Ambedkar's Political Philosophy

Description

Ambedkar's Political Philosophy is a critical exploration of the political theory of B R Ambedkar, the Indian thinker and leader who championed the cause of the socially oppressed. Rodrigues examines the key concepts that Ambedkar used to envision a new framework of public life that would overcome the problems of marginality, degradation, and domination.This framework is based upon an idea of the human endowed with the attributes of reasoning, moral capacity, self-respect, and a unique dignity that collectively entitles human beings to a distinct consideration as moral equals despite other differences. Ambedkar deployed the idea of the human not merely to contend against the social institutions of caste, untouchability, and other forms of marginalities but also to interrogate texts, traditions, and modes of social dominance. In a democracy, the representational, constitutional, and institutional architecture of state power is geared to sustain and reinforce itself. Such an architecture, however, may prove feeble unless shored up by the moral foundations of societies and backed by religious sanction. In Ambedkar's view, only Buddhism, as a religion, fits the bill. In this book, the author engages with Ambedkar's primary works in both English and Marathi and the debates around them, and situates his ideas in the South Asian context, making it a comprehensive and insightful commentary on his political philosophy and its relevance for contemporary society.

About the author: Valerian Rodrigues is currently a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, Nehru Memorial Trust, New Delhi, and former Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has taught at Mangalore University, Karnataka (1982-2003) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (2003-2015). Rodrigues has been National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) (2015-17) and Ambedkar Chair, Ambedkar University, Delhi (2017-2018). He has also been Visiting Scholar and Professor at Erfurt University (2012), Wuerzburg University (2011, 2015), and Simon Fraser University (2019), and Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford University (1989-1991), Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (1999-2001), and Max Weber College, Erfurt (2012).

Reviews

"In the midst of the plethora of literature available on Ambedkar, the volume offers a distinct insight into Ambedkar's oeuvre which, as the author meticulously argues, represents Ambedkar's emancipatory endeavours to address multilayered contradictions and resolve them by producing a higher unity of normative concepts. The author gives a comprehensive, coherent, and hence, convincing account of such unity. The volume lucidly but rigorously establishes the constitutive relationship between the political principles of Ambedkar's philosophy and its conceptual structure." - Gopal Guru, Former Professor, University of Pune, Delhi University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Editor, Economic and Political Weekly (2018-2023)

"Valerian Rodrigues's splendid account of Ambedkar's political thought moves beyond the conventional image of a constitutionalist who sought state power to transform Indian society. Instead, he focusses on Ambedkar's conceptualization of humanity as a crucial category of social life, and one to whose intellectual and political recovery his career was dedicated." - Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford

"Elegantly written and nuanced in its understanding of the systematic aspects of Dr Ambedkar's thought world, this book examines the great man's enduring concern with what it means to be human in a society that refuses humanity to a vast number of its members. With quiet brilliance, Rodrigues annotates this civilizational endeavour that set out to annihilate the caste-untouchability-patriarchy complex and establish a society sustained by equality and social fellowship." - V. Geetha, independent researcher, feminist, educationist, and civil rights activist, and Editorial Director, Tara Publishing, Chennai

"A landmark study of Ambedkar's vision of politics, of the core moral and epistemic positions on human capacity and understanding that framed his politics. Rodrigues deftly guides us through the multiple contexts and lineages of Ambedkar's breathtaking oeuvre to propose nuanced, authoritative analyses of the central concepts informing it, from sociality and association to equality, power, and democracy. Moving beyond Ambedkar the critic, Rodrigues foregrounds Ambedkar the democratic theorist, whose poignant ideal of public life was built for and from the aspirations, sensibilities, and needs of oppressed communities." - Karuna Mantena, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

"This outstanding study of Ambedkar's political philosophy connects nodal points of the debates on the principles of India's future democratic political system to the axioms and analytics that guided Ambedkar's thought. Rodrigues admirably exposes Ambedkar's comprehensive moral vision, based on the idea of a socially embedded integral human self, as he explores Ambedkar's reflexive approach to social reconstruction." - Prof. Dr. Martin Fuchs, Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany

"This ambitious study is a deep foray into Ambedkar's large oeuvre, and as you proceed, you tend to grasp Ambedkar's -ism. It is a slow-read text of poise and poignance. A powerful defence of Ambedkar's ideas and his choices, Valerian Rodrigues succeeds in capturing Ambedkar's innovative ideas partially explored hitherto. It makes for a thoughtful read." - Suraj Yengde, St. Antony's College, Oxford University

"Valerian Rodrigues' new work is one of the most comprehensive presentations of Ambedkar's political philosophy. Instead of treating him as a thinker focused narrowly on the question of untouchability, Rodrigues starts with Ambedkar's fundamental philosophical anthropology from which he derives, in a line of rigorous exposition, his thinking about nationalism, democracy, constitutionalism, and eventually, the meaning of being human." - Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies, Columbia University

Table of contents

Introduction: Ambedkar's Legacy
1:Reading Texts and Traditions
2:Caste and Untouchability
3:Being Human
4:Equality as the Core of Justice
5:Nationalism
6:The Idea of Democracy
7:Ideas of State and Power
8:On Political Representation
9:Constitutionalism and Rule of Law
10:Religion and the Modern Public
Conclusion