The Hindu : New Delhi News : Need for feminists to reclaim Ambedkar seen

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Need for feminists to reclaim Ambedkar seen

Rahi Gaikwad

Mumbai: A thriving corpus of literature and music pertaining to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s thought has been integral to the Ambedkarite or Dalit movement in Maharashtra.

“Dalit feminism” has drawn copiously from this pool. However, feminist discourse at large has remained ignorant of the rich and complex interpretations of caste and gender as conceptualised by the architect of the Constitution, Sharmila Rege, director, Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Women’s Studies Centre at Pune University and a leading feminist sociologist, said during the 6th Ambedkar Memorial Lecture she delivered at the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) here on Saturday.

“There is an urgency for feminist discourse to turn to Ambedkar. A category of women undifferentiated by caste does not exist for feminists to mobilise. Now the pressure is not to talk about gender in isolation, but to include class, caste and other factors. Therefore, there is a need to reclaim Dr. Ambedkar’s writings as feminist classics,” she said.

She said though feminist academics had been late in turning to Ambedkar, a culture of booklets and music of the Dalit movement has had a much longer history.

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