Beyond Ambedkar : Essays on Dalits in India

Contents: General introduction: I. Ambedkar remembered: 1. Situating Ambedkar in contemporary period. 2. Ambedkar and the Dalits: prospects and retrospects. II. Education among the Dalits: 3. The limited education. 4. Socio-structural variants and higher education. III. Social stratification and mobility in urban India: 5. Social stratification and sources of mobility among the scheduled castes. 6. Social mobility and status--identification among the scheduled castes: a synoptic view. 7. Marginalisation and social mobility in urban India. IV. Atrocities and violence against the Dalits: 8. Social mobility and social conflict in rural Uttar Pradesh. 9. Atrocities and segregation in an urban social structure: views from the bottom. 10. Atrocities on weaker sections: some developmental constructs. 11. Law and atrocities on the weaker sections in India. V. Equality through protest movements: 12. From atrocities to protest movement: an urge for social development. 13. Dalits' struggles for self-liberation in India (a review article). Bibliography. Index.

"The Present book Beyond Ambedkar : Essays on Dalits in India is not to be construed as negation or refutation of ideas and philosophy of Babasaheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar for building a new society in India. Instead, it accepts the preposition 'beyond' purely in the temporal sense and attempts briefly to analyse some of his ideas and theories in the context of the present day society in India. Such an attempt has been felt necessary because a lot of changes have occurred, since his death, in every walks of life of people including even Dalits in the country. Some of these changes have definitely followed the paths visualised by him. Therefore, Beyond Ambedkar examines why some and not other types of changes have followed the paths suggested by him. More precisely, changes in the areas of education and social integration; social stratification and mobility; atrocities, protest movements and socio-political consciousness for social identity, etc. have been examined in the case of the most deprived community like scheduled castes or Dalits whose social change and mobility are 'sponsored' through the Policy of Protective Discrimination or Reservation." (jacket)