on ramai_🌿

like babytai kamble says in her book the prison we broke, "morality and compassion are two of the most prominent virtues that babasaheb taught us as the foundation of any character." now at this point in time, who could be the best person to see these virtues in. for me, it is ramai! 

nevertheless, it is very difficult to put ramai in a theoretical frame. because for that, one needs to be a woman, who leads a self-respectful life, no matter how terrible her socio-economic situation is. a mother, who has seen enormous pain of losing her children out of mere health and hunger. a campanion, who has shared all the personal and social responsibilities with her husband, even greater than equal manner. there have to be more facets of her life; but unfortunately are yet to be known.

in her own ontological persona, she asserts to be the person having patience, loving-ness, belonging-ness on the contrary to the ontological realities that were present in her surrounding. having all the oppressive elements around such as everyday survival challenges, patriarchy, castes discrimination, economic disparity, lack of resources to avail education and health services etc. 

it is a matter of amaze, how could a person be so compassionate in her ontological being even though there are such loaded hindrances around. and that's where buddha's 'karuna' (compassion) while satipatana (meditation towards non-duality) can be seen in this picture. one needs to understand the hindrances around and confront them to realise their own ontological being-ness!

📑mrs. ramai ambedkar 🌱
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

mrs. ramai ambedkar

annihilation of caste: more than a speech_🌿

i have always been fascinated by this book "annihilation of caste" of dr babasaheb ambedkar. Not only because it is an academic masterpiece or a reference to the core of so many socio-political movements but it is also one of the most sold, debated, interpreted book than any other academic book.

though at the outset, it is written in the manner of a public speech, as said in the title as "speech prepared but undelivered" or even if any reader knows the context of publishing this speech into a book, may understand that it is a speech. 

what i see in this book is that it is a balance of academic sophistication, normative reasoning and simplicity of writing, so that it can be understood by all, the activists, academicians as well as the common masses.

this is a list of sources from which one could holistically visit this book with almost all contemporary debates that are happening. Annihilation of Castes: Text, Context and Theory (List of Sources) 

 📑 annihilation of caste
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

 

annihilation of castes, the first edition

 

 

more readings and audios of babasaheb's writing

(it is a separate site called "reading babasaheb" where both pdf and audios of babasaheb has attached. if one-click on the topic the audios of each topic will open in soundtrack app and by clicking on the main topic of the volume, the pdf will open)

• DBAWS Volume 1
• DBAWS Volume 2
• DBAWS Volume 3
• DBAWS Volume 4

 

xuan zang_📑

at the outset, this movie is worth-to-be-watched. It has a comprehensive visual graph of xuan zang's journey and the contemporary socio-cultural, geopolitical, and philosophical glimpses that existed in the 19 years of the storyline that the scriptwriter and the director have chosen to show in this movie.

the immediate vibrations that i felt while resembling a few words and subtitles from the film were "dharma", "slaves," etc. it was astonishing to interpret whether they are taken the same as "dhamma", "untouchables/achoot"? if yes, why are they being replaced interchangeably? likewise, the usage of the word "god" by xuan zang was a point to consider in the same line of inquiry.

what is more interesting i saw, which i was expecting more descriptively, but the movie restrained only to two points, was the debate between mahayana and hinayana. the film emphasized more on xuan zang's scholarly understanding that 1) hinayana is more individualistic and abstract. in contrast, the mahayana is more extensive in assimilating 'others' into the 'self'. 2) hinayana believes that the 'universe' is material. but 'perception' is illusionary. while mahayana believes both are mutable and illusionary.

mahayana sees the universe's true face_ all is mutable, and all is illusionary. this point was profound for me, and i think i need to follow them through readings and processes. the missing thing i felt within this debate was pranagupta's critique of mahayana. it was mentioned but not explained.

📑 xuan zang_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

The movie, Xuan Zang.

On Post-Structuralism

When it comes to post-structure; to my knowledge from the sociological point view, it appears as a perspective that deconstructs and decodes the "meta-narrative" of existing paradigms that originated in the land of hegemonic epicentres of knowledge. Be it functionalism, symbolic interactionism or even the Marxist paradigms.

What evolved in my mind during this lecture was that there is a more deep vacuum in btw that has to be understood. Articulating conventional and analytical school of thoughts as ontological and epistemological processes respectively, brought more clarity on my understanding about what a 'post-structure' is and what it intends to be. I need more cultivation of mind to process it further. However, a general idea premise I saw in the lecture but was too more focused on the 'metaphysical' and 'normative' arena of post-structure.

The reflection came from an article that I read a few weeks ago in a "science" magazine, which forced me to look at whether a similar debate exists in physical science also? It is still in bits and pieces in my mind but I will try and explain it with best of my capacities.

The idea of binaries in general and its epistemological processes, i.e. signifier and signified, linguistic dynamics etc. might be seen in the realm of the debates that are currently happening in the contemporary modern science (physics), specifically in the recent studies on quantum physics.

The research indicates that quantum physics essentially studies what consists in an atom and even deeper micro-universe within now exist differently in 'strange-metals'. Which proves that there are linkages between 'quantum physics' and 'entanglement' for which cascade of electrons is the best evidence.

Now, The historical practice of looking at quantum from microscopic lenses has been questioned and is turning into understanding quantum in the macroscopic dynamics also. Here, the question comes in between, how is the physical science addresses the macroscopic quantum or the quantum criticality in 'strange metals'. There might be no conventions that are existing ontologically or no analytics can explain its epistemology. It is yet to find whether there are and are no binaries in them. Let us hypothesized that there is no binary, then it proves that post-structure flops here!

Reflection is still moving and changing just like a process that doesn't end!

Savitribai Phule (1830-1897]_🌿

Apart from being an educationist, Savitribai was a poetess too. Today, two collections of Savitribai's poems are available. One of them is 'Kavyaphule'. It had written in 1854, and the second one is the 'Baavannakashi Subodh Ratnakar' written in 1882. It is assumed that there might be more such writing pieces of Savitribai but yet to be available. However, there also exists the controversy whether the literature was written by Savitribai Phule.

Along with her husband, Savitribai started a social movement named 'Satyashodhak Samaj' or 'Truth Seekers Society'. The focus of the society was to awaken Shudra and Ati-Shudra about their oppression in the castes system and untouchability in particular. The movement had also tried looking into more specific issues of women in these groups. They encouraged 'Satyashodhak marriages' in which the bride or groom did not have to give dowry for marriage. They fought against the priestly domination by organising social-religious ceremonies without them.

After the demise of Jotirao Phule in 1890, Savitribai took sole responsibility of the 'Truth Seekers Society' and became the leader of the movement. She continued the schools and worked for the movement till her last breath. In a letter to Sayajirao Gaikwad, Mama Parmanand says,

"More than Jotirao, his wife deserves praise. No matter how much we praise her, it would not be enough. How can one describe her stature? She cooperated with her husband completely and along with him, faced all the trials and tribulations that came their way. It is difficult to find such a sacrificing woman even among the highly educated women from upper castes. The couple spent their entire life working for people."

~ Narayan Mahadev alias Mama Paramanand (31stJuly 1890)

📑 Savitribai Phule (1830-1897]
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 Read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.