Annihilation of Caste
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1936
- Form
- Political theory
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 100 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendAnnihilation of Caste, The Annotated Critical EditionVerso, 2016S. Anand's annotated text with Arundhati Roy's long introductory essay and Gandhi's reply and Ambedkar's rejoinder.
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The text of a speech Ambedkar was invited to give to a Hindu reform society in Lahore in 1936 and which the organisers cancelled when they read it. He argues that caste is not a division of labour but a division of labourers, that it has destroyed Hindu society's capacity for fellow feeling, and that reform that stops short of intermarriage and the destruction of the religious sanction for caste is useless. Since the sanction lies in the shastras, the shastras must be rejected. Later editions added his exchange with Gandhi.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Annihilation of Caste are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
