Reclaiming Ambedkar Within the Feminist Legacy

Abstract

Historically analysing the presence of reformers and women’s liberators during the era of national struggle, Ambedkar emerges as a strong advocate of women’s rights in his times. This article discusses Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s role in empowering Dalit and caste-Hindu women through his social and legal strategies. The article begins with an analysis of Ambedkar’s sociological essay ‘Castes in India’ and his timeless analysis of ‘women as gateways of the caste system’. Furthermore, the article traces the national discourse on domesticity of Indian womanhood in Colonial India by analysing Ambedkar’s article in Bahishkrut Bharat on Grihalakshmification of the caste-Hindu woman. The article argues that Ambedkar’s advocacy for women’s entry into the public sphere through employment, as opposed to her domestication, redefined gendered labour within a modern caste society. Despite Ambedkar’s contribution to women’s rights in India, his acceptance in the mainstream feminist movement has been slow and reluctant. Ambedkar’s recognition in the mainstream feminist movement, I argue, results from constant effort and critique by Dalit women which has ruptured the elitist discourse of the mainstream feminist movement by pinpointing the prevalent caste-privilege and caste-blindness in these spaces.