Author
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
3 books · 7 sessions
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) was a jurist, economist, and the leader of the movement of India's Dalits against caste. He chaired the drafting committee of the Constitution of India and served as independent India's first law minister, resigning in 1951 when the Hindu Code Bill was defeated.
He wrote across law, economics, history, and religion, and the circle has worked through several of those books. In October 1956, weeks before his death, he converted to Buddhism at Nagpur along with hundreds of thousands of followers.
On the reading list
What the circle has read of theirs
- 01
Annihilation of Caste
The Annotated Critical Edition
The address Dr. Ambedkar wrote for the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal in 1936 and never delivered, arguing that caste is not a division of labour but a division of labourers, and that it cannot be reformed, only annihilated.
3 sessions
- 02
Waiting for a Visa
Dr. Ambedkar's own short autobiographical account, written in the mid-1930s and published only after his death, of the everyday humiliations of untouchability he faced on trains, in schools, and as a working professional, despite his education and titles.
1 session
- 03
Riddles in Hinduism
The Annotated Critical Selection
Dr. Ambedkar's unfinished examination of Hindu scripture, written in his final years and published posthumously, which sets a series of riddles against the texts and traditions that hold caste in place.
3 sessions