B.R. Ambedkar and E.V. Ramasamy’s Understanding of Caste System: A Critical Study

Abstract

The caste system has always been resilient and dynamic, with internal inconsistencies and contradictions and due to its interpenetration into polity and culture. The goal is to comprehend continuity and change in the caste system. Its discrete application describes the problems of Indian society, politics, and the economy. Caste is becoming the state of mind for an individual. Changes in the modern world have reshaped caste. Reservations based on caste have kept it alive and well. Protests against the caste-based reservations have contributed to the persistence of caste. The caste system may be elusive for some who have moved away from their social and cultural roots, but for others who remain in villages and towns, caste is enduring, and it is present in practice in some form or another. The project aims to read and critically examine B.R. Ambedkar's Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development (1916-17) and Annihilation of Caste (1936) and the selected translated speeches from the Tamil language of E.V. Ramasamy, an anti-caste social reformist thinker from 20th century Tamilnadu. The research tries to understand the relevance of their thoughts in shaping certain trends in contemporary Indian politics and culture.