“What the Communist Manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of Caste is to India.” —Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste The classic work of Indian Dalit politics, reframed with an extensive introduction by Arundathi Roy B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar – a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois – offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried. Arundhati Roy introduces this extensively annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste in “The Doctor and the Saint,” examining the persistence of caste in modern India, and how the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi continues to resonate. Roy takes us to the beginning of Gandhi’s political career in South Africa, where his views on race, caste and imperialism were shaped. She tracks Ambedkar’s emergence as a major political figure in the national movement, and shows how his scholarship and intelligence illuminated a political struggle beset by sectarianism and obscurantism. Roy breathes new life into Ambedkar’s anti-caste utopia, and says that without a Dalit revolution, India will continue to be hobbled by systemic inequality.

Who were they and why they became UNTOUCHABLES ? This is the digital copy of "THE UNTOUCHABLES". a book wrote by The great Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Please give us your feedback : www.facebook.com/syag21 Your opinion is very important to us. We appreciate your feedback and will use it to evaluate changes and make improvements in our book.

This book explains the paradox of India's rapid growth and widespread poverty by looking at hundreds of life stories and the latest research.

For the solution of the ‘Caste’ question Buddha is not enough Ambedkar is not enough either Marx is a Must This is neither Buddha's biography nor Ambedkar's. Further, it is not Marx's biography either. This is a discussion concerning the 'Dalit' question based exclusively on Ambedkar's writings. However, I have confined myself only to those writings that deal with the 'Dalit' question and Caste system. Ambedkar had also discussed other issues like Division of labour, Division of Labourers, poverty, unemployment and economic exploitation. These issues are connected with the Dalit question and the Caste system. Hence all these issues find place in this book. Ambedkar had also written on other themes like the 'Problem of the Rupee' and Large Scale Industry. But I have not included those issues which are not directly connected with the Dalit question. Even regarding Gandhi, I have not considered issues other than those Ambedkar cited in connection with the Dalit question. For the purpose of this essay, I wanted to rely only on Ambedkar's writings. But, in couple of contexts where I could not find relevant information in Ambedkar's works, I had to turn to a few references from his biographies. I have given these details in the respective contexts. The world needs the theory that is powerful enough to illuminate the path. It is irrelevant whether that theoretician is Buddha, Marx, Ambedkar or someone else. That which remedies the disease alone is a medicine! That which emancipates from sufferings alone is the higher path. If it is Buddhism, we are obliged to follow it, to revere it. The question, however, is to ascertain which is the higher path! This is the thing, which we must ascertain. We are obliged to follow the thing which we ascertain to be the higher path. We need to read Ambedkar's writings in order to arrive at a correct understanding of many issues which he discussed: the caste system, untouchability, poverty, Buddhism, Marxism, etc. We have to read them carefully and seriously. Whatever we read, we have to take everything that is useful. We have to follow it. We have to correct whatever needs correction. We have to abandon whatever is not useful. To do all this, however, we must first understand Ambedkar's ideas correctly. Problems like castes and untouchability are not things that have arisen, so to speak, yesterday or today. They have been entrenched for thousands of years. But we don't have any written literatureother than religious texts and some inscriptionsthat tells about them. The available sources may not be useful in many contexts. Yet they may be useful to some extent in some contexts. When we don't find clear-cut bases for the problems, however, there is no way out except attempting to understand them by means of our own logic.