Ambedkar’s Dharma: Freedom sovereignity politics
| When: | Thursday, 14 April 2016 - Friday, 15 April 2016 |
| Where: | Braamfontein Campus East Seminar Room, Humanities Graduate Centre, South West Engineering Building |
| Start time: | 9:00 |
| Enquiries: |
Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was India's political leader and crusader for equality.
Ambedkar was one of the most distinguished Indians of the 20th century: architect of the Indian Constitution; the political leader of India’s untouchables; and crusader for equality.
In the imagination of independent India, he is remembered in many ways. Within nationalist historiography, his stance on political equality for untouchables is counter-posed to Gandhi’s gradual reformism, and his vision is subtly presented as the defeated alternative. Equally perplexing to the secular imagination of modern India is Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956 along with several thousands of his followers.
The almost 20 volumes of his collected works still have not received the scholarly consideration they deserve and this conference is an attempt to engage with Ambedkar’s writings to argue for his place as a historian and theoretician of a concept of radical equality.
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