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Ambedkar’s Feminism
Virtually every day, the most brutal, most gruesome rapes of Indian girls and women fill the headlines. From where does this vicious misogyny come? Why are Indian boys still brought up as little kings, while Indian girls, in sharp contrast, are disciplined to be obedient domestic servants? A profound, deeply ugly bias against women pervades Indian culture, even today. Our political leaders—who are virtually all men—do nothing about it. Why should they? It benefits them, after all.
Virtually every day, the most brutal, most gruesome rapes of Indian girls and women fill the headlines. From where does this vicious misogyny come? Why are Indian boys still brought up as little kings, while Indian girls, in sharp contrast, are disciplined to be obedient domestic servants? A profound, deeply ugly bias against women pervades Indian culture, even today. Our political leaders—who are virtually all men—do nothing about it. Why should they? It benefits them, after all.
But we did, once, have a very great leader who was also a passionate feminist. All human rights are closely connected and B R Ambedkar knew this. Thus, while rightly venerated as the great icon of Dalit liberation, he was also strongly and intuitively feminist in his thinking. But, his profound feminism has received surprisingly little attention. It deserves to be widely recognised as central to his humane and enlightened perspective because his feminism is both radical and inspiring.
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