~ Democratic debate on the appropriation of ‘Annihilation of Caste’ by Navayana on 10th April, 5 p.m., at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Hyderabad ~
Dear Friends,
All of you are aware about the ongoing discussion on the issue of publication of Dr B.R.Ambedkar’s “Annihilation of Caste” by Navayana Publications with an introduction of Arundhati Roy and annotations by Anand Navayana.
Ambedkar’s writings are not patented to any one caste, community or individual, every thinker and scholar has every right to write about Ambedkar and interpret his ideas and express their own views. However, no one has any right to appropriate Ambedkar’s works as private property: self-given expertise to judge Ambedkar and compare him with his opponents will be contested.
We are astounded and offended by the new edition of Annihilation of Caste published by Navayana.
The text of ‘Annihilation of Caste’ was published as a booklet of only 60 pages originally. This has now been turned into a tome of over 500 pages by adding 160 pages of irrelevant text to the core issue of annihilation of caste, comparing Ambedkar with Gandhi and inserting annotations. It is now priced at Rs. 525, which is simply unacceptable when the book is freely available on the internet for download.
There are many issues, and we want a democratic debate on this subject. We are not demanding any ban on the book nor are we going to burn the book.
We demand:
1. Detach “The Doctor and the Saint” and the annotations from Annihilation of Caste.
2. Stop distribution of the book immediately.
We invite you to be a part of the programme, please come and join us.
Speakers
~ Bojja Tharakam ~ Kancha Ilaiah ~ U Sambashiva Rao
Other participants
Gogu Shyamala, Anoop Kumar, Karthik Navayan, Jilukara Srinivas, Kasukurty Ramalingam, Pasunuri Ravindar, Joopaka Subhadra and many other scholars, activists and thinkers will join this programme.
~ Committee Against Appropriation of Ambedkar Writings (CAAAW)
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[Via Karthik Navayan]
