkar’s 121st ELUWK DQQLYHUVDU\ FHOHEUDWLRQV LQ ZKLFK 'DOLW 6KXGUD $GLYDVL and Muslim students, teachers and other social and political activists participated. Beef biryani was served in plenty, and the ‘pure vegetarian’ nationalism propagated by the right-wing

12 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

Brahmanic forces was collectively challenged. The public and celebratory consumption of beef was and is projected as antiIndian by the right wing. A food item turned into an object of stigma and shame was being reclaimed as a symbol of pride, as D ULJKW 7KH SXUSRVH RI WKH 2VPDQLD 8QLYHUVLW\ EHHI IHVWLYDO was equally to declare that those opposed to beef were antiKXPDQ $ERXW Ă€IW\ PHPEHUV RI $NKLO %KDUDWL\D 9LG\DUWKL 3DULVKDG $%93 WKH VWXGHQWV¡ ZLQJ RI WKH %-3 VWRUPHG WKH venue and attacked the organizers and beef-eaters. The BJP was QRW D VLJQLĂ€FDQW SOD\HU LQ WKH VRXWKHUQ VWDWH LQ DQG \HW WKH\ could will their way to gratuitous violence. Five people were LQMXUHG LQ WKH VFXIĂ H WKDW HQVXHG ‘Beef stalls’, as they are called, have been successfully put up at the annual cultural festivals of all three major universities LQ +\GHUDEDG WKH FLW\ ZKHUH , KDYH OLYHG DQG WDXJKW PRVW RI my professional life. In April 2011, the English and Foreign /DQJXDJHV 8QLYHUVLW\ LQ WKH FLW\ VDZ Ă€JKWV EUHDN RXW RYHU D beef festival in celebration of Ambedkar’s birth anniversary E\ WKH 'DOLW $GLYDVL %DKXMDQ 0LQRULW\ 6WXGHQWV¡ $VVRFLDWLRQ '$%06$ DQG WKH 7HODQJDQD 6WXGHQWV¡ $VVRFLDWLRQ 76$

This festival was also attacked by the ABVP. A news report said: $FFRUGLQJ WR PHPEHUV RI '$%06$ DQG 76$ WKH $%93 activists barged into the campus kitchen, threw down the vessels in which the beef was cooked, and desecrated the food. The next day, beef supporters initiated a “food bandh� on campus, closing down the messes, canteens and stores and demanding inclusion of beef in the menu. They said that no food would be available on campus if their demands were QRW PHW 7KRPDV

The third major university in the city, the Central University RI +\GHUDEDG +&8 JDLQHG JOREDO DWWHQWLRQ IRXU \HDUV ODWHU

Introduction 13

not for its achievements in the humanities or the sciences, but ZKHQ 5RKLWK 9HPXOD D 3K' VFKRODU LQ 6FLHQFH 7HFKQRORJ\ and Society Studies, committed suicide by hanging himself LQ -DQXDU\ 2YHU WKH SDVW GHFDGH +&8 WRR KDG VHHQ 'DOLW %DKXMDQ1 students come up with stalls that served beef biryani, known locally as Kalyani biryani. The Kalyani variation RI WKH PHDW DQG ULFH GLVK WKDW +\GHUDEDG LV UHSXWHG IRU KDV an antiquity of some three hundred years. It is known for its GLVWLQFWLYH à DYRXULQJ RI FXEHV RI EHHI ZLWK WRPDWR FXPLQ DQG coriander. It is no coincidence that Rohith Vemula was part of WKH $PEHGNDU 6WXGHQWV¡ $VVRFLDWLRQ $6$ WKDW RUJDQL]HG D EHHI IHVWLYDO 7KH GDWH FKRVHQ ZDV 'HFHPEHU ,W PDUNV ERWK $PEHGNDU¡V GHDWK DQQLYHUVDU\ DQG WKH GD\ WKH %DEUL 0DVMLG D VL[WHHQWK FHQWXU\ PRVTXH LQ )DL]DEDG GLVWULFW 8WWDU 3UDGHVK

was demolished by coordinated right-wing militia under the DHJLV RI +LQGXWYD IRUFHV LQ The epigraph to this introductory essay makes it clear why Rohith Vemula was forced to his death by a state that had GHFODUHG ZDU RQ \RXQJ 'DOLW PHQ DQG ZRPHQ ZKR KDG GDUHG WR RUJDQL]H œEHHI SDUWLHV¡ DQG TXHVWLRQ WKH ZKLPV RI WKH VWDWH VHH #Caste Is Not a Rumour: The Online Diary of Rohith Vemula > @ a compilation of his key Facebook posts from 2008 to January

5RKLWK DQG IRXU RWKHU 'DOLW VWXGHQWV³9LMD\ .XPDU 3 6HVKX &KHPXGXJXQWD 6XQNDQQD 9HOSXOD DQG 'RQWKD 3UDVKDQWK all members of the Ambedkar Students’ Association—were suspended for allegedly assaulting an ABVP student leader on FDPSXV %DQGDUX 'DWWDWUH\D D %-3 PHPEHU RI SDUOLDPHQW DQG WKHQ 8QLRQ +XPDQ 5HVRXUFH 'HYHORSPHQW 0LQLVWHU 6PULWL ,UDQL ZKRVH SRUWIROLR LQFOXGHG HGXFDWLRQ ZHUH SURDFWLYHO\ LQYROYHG LQ VXVSHQGLQJ WKH œDQWL QDWLRQDO¡ 'DOLW VWXGHQWV $IWHU EHLQJ IRUFHG

14 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

out of their hostel rooms and being denied access to libraries, WKH ÀYH 'DOLW VWXGHQWV SLWFKHG D PDNHVKLIW WHQW³D YHOLZDGD LQ Telugu—on campus, in the university shopping complex. It was made of life-size vinyl-printed posters of anti-caste thinkers, poets and activists from across the subcontinent—Buddha, Kabir, Gurram Jashuva, Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram, Savitribai Phule, Jotiba Phule, Ayyankali and Periyar.

2Q -DQXDU\ 9HPXOD OHIW EHKLQG D SRZHUIXO VXLFLGH note entitled “My birth is my fatal accidentâ€?, indicting the university authorities and the world at large, and took his own OLIH LQ D IULHQG¡V URRP +H KDQJHG KLPVHOI ZLWK WKH $6$ EDQQHU In the wake of protests and demands for justice for Rohith that spread across India and the international community of scholars and intellectuals, Kailash Vijayvargiya, a senior BJP leader in 'HOKL KDG WKLV WR VD\ Âś2QH ZKR SURWHVWHG DJDLQVW WKH H[HFXWLRQ of terrorists, one who said he feels like sin whenever he sees saffron colour, one who publicly announced to organise a beef party ... cannot be a weak youth, who would have committed suicide’ Hindustan Times -DQXDU\ HPSKDVLV DGGHG

Rohith was part of a movement among students from diverse caste and minority backgrounds who across campuses in India have been conducting the kind of caste-aware and anticaste politics that generations before them had not even thought of. Following the Ambedkar centenary celebrations and the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations WKDW RIIHUHG TXRWDV IRU PHPEHUV RI WKH %DFNZDUG &ODVVHV in education and jobs in the public sector to redress caste GLVFULPLQDWLRQ ERWK LQ WKH \HDU WKH FRQĂ€GHQFH RI VWXGHQWV EHORQJLQJ WR 'DOLW $GLYDVL DQG RWKHU 6KXGUD FRPPXQLWLHV rose.2 Around the same time, the emergence of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party empowered such

Introduction 15

SROLWLFV 'DOLW VWXGHQWV KDYH RIWHQ IRUPHG DOOLDQFHV ZLWK RWKHU social, religious and sexual minorities, allowing for a spectrum of solidarities to emerge. Surely, there were left and radical left student movements in the country all along, but none of them ever gave thought to the beef question or to what was served on their plates in mess halls as ‘standard’ food over the decades.

Since the late 1980s and 1990s, student bodies named after anticaste icons such as Ambedkar, Periyar and Phule established themselves across campuses and questioned the Brahmanic VWDWXV TXR 7KH $PEHGNDU 6WXGHQWV· $VVRFLDWLRQ LQ +&8 for instance, was formed in 1993. Such Ambedkarite politics and its critique of what was seen as Brahmanical food culture DQG RIWHQ FXUULFXOD JDYH LPSHWXV WR WKH EHHI IHVWLYDOV 7KH SUHVVXUH FUHDWHG E\ VXFK 'DOLW LQLWLDWLYHV DOVR OHG WR $PEHGNDU being taken seriously as a thinker and philosopher to be taught in universities. Beef festivals, despite the skirmishes with the DXWKRULWLHV WKDW WKHLU H[LVWHQFH HQWDLOHG FDPH WR EH D À[WXUH LQ +\GHUDEDG VLQFH 7KH VFKRODU 6DPEDLDK *XQGLPHGD DQ DOXPQXV RI +&8 RIIHUV XV D KLVWRU\ RI ¶EHHI VWDOOV· 7KH 'DOLW 6WXGHQWV 8QLRQ D IHZ PRQWKV EHIRUH WKH Sukoon Festival in 2006, challenged this hegemony. They argued that the food in the stalls did not represent the cultural diversity of the university community, comprising students, teaching and non-teaching staff of the university, and was simply another manifestation of the hegemony of the upper castes and their culture. The university, as a public institution, it was further argued, should not allow its public space to be colonized by a particular culture. Instead, it should ensure that space is shared equally by every culture of the university community. In short, the cultural festival of the university should represent the many cultures of Indian society. As a

16 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

VWHS WRZDUGV HTXDOLW\ LQ UHSUHVHQWDWLRQ WKH 'DOLW 6WXGHQWV Union demanded that it should be allowed to set up a beef stall in the Sukoon festival. It was argued that beef constitutes an important part of the food habits of dalits and is thus part and parcel of dalit culture. Besides, such food culture is equally shared by Muslims and a few others from caste +LQGX FXOWXUDO EDFNJURXQGV 7KH DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ WKH executive body of the university, was ‘irritated’, to quote one RI WKH 'DOLW 6WXGHQWV 8QLRQ GHOHJDWHV E\ WKLV UHTXHVW DQG instantly denied permission for the stall on the grounds that ÂśFRQVXPSWLRQ RI EHHIÂŤ LQ WKH FDPSXV FUHDWHV FDVWH DQG FRPPXQDO WHQVLRQV¡ *XQGLPHGD

,Q WKH VDPH \HDU DV 2VPDQLD 8QLYHUVLW\¡V ÀUVW HYHU beef festival, Jawaharlal Nehru University tried to catch up and VRXJKW WR SOD\ KRVW WR D KLVWRULFDO ÀUVW LQ WKH QDWLRQDO FDSLWDO a beef and pork festival planned by a group called The New 0DWHULDOLVWV ZKR ZHUH FDUHIXO WR FKRRVH D QRQ VHFWDULDQ QDPH IRU WKHPVHOYHV , ZDV WR VSHDN DW WKH HYHQW FDOOHG ´:K\ %HHI and Pork Food Festival in JNU?� held on the JNU campus on 17 August 2012.

A statement issued by The New Materialists made its argument forcefully: When we asked many of the so-called comrades about the celebration of beef and pork festival, they said that celebrating beef and pork festival is a sentimental issue.

They advised us to cook beef or pork in our rooms and they promised to join us. So cooking beef and pork in room is not sentimental but openly celebrating is problematic for them.

Because the public sphere belongs only to the hegemonic culture that is brahminism. In India, the public space is not yet public i.e. not for Muslims, Buddhists, Christians or any

Introduction 17

RWKHU UHOLJLRQ EXW RQO\ IRU +LQGXLVP 7KH SXEOLF VSDFH LQ ,QGLD LV SULYDWH VSDFH IRU +LQGX EUDKPLQLFDO IRUFHV DQG WKXV nobody else can enter into this ‘public space’. All the beef VKRSV LQ ,QGLD LQ PDQ\ RI WKH FLWLHV LQFOXGLQJ +\GHUDEDG are pushed into interior areas. Now the democratic space in India is shrinking and JNU as an institution is not an H[FHSWLRQ WR LW 7KH 1HZ 0DWHULDOLVWV

+RZHYHU D IXQFWLRQDU\ RI WKH 9LVKZD +LQGX 3DULVKDG DSSURDFKHG WKH 'HOKL +LJK &RXUW DQG LW UXOHG WKDW WKH IHVWLYDO should not EH DOORZHG FLWLQJ WKH 'HOKL $JULFXOWXUDO &DWWOH 3UHVHUYDWLRQ $FW &KDQGUDQ D E 2IWHQ WKH 5DVKWUL\D 6ZD\DPVHYDN 6DQJK WKH %-3 DQG LWV PDQ\ DIÀOLDWHV NQRZQ DV WKH 6DQJK SDULYDU RU IDPLO\ DUH EODPHG IRU WKH PLOLWDQW SROLWLFL]DWLRQ RI +LQGXLVP EXW IHZ DFNQRZOHGJH RU

18 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

UHDOL]H WKDW D FRZ VODXJKWHU EDQ KDV EHHQ LQ SODFH LQ 'HOKL VLQFH LQVWDWHG E\ D %-3 JRYHUQPHQW ZKLFK FRQWLQXHG ZKHQ WKH Congress party came to power and held power in the state for Ă€IWHHQ \HDUV ,Q PDQ\ &RQJUHVV UXOHG VWDWHV WKH EDQ KDV EHHQ in place since the 1950s. Although this law—like most laws in India—was not forcefully implemented, in 2017 the zealous Modi regime extended the ban to bulls and bullocks too. In effect, the BJP declared all beef-eaters to be ‘anti-nationals’. It comes as no surprise that communities that do not put their hand to the plough—Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya, of Jain DQG +LQGX EHOLHIÂłVLW LQ MXGJPHQW DERXW WKH FXOWXUDO SUDFWLFHV of labouring castes.

0RVW EHHI VHOOHUV LQ 'HOKL DQG RWKHU SODFHV ZKHUH FRZ PHDW is proscribed are forced to claim that they are selling ‘buff’, or buffalo meat. Consumption of beef, or its proscription, does not seem to agitate or excite the secular-liberal elite either. The vociferous defenders of A.K. Ramanujan’s essay “Three hundred 5DPD\DQDVÂľ 5DPDQXMDQ RU :HQG\ 'RQLJHU¡V The Hindus: An Alternative History ÂłERWK RI ZKLFK JRW LQWR WURXEOH ZLWK WKH +LQGX ULJKW DQG ZHUH EDQQHGÂłZRXOG QHYHU VLJQ D we-love-beef petition. Consequently, when I participated in a television debate on an English language channel, the left-wing Brahmin historian from JNU, Mridula Mukherjee, best known IRU EHLQJ WKH FR DXWKRU ZLWK %LSDQ &KDQGUD RI WKH LQĂ XHQWLDO textbook India’s Struggle for Independence DUJXHG WKDW WKH beef question was one of ‘nationalist sentiment’, and asked why anyone would organize such ‘anti-national’ festivals in university campuses. A beef festival today is a breach of peace.

These beef festivals, or even the attempts to organize them, KDYH IRVWHUHG D SDQ ,QGLDQ PRYHPHQW DPRQJ 'DOLW %DKXMDQ Adivasi and other minoritized groups to assert their food rights,

Introduction 19

often at risk to life and limb. Poems and songs around beef ZHUH FRPSRVHG SDPSKOHWV ZHUH LVVXHG /LWHUDU\ WH[WV E\ 'DOLWV Shudras and Adivasis were re-examined to look at how food FXOWXUH HVSHFLDOO\ EHHI ÀJXUHV LQ WKH OLYHV RI SHRSOH Even after the mass conversion to Buddhism initiated by $PEHGNDU LQ ³LQ ZKLFK KH OHG KDOI D PLOOLRQ 'DOLWV DZD\ IURP +LQGXLVP DQG FDVWH³EHHI KDV UHPDLQHG D VWDSOH LQ PDQ\ 'DOLW KRXVHKROGV LQ 0DKDUDVKWUD 7KH 3XQH 8QLYHUVLW\ Women Studies Centre project, Isn’t This Plate Indian: Dalit Histories and Memories of Food, anchored by the feminist scholar 6KDUPLOD 5HJH EHDUV WHVWLPRQ\ WR WKLV VHH 5HJH HW DO

As part of their master’s course, students interviewed several 'DOLW PHQ DQG ZRPHQ DQG GRFXPHQWHG WKHLU IRRG SUDFWLFHV DQG XQLTXH UHFLSHV 'D\D 3DZDU¡V DXWRELRJUDSK\ Baluta

WUDQVODWHG IURP 0DUDWKL LQ GHVFULEHV WKH VLJQLÀFDQFH RI chaanya—strips of smoked beef roasted until they turn crisp. &RZ¡V à HVK LV FXW LQWR ORQJ VWULSV DQG KXQJ RQ URSHV DQG VXQ dried for two to three days. It is then cut into smaller pieces, called chaanya, which can last a few months. Such practices are spread across the subcontinent with variations in the style of curing and preparation—what binds all is the love of meat.

A range of tribals and lower Shudra communities eating fresh and dry beef is commonplace. Yet, the rest of the world has been made to believe that Brahmin–Bania-led Gandhian vegetarianism is standard Indian food culture.

A Marathi book of 2015, Shahu Patole’s Anna He Apoornabrahma )RRG LV DQ ,QFRPSOHWH &UHDWLRQ GRFXPHQWV UDUH PHDW UHFLSHV IURP WKH 'DOLW KRXVHKROGV RI 0DKDUDVKWUD 7KH DXWKRU in an interview says: In old days, you could not afford to buy live animals and VODXJKWHU WKHP $V D UXOH WKHVH WZR FRPPXQLWLHV 0DKDUV

20 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

DQG 0DQJV LQ 0DUDWKZDGD KDG WR FOHDU DZD\ FDUFDVVHV RI DQLPDOV DQG WKH\ ZRXOG HDW WKH à HVK ,I WKHUH ZDV D IHVWLYDO RU LI WKHUH ZDV D VDFULÀFH RI DQ DQLPDO WKDW ZDV WKH RQO\ time you got live or halal meat. And we ate what we had to eat, because that was what was available‌ Let’s take the subject of chaturmaas [a four-month holy period according to WKH +LQGX FDOHQGDU ZKHQ IDVWV DUH REVHUYHG@ :KRP GRHV this period place restrictions on? Those who do not engage in any strenuous physical activities. If a farmer or a labourer does nothing for four months, then they might also follow the ritual. So these traditions exist only for those people who do not earn their living through physical work. For those who do, even religion does not place any restrictions .DUNDUH

The new cultural assertion over beef has spawned powerful SRHWU\ DQG PXVLF DV ZHOO +HUH¡V DQ H[FHUSW IURP ´*RGGX 0DPVDP¾ %HHI E\ 'LJXPDUWKL 6XUHVK .XPDU LQ 7HOXJX LQ Naren Bedide’s translation: When its udders were squeezed and milked You didn’t feel any pain at all When it was stitched into a chappal you stamped underfoot and walked You didn’t feel hurt at all When it rang as a drum at your marriage and your funeral You didn’t suffer any blows :KHQ LW VDWHG P\ KXQJHU LW EHFDPH \RXU JRGGHVV"

$QRWKHU EDUGLF SRHW IURP 7DPLO 1DGX 1 ' 5DMNXPDU who performs his poems set to ragas, sounds as forceful in Anushiya Ramaswamy’s translation: +HUH OD\ WKH FRZ 'RZQ LQ WKH PLGGOH RI

Introduction 21

The living room Gut it, slice, and dice 2 :RPHQ , KDYH FRPH The God of the Forest Give us this day $ IHDVW RI Ă HVK

Naliganti Sharath, a powerful poet and one of the principal RUJDQL]HUV RI WKH EHHI IHVWLYDO LQ 2VPDQLD 8QLYHUVLW\ ZKR DGGHG &REEOHU WR KLV QDPH DIWHU , DGGHG 6KHSKHUG SHQQHG WKH ‘Beef Anthem’ that ends: Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Mohammed, Marx, Ambedkar, 1HZWRQ (LQVWHLQ 6WHSKHQ +DZNLQJ Martin Luther, Malcolm X, Lincoln, Lenin, Stalin, Guevara %RE 0DUOH\ %RE '\ODQ Mike Tyson, Serena Williams, Paul Robeson, Michael Jackson, All the legends, all beef-eaters %HHI LV WKH VHFUHW RI OLIH

In Chennai, popular movie director Pa. Ranjith who has SLRQHHUHG 'DOLW WKHPHV DQG SURWDJRQLVWV LQ PDLQVWUHDP FLQHPD ZLWK EORFNEXVWHUV OLNH Madras > @ Kabali > @ Kaala > @

started the unabashedly Ambedkarite Neelam Cultural Centre WKDW SURYLGHV D SODWIRUP IRU \RXQJ 'DOLW UDSSHUV 8QGHU WKH banner of The Casteless Collective, their ‘Beef Song’ launched in 2018 has become very popular. :KLOH WKH KDUPLQJ DQG O\QFKLQJ RI 'DOLWV DQG 0XVOLPVÂł for either consuming or possessing beef, for slaughtering a cow past its prime, for skinning its carcass, or for merely transporting

22 Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men

FRZV³KDV PDGH KHDGOLQHV LQ UHFHQW \HDUV WKH 'DOLW OHG HIIRUWV to assert beef-eating with pride have not made as much news. ,Q WKH XQLRQ JRYHUQPHQW LVVXHG D QRWLÀFDWLRQ WR WLJKWHQ the regulation of the cattle trade across the country. The new rules on transporting cattle made communities that have nurtured our cattle economy over centuries look like enemies of the cow. They were dubbed as ‘cow smugglers’ by the forces RI +LQGXWYD 6WXGHQWV RI WKH ,QGLDQ ,QVWLWXWH RI 7HFKQRORJ\ ,,7 LQ 0DGUDV XQGHU WKH EDQQHU RI WKH $PEHGNDU²3HUL\DU Study Circle, protested this move with a beef festival in which VHYHUDO QRQ 'DOLW VWXGHQWV WRRN SDUW (YHQ WKRXJK EHHI LV QRW proscribed in the state of Tamil Nadu, this again led to violence EHWZHHQ VWXGHQW JURXSV $V D FRQVHTXHQFH 'HFHPEHU VDZ the segregation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian students in the hostel mess in IIT Madras.

Beef and its Indian trajectory

It is against this backdrop that we must today engage with what B.R. Ambedkar has said about the place of the cow and FRQVXPSWLRQ RI EHHI LQ KLV LPSRUWDQW EXW PXFK QHJOHFWHG work of historical investigation, The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchable? The sidelining of Ambedkar and particularly this work in academic and intellectual circles, both in India and around the world, is symptomatic of the fact that most visible academicians and intellectuals of India or of Indian origin tend to be Brahmins or from the Brahmanical classes who show no interest in beef and the politics surrounding it. While the vegetarian, cow-loving Gandhi of the trading Bania caste was packaged and projected as an anti-colonial icon, the equality-loving, caste-hating Ambedkar was treated like an Untouchable by the elite.

B. R. Ambedkar spent his life battling Untouchability. In his 1948 book The Untouchables, he sought to trace the origin of the Dalit caste.

This annotated selection is just as relevant now when the oppression of and discrimination against Dalits remains pervasive.

“This is an important book that will give valuable ammunition to the forces that oppose the most glaring abuses of human rights in India today.”—Wendy Doniger, author of The Hindus: An Alternative History “This extensively annotated critical selection is a potent reminder of the audaciousness of Ambedkar’s method and the insurrectionary power of his writings for our political present.”—Anupama Rao, author of The Caste Question: Dalits and Politics in Modern India “This book exposes the duplicity and falsehood of the civilizational argument on which the entire Hindutva superstructure stands.”

—Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste: The Khairlanji Murders and India’s Hidden Apartheid

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) was a radical thinker, economist, jurist, philosopher, founder of a school of Buddhism, and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution.

Alex George, a philosophy graduate from Birkbeck College, London, is an editor with Navayana, an independent anticaste press. S. Anand is the cofounder and publisher of Navayana. He is the coauthor of the graphic biography Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability (2011) and editor of the annotated edition of Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste (2014). Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is the author of Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture, and Political Economy (1996).

Cover Design: Akila Seshasayee

Columbia University Press / New York cup.columbia.edu

ISBN: 978-0-231-19584-3

9 780231 195843 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.