Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste

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Untouchability, in its literal sense, is the practice of ostracising a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting", but the term has also been loosely used to refer to other groups, such as the Cagots in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen. Traditionally, the groups characterized as untouchable were those whose occupations and habits of life involved ritually polluting activities, such as fishermen, manual scavengers, sweepers and washermen.

Reyansh Singh (born on 9th August, 1970) has served as a professor for 11 years. He received B.A. Political from University of North Bengal, Siliguri, West Bangal. After his BA, he opted for masters degrees in Political Science from Presidency University, Kolkata, West Bengal. Then he received Ph.D. (Political Science) degree from University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Begal. He is also a member of a famous Computer Society. He has been a consultant and visiting faculty of various prestigious institutes of the country. He has written many books on Indian Polity and Public Administration. Several fellowships, awards and honours have been conferred upon him by national and international organisations for his outstanding research contributions in the field of Public Administration.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was a rarity in our polity. He had to fight against heavy odds, being a Dalit, and facing poverty, humiliation, social deprivation and other forms of injustice and segregation. He fought his way up on the ladder of politics and gave himself a good education both in India and abroad. He got a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a D.Sc. from the London School of Economics, the first Dalit to do so. During his stay in the U.S., he observed the living conditions of African-Americans in Harlem. He realised there was a similarity between untouchables in India and the blacks in the U.S., but that untouchability was "far worse than slavery."

AMBEDKAR VS GANDHI

When Ambedkar became a staunch defender of Dalit rights, he had to contend against Mahatma Gandhi whose views on Hindu society were at variance with his. Gandhi had an overarching view of Hinduism and pleaded that it was the duty of those in the Hindu fold to safeguard interests of all its members, including Dalits. It was a clash between two values which led to a political malaise over the reservation issue for years until it was resolved after Independence with the adoption of the Constitution, which Ambedkar helped draw up. Sadly, during his lifetime, neither his intellectual rigour nor political sagacity received recognition. In recent years, Dalit scholars like Narendra Yadav, Anand Telumbde and Gail Omvedt have tried to make amends. In his detailed narrative, which was in the works for 15 years, Raja Sekhar Vundru deals with an important aspect of Ambedkar's life - his role in devising our electoral system.

**Contents and Sample Pages**