Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India

This book offers a reading of Bhimrao Ambedkar's engagement with the idea andpractice of socialism in India by linking it to his lifelong political and philosophicalconcerns: the annihilation of the caste system, untouchability and the moral andphilosophical systems that justify either. Rather than view his ideas through asocialist lens, the author suggests that it is important to measure the validity ofsocialist thought and practice in the Indian context, through his critique of thesocial totality. The book argues its case by presenting a broad and connectedoverview of his thought world and the global and local influences that shaped it.The themes that are taken up for discussion include: his understanding of thecolonial rule and the colonial state; history and progress; nationalism and thequestions he posed the socialists; his radical critique of the caste system andBrahmancal philosophies, and his unusual interpretation of Buddhism.