The Ambedkar–Gandhi Debate

Beschreibung

This book reconstructs the philosophical issues informing the debate between the makers of modern India: Ambedkar and Gandhi. At one level, this debate was about a set of different but interconnected issues: caste and social hierarchies, untouchability, Hinduism, conversion, temple entry, and political separatism. The introduction to this book provides a brief overview of the engagements and conflicts in Gandhi and Ambedkar's central arguments. However, at another level, this book argues that the debate can be philosophically re-interpreted as raising their differences on the following issues:

• The nature of the self,
• The relationship between the individual self and the community,
• The appropriate relationship between the constitutive encumbrances of the self and a conception of justice,
• The relationship between memory, tradition, and self-identity.

Ambedkar and Gandhi’scontrary conceptions of the self, history,itihaas, community and justice unpack incommensurable world views. These can be properly articulated only as very different answers to questions about the relationship between the present and the past. This book raises these questions and also establishes the link between the Ambedkar--Gandhi debate in the early 20th century and its re-interpretation as it resonates in the imagination and writing of marginalized social groups in the present times.

This book reconstructs the philosophical issues informing the debate between the makers of modern India: Ambedkar and Gandhi. At one level, this debate was about a set of different but interconnected issues: caste and social hierarchies, untouchability, Hinduism, conversion, temple entry, and political separatism. The introduction to this book provides a brief overview of the engagements and conflicts in Gandhi and Ambedkar's central arguments. However, at another level, this book argues that the debate can be philosophically re-interpreted as raising their differences on the following issues:

• The nature of the self,
• The relationship between the individual self and the community,
• The appropriate relationship between the constitutive encumbrances of the self and a conception of justice,
• The relationship between memory, tradition, and self-identity.

Ambedkar and Gandhi’scontrary conceptions of the self, history,itihaas, community and justice unpack incommensurable world views. These can be properly articulated only as very different answers to questions about the relationship between the present and the past. This book raises these questions and also establishes the link between the Ambedkar--Gandhi debate in the early 20th century and its re-interpretation as it resonates in the imagination and writing of marginalized social groups in the present times.

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Bindu Puri

Themen in »The Ambedkar–Gandhi Debate«

Conversion to Buddhism Crisis of Self-identity Untouchability Dalit Imagination Separate Electorates Separate Entry in Temples Movement of the Depressed Classes Critique of Social Hierachies Memory of Oppression Self-purification Internal Reforms within Hinduism The Buddha and his Dhamma Confrontations About Caste Gandhi's Idea of Ahimsa

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“The book is a must-read for encapsulating the deeper philosophical issues informing the debate between Ambedkar and Gandhi. The author’s long-term familiarity with Gandhi-Ambedkar scholarship … has gained fresh new ground evident in the deep, insightful, and critical reflection on the contradictions involving the two great leaders on the universal ideas of freedom, autonomy and justice. The book will be of value to those who wish to unravel Gandhi-Ambedkar scholarship beyond the conventional polemics and hagiography surrounding the two scholars.” (Sanjeev Kumar and Ratika Gaur, Gandhi Marg Quarterly, Vol. 44 (4), 2023)
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