by B. R. Ambedkar Paper presented at an Anthropology Seminar taught by Dr. A. A. Goldenweizer Columbia University 9th May 1916. Text first printed in: Indian Antiquary Vol. XLI (May 1917) [1] Many of us, I dare say, have witnessed local, national or international expositions of material objects that make up the sum total of …
Liberty, Equality, Community
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Vision Of A New Social Order by Gail Omvedt It is truly an honour to be given the opportunity to deliver the first Dr. Ambedkar memorial lecture of the new century and the new millennium. Though this is officially the 5th Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Annual Lecture for the Year 1999, it has …
Nation and civilisation
by Gail Omvedt To hold that distinctions of caste are really distinctions of race and to treat different castes as though they were so many different races is a gross perversion of the facts. What affinity is there between the Brahman of the Punjab and the Brahman of Madras? What affinity is there between the …
ANCIENT INDIAN COMMERCE
ANCIENT INDIAN COMMERCE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF INDIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST * The imperial Romans flashed their sword both in the East and the West with different results. In the East ” they conquered the world only to give it to ” *(……..) in the West however ” they either Romanised the races who …
An open letter to Bangaru Laxman
by Gail Omvedt Dear Siri–Sami Bangaru Laxman, I would like to congratulate you on becoming the president of the BJP. (I should also preface this by explaining why I address you as Siri: Shri is Sankskritised and north Indian; most Maharashtrian Dalits prefer Ayushaman. Tamils, on the other hand, prefer Thiru. You, I understand, are …
The purpose of reservation
Gail Omvedt The wave of rioting at the time of the Mandal Commission showed that the goal of reservation had not simply been unfulfilled, but totally distorted. It revealed, among other things, the degree to which educated upper caste youth had gotten into the habit of considering the Government administration not as “public service” …
Reservation in the private sector
Gail Omvedt With quotas declared for Jats in Rajasthan and with controversy about some recent Supreme Court decisions, the issue of reservation has again come to the forefront. Probably, though, nothing is as controversial as the whole question of private sector reservation. Here, on the one hand many Dalit leaders have been led to oppose …
Rotting food
Gail Omvedt India’s food is rotting. The greatest harvest of foodgrains in the country’s history is beginning to waste away in storage, eaten by rodents and insects, spoiled by moisture. Some of it, for want of storage space, is sitting in the open, exposed to the late monsoon rains. Estimated losses of foodgrains, according to …
Women and political power
Gail Omvedt THE DRIVE for women’s political power had its beginnings in the rural areas. Even in 1975, when we had the first major feminist rally, a “Samyukta Stri-Mukti Sangarsh Parishad” in Pune, a group of rural women afterwards went back to their village and decided, with the help of some young male activists, to …