Categories: Humanities

Riddles in Hinduism

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'The Vedas are a worthless set of books. There is no reason either to call them sacred or infallible… The time has come when the Hindu mind must be freed from the hold which the silly ideas propagated by the Brahmins have on them. Without this, the liberation of India has no future'—B. R. Ambedkar. Hinduism claims one billion adherents worldwide. To all those who hold this religion dear, B. R. Ambedkar poses many riddles: Is it even a religion? Who is a Hindu?Like most of his writings, Riddles in Hinduism remained unpublished during his lifetime. When the state of Maharashtra finally printed it in 1987, the Shiv Sena sought a ban. While the liberals looked away, the Dalit movement circulated copies.At a time when the state and the Hindu right are painting Ambedkar as a 'Hindu figure, this fierce critique—now with illuminating annotations—shows us how and why Ambedkar had no love for Hinduism.In his introduction, Kancha Ilaiah tells us why Hinduism is facing its biggest ever challenge from Dalit-Bahujans. Ambedkar was one, today there are a million Ambedkars.

A Stake in the Nation

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Who is an Indian? Who is a nationalist? Who is antinational? This selection of speeches, from 1930 to 1956, shows Dr B.R. Ambedkar as the most original among the architects of modern India as he asks and answers such difficult questions. Whether he was dealing with the British or the Congress, his commitment to equality and justice for minorities remained steadfast. These twenty speeches tell us a story jettisoned by narratives that valorise a Hinduised 'idea of India. Ambedkar addresses various publics: dalit workers in Nashik, British lawmakers in London, the Non-Brahmin Movement in Madras, parliamentarians in Delhi and college students in Jalandhar. He speaks of democracy, labour, minority rights, communalism, brahminism, constitution-making and foreign policy. The prose spans different registers of reason and affect—lyrical and polemical, combative and poignant.

PEARLS OF WISDOM

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Amma travels the world, alternating long hours of darshan with the maternal hug she gives to all who come to her, and her teachings. Here are some of her most beautiful pearls of wisdom, one for each day of the year, set out in the form of a perpetual calendar. Ammas life is her only message: give everything and give of oneself. Her religion is love.

EAGLES OVER BANGLADESH

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In December 1971 Bangladesh was born. Its birthing was among the most painful of any new nation: it had suffered a brutal genocide conducted by its former countrymen from West Pakistan, and a war for liberation fought between the indigenous Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army) and the Indian Armed Forces on one side, and the West Pakistani Armed Forces on the other. Open war broke out on the Western and Eastern fronts in December 1971. The war ended quickly, with the West Pakistani Army surrendering in Dacca two weeks later. A significant factor in facilitating the Indian Army’s rapid progress to Dacca was the Indian Air Force (IAF) which proved itself to be a formidable fighting force. Eagles over Bangladesh: The Indian Air Force in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War recounts the IAF offensive over Bangladesh, commencing with the raids on Dacca on the first day of the war, and moving on to the final coup de grace delivered on the Governor’s House in Dacca. It aims to fill in the gaps regarding a military conflict that took place almost four decades ago.’

OPERATION X

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<p>In April 1971, the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Intelligence set up a covert maritime warfare unit – Naval Commando Operations (X) (NCO[X]). This black unit’s existence was known to very few even within the navy. Its covert operation aimed at disrupting the maritime commerce lines that sustained the Pakistan Army in its eastern province. Over the next few months, this irregular unit, comprising Indian naval officers, divers, and former Pakistani submariners, set to work. They transformed over 400 Bengali youths from East Pakistan into combat swimmers, trained to assault merchant ships. The gunboats of NCO(X)’s naval wing mined shipping channels and harassed shipping entering East Pakistan. The ferocious campaign waged by this tiny unit was without precedent in the annals of naval warfare. They sank and disabled over 100,000 tonnes of shipping in the province , in support of the government of Bangladesh in exile. Their actions contributed towards India’s ultimate victory in the eastern theatre of the December 1971 Indo-Pak war.Revealed for the very first time, here is the explosive authentic account – co-authored by a key NCO(X) member – of the guerrilla operation that went for the maritime jugular of Pakistan, and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh.<br></p>

VORTEX

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<p>The deadliest storm in modern history ripped Pakistan in two and led the world to the brink of nuclear war when American and Soviet forces converged in the Bay of Bengal.</p><p>In November 1970, a storm set a collision course with the most densely populated coastline on Earth. Over the course of just a few hours, the Great Bhola Cyclone killed 500,000 people and began a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide and war. The Vortex is the dramatic story of how that storm sparked a country to revolution.</p><p>Bhola made landfall during a fragile time, when Pakistan was on the brink of a historic election. The fallout ignited a conflagration of political intrigue, corruption, violence, idealism and bravery, which played out in the lives of tens of millions of Bangladeshis. Authors Scott Carney and Jason Miklian take us deep into the story of the cyclone and its aftermath, told through the eyes of the men and women who lived through it, including the infamous president of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan, and his close friend, the President of the United States Richard Nixon, American expats Jon and Candy Rhode, soccer star-turned-soldier Hafiz Uddin Ahmad and a young Bengali revolutionary, Mohammed Hai.</p><p>Thrillingly paced and written in incredible detail, The Vortex is not just a story about the painful birth of a new nation but also a universal tale of resilience and liberation in the face of climate emergency, which affects every single person on the planet.</p>

HEROES OF 1971

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<p>Heroes of 1971 tells the stories of the fearless warriors who fought heroic battles to liberate Bangladesh, redrawing the map of South Asia in what is still considered the most conclusive military victory – in a ‘just war’ – in contemporary history.</p><p>Written by serving and retired officers of the three services to celebrate the memory of the four Param Vir Chakra and seventy-six Maha Vir Chakra awardees of the war, the essays in this book first appeared in The Tribune, Chandigarh. From the exploits of Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon when he faced Flying Bullets at the Srinagar airfield to the capture of prisoners of war at Faujdahat by Brigadier Anand Sarup’s ‘Kilo Force’, this book catalogues it all, while the big-picture analyses by veterans, top bureaucrats and journalists help set the scene and enable readers to understand the war better.“</p>

EVOLUTION OF PRAGMATISM IN INDIA

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<p>"The story of how the Indian reformer Bhimrao Ambedkar reimagined John Dewey’s pragmatism.</p><p>In The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, Scott R. Stroud delivers a comprehensive exploration of the influence of John Dewey’s pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Republic of India’s constitution. Stroud traces Ambedkar’s development in Dewey’s Columbia University classes in 1913-1916 through his final years in 1950s India when he rewrote the story of Buddhism.</p><p>Stroud examines pragmatism’s influence not only on the philosophical ideas underpinning Ambedkar’s fight against caste oppression but also how his persuasive techniques drew on pragmatism’s commitment to reconstruction and meliorism. At the same time, Stroud is careful to point out the ways that Ambedkar pushed back against Dewey’s paradigm and developed his own approach to challenges in India. The result is a nuanced study of one of the most important figures in Indian history."</p><div><br></div>

In Pursuit of Ambedkar

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<p>"1943, Shimla. Bhagwan Das, all of 16 and a keen member of the Scheduled Caste Federation, waited seven hours to meet the man his father called ‘Ummeedkar’, the Harbinger of Hope-Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. That meeting defined the trajectory Das’ life would later take in his single-minded pursuit of Babasaheb’s ideals. After serving in the Royal Indian Air Force as a radar operator during World War II, Das worked with Ambedkar as a research assistant in the last years before Ambedkar passed away in 1956. Six years later, Das began to compile and edit Ambedkar’s speeches in the four-volume Thus Spoke Ambedkar. After four decades of dedicated activism, Bhagwan Das, supported by a coalition of dalit organisations, testified on untouchability in August 1983 before the UN Subcommission on Human Rights in Geneva, much against the wishes of India’s official delegation at the conference.</p><p>This memoir, and the DVD of a documentary feature that accompanies it, offer a dalit perspective on key events in modern Indian history: August 1947, the ‘moment of Independence’ that Das recalls as ‘Hindu Raj’ and as a time when ‘untouchables were afraid’; his unambiguous critique of Gandhi; and his unmasking of the ‘valmikisation’ of the sweeper community as nothing but fiction."</p>

Ambedkar's World

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<p>"This is a classic monograph on the Mahar movement in western India. It documents the social and political forces that shaped Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–56), the greatest leader of Dalits, and the manner in which Ambedkar shaped the destiny of the Dalits of Maharashtra and India. Zelliot chronicles the movement from its origins with the first Mahar petition in 1890 till its culmination in the mass conversion to Buddhism in 1956. She describes the defining influences of the pre-Ambedkar leadership, the Mahar army tradition, the cult of Cokhamela, the Mahad satyagraha, the temple-entry movements, the various newspapers Ambedkar edited, the Round Table Conferences, and the political parties Ambedkar founded. Using a wide array of primary sources, she offers a rich history of one of modern India’s most defining movements.</p><p>In its scope and depth as a single-caste history, Ambedkar’s World remains as yet unsurpassed."</p>