Ambedkarization and Dalit Assertion: Notes from Banaras District in East Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

More than two decades ago, political scientist Jagpal Singh coined the term “Ambedkarization” to describe a process happening in west Uttar Pradesh. This was about the increasing presence of the images and ideas of one of the founding fathers of India, B. R. Ambedkar, among the Dalits of west Uttar Pradesh. This was based on Singh’s fieldwork in Meerut district between 1992 and 1994. My article revisits the concept and tries to find out its relevance in east Uttar Pradesh. This is based on my fieldwork in a village in Banaras district, which was carried out intermittently between 2018 and 2021. My research question is how relevant is the concept of Ambedkarization in today’s context, where it has succeeded and where it has failed, and finally what could be its impact on India’s democracy. It posits that the process of Ambedkarization is still relevant to understand social change among Dalits of rural Banaras in east Uttar Pradesh. The article takes up the issues of religion and political economy in the process of Ambedkarization and the upward social mobility of Buddhists and Ravidasis. Lastly, the article argues that the Ambedkarization process has newer challenges in the form of neoliberal policies of Indian state and the growth of Islamophobia. Only by resolving these challenges Ambedkarization process can fully actualize its potential to make India an inclusive democracy.

Keywords

Dalits Uttar Pradesh Banaras Buddhism Ravidasis social change social justice

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ambedkar

B. R.

(1936). Annihilation of caste. In Ambedkar

B. R.

(Ed.), Writings & speeches of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (Vol. 1). Government of Maharashtra.

Ambedkar

B. R.

(1947). State and minorities. In Ambedkar

B. R.

(Ed.), Writings and speeches of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (Vol. 9). Government of Maharashtra.

Ciotti

(2010). Retro modern India: Forging the low caste self . Routledge.

Cort

J. E.

(2004). Jains, caste and hierarchy in north Gujarat. In Gupta

(Ed.), Caste in question: Identity or hierarchy (pp. 73–112). Sage.

Das

(2004). In pursuit of Ambedkar . Navayana.

Fuller

C. J.

(1992). The camphor flame: Popular Hinduism and society in India . Princeton University Press.

Gooptu

(1997, October). The urban poor and militant Hinduism in early twentieth-century Uttar Pradesh. Modern Asian Studies , 31(4), 879–918.

Gupta

(2002). Sexuality, obscenity, community: Women, Muslims and the Hindu public in colonial India . Palgrave.

Jaffrelot

(2018, December 4). Hindu nationalism and the “saffronisation of the public sphere”: An interview with Christophe Jaffrelot. 468–482. (E. Anderson, Interviewer). Contemporary South Asia.

10.

Jaoul

(2006). Learning the use of symbolic means: Dalits, Ambedkar statues and the state in Uttar Pradesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology , 40(2), 175–207.

11.

Jaoul

(2016). Citizenship in religious clothing? Navayana Buddhism and Dalit emancipation in late 1990s Uttar Pradesh. Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology , 76, 46–68.

12.

Jaoul

(Director). (2017). Sangharsh . Motion Picture.

13.

Jodhka

(2020, December 30). Indian Institute of Dalit Studies . Facebook. https://fb.watch/fV9QyQ0lhm/

14.

Juergensmeyer

(1982). Religion as social vision: The movement against untouchability in 20th century Punjab . University of California Press.

15.

Khare

R. S.

(1984). The untouchable as himself: Ideology, identity, and pragmatism among the Lucknow Chamars . Cambridge University Press.

16.

Lee

(2015). Jagdish, son of Ahmad: Dalit religion and nominative politics in Lucknow. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal , 11, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4000/samaj.3919

17.

Lynch

O. M.

(1969). The politics of untouchability: Social mobility and social change in a city of India . National Publishing House.

18.

Meghwanshi

(2020). I could not be Hindu: The story of a Dalit in the RSS (N. Menon, Trans.). Navayana.

19.

Omvedt

(2005). Ambedkar: Towards an enlightened India . Penguin.

20.

Omvedt

(2008). Seeking Begumpura: The social vision of anti-caste intellectuals . Navayana.

21.

Peabody

(1997). Inchoate in Kota? Contesting authority through a north Indian pageant-play. American Ethnologist , 24(3), 559–584.

22.

Searle-Chatterjee

(1994). Caste, religion and other identities. In Searle-Chatterjee

(Ed.), Contextualizing caste: Post-Dumontian approaches (pp. 147–168). Blackwell Publishers.

23.

Shani

(2007). Communalism, caste and Hindu nationalism: The violence in Gujarat . Cambridge University Press.

24.

Singh

(1998, October 3–9). Ambedkarisation and assertion of dalit identity: Socio-cultural protest in Meerut district of western Uttar Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly , 33(40), 2611–2618.

25.

Singh

(2021). Caste, state and society: Degrees of democracy in North India . Routledge.

26.

Sundar

(2019). Hindutva incorporation and socioeconomic exclusion: The Adivasi dilemma. In Chatterji

A. P.

, Hansen

T. B.

, & Jaffrelot

(Eds.), Majoritarian state: How Hindu nationalism is changing India (pp. 249–258). Oxford University Press.

27.

Teltumbde

(2003). Ambedkar on Muslims . Vikas Adhyayan Kendra.

28.

Thorat

(2004, June 19–25). On reservation policy for private sector. Economic and Political Weekly , 39(5), 2560–2563.

29.

Thorat

(2019). Ambedkar’s proposal to safeguards minorities against communal majority in democracy. Journal of Social Inclusion Studies , 5(2) 113–128.

30.

Thorat

(2019). Dalits in post 2014 India: Between promise and action. In Jaffrelot

, Chatterji

A. P.

, & Hansen

T. B.

(Eds.), Majoritarian state: How Hindu nationalism is changing India (pp. 217–236). Oxford University Press.

31.

Thorat

, & Kumar

(2009). B. R. Ambedkar: Perspectives on social exclusion and inclusive policies . Oxford University Press.

32.

Waghmore

(2017). From hierarchy to Hindu politeness: Caste atrocities and Dalit protest in rural Marathwada. In Jodhka

S. S.

& Manor

(Eds.), Contested hierarchies, persisting influence: Caste and power in twenty-first century India (pp. 111–139). Orient BlackSwan.

33.

Waghmore

(2020, March). The dominant victim? Seminar—Victimhood .

34.

Waghmore

, & Contractor

(2016). On the madness of caste: Dalits, Muslims and normalised incivilities in neoliberal India. In Mohan

(Ed.), Global frontiers of social development in theory and practice (pp. 223–240). Springer.

35.

Zelliot

(2005). Ambedkar’s conversion . Critical Quest.

36.

Zelliot

, & Mokashi-Punekar

(2005). Untouchable saints: An Indian phenomenon . Manohar.