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There is much in Vasant Moon's extraordinary story of his vasti,
his childhood neighbourhood in India, that would probably be true
of any urban ghetto anywhere in the world. But there is much that
is peculiarly and vividly Indian. In this first autobiography of a
so-called Untouchable, we learn about the inescapable hierarchy
imposed by caste, based on ancient principles of heriditary
pollution. We see the unmatched importance of the heroic Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar for India's awakened and newly ambitious Dalits. We feel,
viscerally, Nagpur's heat and the joy brought by the monsoon.
Vasant Moon's Vasti, the first Dalit autobiography to be published
in English, is a moving and eloquent testament to a uniquely Indian
life as well as to the universal human spirit.
This study describes and analyses the new social movements that
have arisen in India over the past two decades, in particular the
anti-caste movement (of both the untouchables and the lower-middle
castes), the women's liberation movement, the farmers' movement
(centred on struggles arising out of their integration into a
state-controlled capitalist market), and the environmental
movements (opposition to destructive development, including
resistance to big dam projects and the search for alternatives).
Rooted in participant observation, it focuses on the ideologies and
self-understanding of the movements themselves. The central themes
of this book are the origin of movements in the socio-economic
contradictions of post-independence India; their effect on
political developments, in particular the disintegration of
Congress hegemony; their relation to "traditional Marxist" theory
and Communist practice; and their groping toward a synthesis of
theory and practice that constitutes a new social vision distinct
from traditional Marxism.
This study describes and analyses the new social movements that
have arisen in India over the past two decades, in particular the
anti-caste movement (of both the untouchables and the lower-middle
castes), the women's liberation movement, the farmers' movement
(centred on struggles arising out of their integration into a
state-controlled capitalist market), and the environmental
movements (opposition to destructive development, including
resistance to big dam projects and the search for alternatives).
Rooted in participant observation, it focuses on the ideologies and
self-understanding of the movements themselves. The central themes
of this book are the origin of movements in the socio-economic
contradictions of post-independence India; their effect on
political developments, in particular the disintegration of
Congress hegemony; their relation to "traditional Marxist" theory
and Communist practice; and their groping toward a synthesis of
theory and practice that constitutes a new social vision distinct
from traditional Marxism.
Tukoba (Tukaram) was a seventeenth-century Bhakti Sant (saint-poet)
of the Varkari movement in Maharashtra. He is still considered the
best Marathi poet. These new translations by Gail Omvedt and Bharat
Patankar seek to capture the wonder of his writing, his lyricism
and his profound meanings.
The colonial period saw important social movements in India. Among
the strongest of these was non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra. Its
founder was a remarkable intellectual and social activist from the
gardener (Mali) caste, Jotirao Phule (1827-90). His writings laid
the foundations of the movement, and the Satyashodhak Samaj
(Truthseekers Society) which he founded in 1873, became its primary
radical organisation, lasting until the 1930s. Shahu Maharaj, the
Maratha maharaja of Kolhapur, who turned against Brahmans because
they considered him a shudra, and became radicalised from this, was
a major patron. The heyday of the movement took place between 1910
and 1930, when the Satyashodhak Samaj carried the message of
anti-caste anti-Brahmanism throughout Maharashtra; one of its
offshoots was a strong peasant movement. In the 1920s a political
party emerged, as did Dr B R Ambedkar's Dalit movement, which drew
sustenance also from support of the non-Brahmans and patrons such
as Shahu Maharaj. Young radicals such as Keshavrao Jedhe and
Dinkarrao Javalkar challenged Brahman cultural dominance in Pune
and intervened in the Brahman-dominated Communist movement in
Mumbai. By the 1930s, however, the movement died away as the
majority of its activists joined Congress. It has left a strong
heritage, but the failure to really link nationalism with a strong
anti-caste movement has left a heritage of continued and often
unadmitted dominance of caste in Indian society today. This classic
study on the non-Brahman movement in western India is invaluable
for scholars of sociology, caste movements, Dalit studies and
colonialism.
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