Ambedkar and the Role of Education: Tracing a Pedagogical Initiative by Dalits in Punjab

Abstract

Ambedkar suggested that the process of reconstruction of a society should be seen beyond school classrooms, focusing on creating environments beyond formal education. He suggested that one can do this through various other dispositions, namely enhancing skills and the intelligence to challenge the attitudes that perpetuate caste oppression. Taking a cue from Ambedkar’s idea of education, this article attempts to explore the initiatives of Dr B. R. Ambedkar Educational Welfare Federation, a collective of a few educationists from the Dalit community which is working in Sangrur district of Punjab (India). The Federation conducted a multiple-choice competitive exam primarily for Dalit students from Grade 10 on 5 December 2021. It prepared a booklet consisting of life sketches of nine anti-caste reformers and distributed it among the candidates beforehand, from which one fourth of the exam questions were set. The rest were set from the syllabus of Term I. This article is an attempt to explore the reasons for and the motivation among the members to commence such a pedagogical initiative. It finds an urge in this collective to impart among poor Dalit students a sense of historical past and consciousness of one’s own values, envisioning to build a concrete understanding in them of the history of not only caste exploitation but also resistance built against it. This exercise may pave the way for it.