Beef, brahmins, and broken men : an annotated critical selection from the Untouchables / B.R. Ambedkar ; edited and annotated by Alex George and S. Anand ; introduction by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ambedkar, B. R. (Bhimrao Ramji), 1891-1956, author.

Ilaiah, K. (Kancha), 1952- author of introduction.

Contributor:

George, Alex, editor.

Anand, S. (Journalist), editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dalits--India--History.

Dalits.

Brahmans--History.

Brahmans.

Beef--Religious aspects--Hinduism.

Beef.

History.

India.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

424 pages : illustrations

Other Title:

Annotated critical selection from the Untouchables, who were they and why they became untouchables?

Place of Publication:

Shahpur Jat, New Delhi : Columbia University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"One of twentieth-century India's great polymaths, statesmen, and militant philosophers of equality, B. R. Ambedkar spent his life battling Untouchability and instigating the end of the caste system. Here, Ambedkar offers a deductive, and at times a speculative, history to propose a genealogy of Untouchability. He contends that modern-day Dalits are descendants of those Buddhists who were fenced out of caste society and rendered Untouchable by a resurgent Brahminism since the fourth century BCE. The Brahmins, whose Vedic cult originally involved the sacrifice of cows, adapted Buddhist ahimsa and vegetarianism to stigmatize outcaste Buddhists who were consumers of beef. The outcastes were soon relegated to the lowliest of occupations and prohibited from participation in civic life. To unearth this lost history, Ambedkar undertakes a forensic examination of a wide range of Brahminic literature. Heavily annotated with an emphasis on putting Ambedkar and recent scholarship into conversation, Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men assumes urgency as India witnesses unprecedented violence against Dalits and Muslims in the name of cow protection." --Provided by publisher.

One of twentieth-century India's great polymaths, statesmen, and militant philosophers of equality, B. R. Ambedkar spent his life battling Untouchability and instigating the end of the caste system. In his 1948 book The Untouchables, he sought to trace the origin of Untouchability. Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men is an annotated selection from this work, produced in a time when the oppression of and discrimination against Dalits remains pervasive. Ambedkar offers a deductive, and at times a speculative, history to propose a genealogy of Untouchability. He contends that modern-day Dalits are descendants of those Buddhists who were fenced out of caste society and rendered Untouchable by a resurgent Brahminism since the fourth century BCE. The Brahmins, whose Vedic cult originally involved the sacrifice of cows, adapted Buddhist ahimsa and vegetarianism to stigmatize outcaste Buddhists who were consumers of beef. The outcastes were soon relegated to the lowliest of occupations and prohibited from participation in civic life. To unearth this lost history, Ambedkar undertakes a forensic examination of a wide range of Brahminic literature. Heavily annotated with an emphasis on putting Ambedkar and recent scholarship into conversation, Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men assumes urgency as India witnesses unprecedented violence against Dalits and Muslims in the name of cow protection.

Contents:

Part IV New theories of the origin of Untouchability.

Chapter IX Contempt for Buddhists as the root of Untouchability p. 112

Chapter X Beef-eating as the root of Untouchability p. 146

Part V The new theories and some hard questions

Chapter XI Did the Hindus never eat beef? p. 153

Chapter XII Why did non-Brahmins give up beef-eating? p. 183

Chapter XIII What made the Brahmins become vegetarians? p. 199

Chapter XIV Why should beef-eating make Broken Men Untouchable? p. 255

Part VI Untouchability and the date of its birth

Chapter XV The Impure and the Untouchables p. 278

Chapter XVI When did Broken Men become untouchables? p. 323.

Notes:

"The Untouchables : who were they and why they became untouchables? was first published in 1948 by Amrit Book Depot, Delhi." --Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Edition:

Selection from: Ambedkar, B. R., (Bhimrao Ramji), 1891-1956.

ISBN:

9780231195843

0231195842

9780231195850

0231195850

OCLC:

1156378771

Publisher Number:

99984362413