babasaheb's photos_🌿

the ideas, theories, programs, activism etc. that babasaheb has written and worked upon throughout his life are very inspiring. apart from those, one can also see that he had a unique style of living. not just unique, but it was more of a socio-politically transformational.

when i was a kid; in my initial impression of him, i did not know what particular books he has written or what specific activism he did for me or the community where we used to celebrate bhim jayanti. We knew a few words like "educate", "samvidhan", "buddham sharanam gachhami" etc. in a very scattered manner, but I did not know what do they all mean then.

nevertheless, the most compelling thing that used to hit so effectively to my childhood's mind was his photo on our wall. with a black and white suit on, a tie with a black coated transparent glasses; seating beside ramai and budhha and always gazing at me as if checking whether i am studying or not. that attraction of suit and tie motivated me more than anything.

till today, this has been a continuous process since then with various of his photos.

📑 babasaheb's photos 🌱
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

un-layering learnings_🌿

we tend to forget many stories by layering our realities with new learnings, new language, and new knowledge. However, it seems a natural process but it must also be seen critically from a pedagogical perspective.

communities like dalit that have been epistemologically muted for centuries; are in the ambit of continuous subjugation for multiple reasons. one of them is that they are yet to form alternative discourses, perspectives, concepts, categories, methodologies, frameworks, etc. in short, they have to strive for "alternative knowledge systems."

this argument may sound against modernity, rather going back to past may feel like no need to reveal the painful history; instead, this is not. apart from the importance of building alternative knowledge systems, one has to know understand three important processes while decoding the context namely: "freedom of mind," "inventive mind," and "navayana."

freedom of mind: it is the process of realizing one's own ontological beingness. It sets the norm or a bottom line, "all are humans, and nobody is inferior to others." but mere this is not enough. a learner also has to act to propagate this idea. by acting, it means rejecting knowledge systems that affirm oppression and inferiority.

inventive mind: a mind that seeks "newness". it leads the person to invent ideas and formulate new "visionary epistemologies" that can connect the past and present with the future.

navayana: navayana is a dynamic process (changes with said contemporary situations) that parallelly conglomerates the above two processes to formulate the "alternative knowledge system." it opens up a cosmos to learn and build more alternative knowledge systems.

📑 un-layering learnings
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

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.