Mapping B. R. Ambedkar Within the Matrix of Manu’s Patriarchy, the Mentoring of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad and the Dynamics of Agamben’s Homo Sacer

Abstract

On the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, this essay acknowledges the great leader’s life, vision and contributions to the cause of marginalized humanity in India. It attempts to examine Ambedkar’s agenda for social reform and his efforts towards the empowerment of the abused caste and gender categories through intense satyagraha (a form of nonviolent resistance), widespread education and supportive state laws. The article concludes with a review of caste and gender issues in the present times and argues for the need to revamp the education system. This essay begins with Ambedkar’s early life and education facilitated by the patronage of the philanthropic reformer and King of Baroda Province, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. Second, it examines Ambedkar’s endeavours to educate and empower the women and depressed castes of India through his research, scholarship and rewritings of the Indian social history. And third, the essay attempts to understand the concept of the untouchable Dalit as a category that comes close to the Greek phenomenon of the homo sacer—a Greek concept synonymous with the rational of the Dalit/Ati-shudra. Through the ancient concept of the homo sacer, Giorgio Agamben explores agencies that conspire to draft, long-drawn statements of abuse and exploitation of the ostracized social and political underdog.