Who Wrote The Book Understanding Caste From Buddha To Ambedkar And Beyond

Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and the Question of Caste

This book examines the interface between Buddhism and the caste system in India. It discusses how Buddhism in different stages, from its early period to contemporary forms—Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Tantrayāna and Navayāna—dealt with the question of caste. It also traces the intersections between the problem of caste with those of class and gender. The volume reflects on the interaction between Hinduism and Buddhism: it looks at critiques of caste in the classical Buddhist tradition while simultaneously drawing attention to the radical challenge posed by Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s Navayāna Buddhism or neo-Buddhism. The essays in the book further compare approaches to varṇa and caste developed by modern thinkers such as M. K. Gandhi and S. Radhakrishnan with Ambedkar’s criticisms and his departures from mainstream appraisals. With its interdisciplinary methodology, combining insights from literature, philosophy, political science and sociology, the volume explores contemporary critiques of caste from the perspective of Buddhism and its historical context. By analyzing religion through the lens of caste and gender, it also forays into the complex relationship between religion and politics, while offering a rigorous study of the textual tradition of Buddhism in India. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indian philosophy, Buddhist studies, Indology, literature (especially Sanskrit and Pāli), exclusion and discrimination studies, history, political studies, women studies, sociology, and South Asian studies.

Aesthetics of Dalit Theatre

Since Dalit theatre has not garnered as much recognition as the other genres of Dalit literature have, this book, being one of the pioneering works in the field, aims to highlight the genre within the framework of Dalit literature and the Dalit Movement in India. The discussion extensively delves into the historical background, context and aesthetics of Dalit drama and theatre from epistemological viewpoints. To illustrate the subtleties of caste, class and gender in the pan-Indian scenario, the book includes textual understandings of specific Dalit plays, available in English translation, originally written in Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali, covering diverse regions of India. The inclusion of full-length interviews, conducted by the author, of all the living playwrights whose texts have been taken up for analysis, is another substantial facet of this study.

Understanding Caste