Bhagwan Das: In Pursuit of Ambedkar from Navayana on Vimeo.
Watch a teaser of the Navayana-produced documentary film Bhagwan Das: In Pursuit of Ambedkar. The hour-long film chronicles the life and work of Bhagwan Das, 82, who worked as a research associate with Dr B.R. Ambedkar in 1955-56, and compiled, produced and edited the four-volume Thus Spoke Ambedkar between 1963 and 1980. For a copy of the complete film, contact us.

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The Times of India interviews Bhagwan Das, lawyer and research associate of Dr B.R. Ambedkar in 1955-56,  on meeting Babasaheb, dalit politics and reservations. Read the complete talk here.
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-Navayana is reissuing the four-volume ‘Thus Spoke Ambedkar’, a collection of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s writings and speeches that Das compiled between 1963 and 1980. The box set also includes an hour-long documentary film ‘Bhagwan Das: In Pursuit of Ambedkar’, a teaser for which can be watched here.

“The right of life and death was one of sovereignty’s basic attributes,” said Foucault. “The right of life and death is always exercised in an unbalanced way: the balance is always tipped in favour of death.” In post-independence India, the authority of caste found a new ally-the state and its police.
The state admits to the murder of two dalits every day, a crime against a dalit every eighteen minutes. Atrocities pile up, forming a landscape of tears, blood and ashes. It could be said this is not genocide. It could …

Read an excerpt from S. Viswanathan’s Dalits in Dravidian Land: dalit activist-theoretician Ravikumar offers a framework to understand  violence against dalits and suggests that more than being a consequence of the accumulation of power in the hands of the intermediary castes, such violence would be better understood as an attempt by ‘backward’ caste Hindus to test their newfound authority on those below them. (Links to a PDF file, right-click and ‘Save As’ to download)

For more information on the book, browse our catalog or buy it online at Scholars Without Borders.

Anand Teltumbde

210 pages | Rs 190 | Paperback

Anand Teltumbde reconstructs one of post-independence India’s worst caste atrocities and tells us how and why Khairlanjis are always around us.