Doctor(ing) Ambedkar: Casting Caste and the Politics of Publishing

Abstract

This essay examines the politics of publication and distribution of Dalit writings within the global publishing industry by focusing on Arundhati Roy’s book-length introduction, “The Doctor and the Saint” to B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste (AoC). Published by Navayana, India’s first publishing house to focus on the issue of caste, the introduction was used to attract non-Dalit global and postcolonial readers to further the goals of broader exposure for Dalit concerns. However, as the controversy surrounding its publication attests, Roy’s introduction dilutes Ambedkar’s anti-caste critique as well as his relevance to Dalit politics. This essay argues that Roy’s and Navayana’s depiction of Ambedkar’s AoC reveals their inadvertent participation in what might be called a postcolonial appropriation of Dalit literature—the co-option of Dalit literature within an uneven global marketplace, whose interests are not easily reconciled with Dalit concerns.