Kiruba Munusamy opens the delicate question of ‘caste and judiciary in India’ and makes an emphatic appeal for increased diversity within the system, which would also imply giving due representation to those from the legally recognised marginalised categories. Though the system of representation through quotas was not a choice that Ambedkar liked, Vundru is hopeful that the Constitution is “fully equipped” to provide due political space to the Scheduled Caste communities. In the following chapter, Raja Shekhar Vundru provides a comprehensive account of Ambedkar’s uncomfortable relationship with Gandhi, the signing of the Poona Pact and the reservation policy post-Independence. India is failing to progress along Ambedkar’s vision, Thorat argues. A society structured around values of hierarchy cannot recognise the value of ‘rights’. It envisioned a different mode of being with fellow citizens, which was not possible in a culture divided on caste lines. For him, democracy had to be a mode of forming social relationships in everyday life.
Nationality, for him, was a modern-day sensibility, ‘a sentiment of oneness’ where every citizen treated the other as if they were ‘kith and kin’. For Ambedkar, ‘a nation was not a people synthesised by a common culture derived from a common language, common religion or common race’. In the opening chapter, Sukhadeo Thorat says that though Ambedkar was not particularly delighted with the way the Independent Indian state worked during his lifetime, he had great hopes from it. The first revisits Ambedkar’s vision of ‘the Dalit truth’. They underscore the fact that these foundational values and the institutions supposed to protect and promote them are currently under severe stress.īesides the editor’s introduction, the book has 12 essays, broadly covering three sets of issues. The published volumes also reflect the broader vision of Congress politics. However, the book and the series do foreground the Nehruvian and Gandhian vision of building an inclusive India, which, as the editors would claim, is also embedded in the Constitution and has a stamp of the chairperson of its drafting committee, BR Ambedkar. In fact, many provide a strong critique of the Congress and its approach toward the political and developmental concerns of the ex-untouchable communities. The essays do not present a biased position. However, the book is not a party or political document. The book has been edited by K Raju, a former bureaucrat, currently an active Congress member. This is the eighth book of the series, ‘Rethinking India’, being published by the Samruddha Bharat Foundation.
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