📚 Southasia Review of Books - July 2023
The Southasia Review of Books is a monthly newsletter that threads together our latest reviews and literary essays, curated reading suggestions on all things books-related from Himal’s extensive archive, as well as interviews with select writers and their reading recommendations.
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Hello reader
Welcome to another edition of the Southasia Review of Books!
This month, Gautam Bhatia’s essay introduces us to the extraordinary recent burst of anglophone speculative fiction from Sri Lanka, looking at the works of Vajra Chandrasekera and Yudhanjaya Wijeratne in conversation with each other and other contemporary SF writers. At its best, Bhatia writes, Sri Lankan SF celebrates the hybridity of the post-colony, taking the legacy of Arthur C Clarke or Iain M Banks, arguing with and against it, and weaving it into context.
If decades of state intervention and labour-friendly legislation made Sri Lanka’s relative success in the garments industry possible, what are the lessons for us today? Dina M Siddiqi considers the question in her review of Kanchana N Ruwanpura’s Garments without Guilt?. The book sheds light on the labour ethics and narratives associated with exceptionalism in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka, a country that has largely escaped the stigma associated with apparel production in the rest of the Global South. Siddiqi notes that while centring the voice and agency of labour, the book also brings our attention back to the “forgotten” labour histories of the Sri Lankan garments industry over the decades.
Harish S Wankhede takes a deep look at how six books on Ambedkar examine his life and thought with sincere reverence as well as honest critique.
Wankhede places the new publications in three groups. The first is of three authoritative biographies – one each by the historian Ashok Gopal, the philosopher Aakash Singh Rathore and the Indian National Congress politician Shashi Tharoor – that present a chronological account of key personal and historical events in Ambedkar’s life. In the second group, the philosopher Scott R Stroud and the scholars Christophe Jaffrelot, William Gould and Santosh Dass’s books examine Ambedkar’s philosophical grooming in the West and how certain foreign locations, universities and Western scholars shaped Ambedkar’s ideological approach and motivated his political actions. Finally, a translation of the memoir of Savita Ambedkar, a social activist and Ambedkar’s second wife, narrates the political troubles and emotional concerns that affected Ambedkar’s last ten years.
Wankhede notes that while new anglophone publications on Ambedkar curate details of his life for a global audience, they also push him away from the “vernacular” Dalit-Bahujan minds that both admire him as a philosopher and derive inspiration from his legend. While exploring this gulf, Wankhede writes, it would also have been fruitful if the authors had reflected on applying these new perspectives to strengthen the battles against the social injustices and caste-based inequalities in India today.
Take a look below for a special interview with Harish S Wankhede, plus his recommendations for further reading.
Interview with Harish S Wankhede on who gets to write about Ambedkar
Shwetha Srikanthan: What were some of the gaps that you found in the new writings on Ambedkar’s life and thought, and what are some important aspects covered in these books that were not addressed previously?
Harish S Wankhede: A good text on the pre-Ambedkar Dalit movement could have provided a sound historical background and context to understand Ambedkar. This part is missing. Second, in the accounts that reflect on Ambedkar’s personal life, we do not get to read much about his role as a parent to his children and the relationship he had with his kith and kin. Third, the journalistic writings of Ambedkar are not been identified as an important source to understand his ideological or philosophical orientation. His writings in the four newspapers that he started offers a wonderful glimpse into Ambedkar’s thoughts on contemporary times. Finally, we get to know very little about Ambedkar’s many aids and support groups (including the non-Dalits) that contributed significantly to building anti-caste movements and strengthening Ambedkar’s socio-political struggles.
In Ashok Gopal’s book, the section on Buddhism is exciting. Similarly, in the volume edited by Christophe Jaffrelot and William Gould, the second section that deals with the Dalit diaspora and its current activism in London is an excellent contribution. Similarly, Aakash Singh Rathore’s chapters on Mahad-tank Movement and its fallout were very well-documented. Scott R Stroud’s work is special because he wanted to engage Ambedkar as the thinker of Pragmatism and thus invented a new stream of analysis to understand Ambedkar’s thoughts.
Shwetha Srikanthan: In the review, you write that among the new biographies, none are authored by a Dalit intellectual. Could you tell us more about how Dalit scholarship is marginalised?
Harish S Wankhede: This is an old debate. The professor Gopal Guru has written a wonderful analytical piece on this in the Economic and Political Weekly showcasing the marginalisation of Dalit-Bahujan academic class mainly as the section that is often relegated to the “empirical” domain, while the possibility to theorise the social and political phenomenon rests with the social elites. Caste, Dalits, and related issues have emerged as popular subjects of research in national and international universities and attract a big readership. However, the mainstream publications on these themes are often dominated by the social elite contributors, allowing the Dalit-Bahujan mass only to reflect on it as reviewers. However, Dalit-Bahujan writings on the same themes have not been acknowledged widely and we hardly find deep intellectual engagement by the social elite academicians with it.
This can be further substantiated by scrutinising the publications on Ambedkar from reputed international presses. The Dalit-Bahujan intelligentsia has been contributing much on various fronts, however, none are approached to write on Ambedkar. Interestingly Marathi (and possibly in many other Indian languages too) writers like Shankarrao Kharat, Vijay Mankar and Dhanraj Dahat have contributed much to understanding Ambedkar and his thoughts, but none found a good international publisher.
Shwetha Srikanthan: Could you give us some examples of the alternative streams of writing on Ambedkar?
Harish S Wankhede: We do not have much information on this part. However, writings by Ambedkar’s close associates like Nanak Chand Rattu, Khairmode, Dadasaheb Gaikwad and even Savita Ambedkar’s memoirs are important documents. Because these people were close to Ambedkar in their everyday chores, attended various socio-political events and registered the ongoing processes as an authentic resource, their reflection on Ambedkar’s personality showcases the flaws and nuances in his personality as well.
Shwetha Srikanthan: In his final years, Ambedkar worked on several books, a selection of which were eventually published as The Buddha and His Dhamma, Buddha or Karl Marx, Who Were the Shudras?, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India and Riddles in Hinduism. Could you tell us about these works?
Harish S Wankhede: Ambedkar’s intellectual vibrancy is unparallel. The last decade of his life is extraordinary as he was engaged with multiple social and political responsibilities and was more eager to engage with newer ideas and political processes. This reflects in his various unfinished works. He observed that the forces of socialism and left-wing ideologies are dominating the global scenario and therefore he desired a lot to write extensively on this phenomenon. Similarly on Buddhism and other religious doctrines he wanted to contribute authoritative texts, The Buddha and His Dhamma and Buddha or Karl Marx emerged as the texts that reflect upon the need for religion in modern times.
Importantly, he probably sensed that the Hindu social order and its cultural tentacles will resist the modern development of the state and the reforms in society and therefore wanted to emphasise more on India’s cultural aspects. He developed sincere Indological tools to critically reflect upon the issues of Indian history, the durability of Hinduism and the possibility of a better human society. The Buddha and his Dhamma in this case were a deeper reflection on the problems of coercive religious order, the need for an ethical social order and how the modern citizens shall look upon religion as a necessary supplement that would make them a better human.
Ambedkar visualised the grand importance of the modern state in transforming the lives of marginalised social groups however he acknowledged that the social and cultural roots are overtly based on caste inequalities and are difficult to be challenged by the rhetoric of constitutional democracy. He applied a cultural tool, evoking Buddhism as an alternative to challenge the existing religious order. Buddhism will supplement the modern virtues of liberty, equality and fraternity and also quenches the quest to have spiritual and religious solace.
Harish S Wankhede's reading recommendations for notable works on Ambedkar's life and thought
Harish S Wankhede: In recent times, Aakash Singh Rathore has contributed much on Ambedkar (five edited volumes on Ambedkar’s thoughts, later Ambedkar’s Preamble: A Secret History of the Constitution of India and now the two-volume biography) and has emerged as a sincere authority on Ambedkar’s texts and his philosophical journey.
To understand the Dalit-Bahujan perspectives, the earlier mentioned Marathi sources can be a good start, especially the writings of the scholar Raosaheb Kasbe. Similarly, there are similar authentic and influential writings in other languages especially in Hindi and Tamil too, but I have little knowledge about these texts.
The political scientist Valerian Rodrigues published a long introduction to appraise The Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar, providing a rich historical background and orientation of philosophical debates under which Ambedkar shall be examined. This is a wonderful text for students and young scholars.
Similarly, Gopal Guru’s writings on modernity, political movement and philosophy provide a rich analytical tool to understand Ambedkar and his thoughts on social justice. Also, the economist and writer Sukhadeo Thorat’s writings help us to examine Ambedkar’s contribution in economics, on the reservation and affirmative action policies and the need to improvise them in the current contexts. Other writers including Narendra Jadhav, Vivek Kumar, Rajshekhar Undroo and Christophe Jaffrelot have contributed significant academic texts that elevate the stature of Ambedkar beyond the Dalit compartment, making him a global icon.
The left perspective too offered deep intellectual vibrancy in understanding Ambedkar, especially the writer W N Kuber’s biography Ambedkar, a Critical Study provides an early entry on this theme. The recent volume The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections by Suraj Yengde and Anand Teltumbde provides a rich collection of articles that places Ambedkar in international contexts.
This month in Southasian publishing
Here at Himal’s editing desk, a few new releases especially caught our eye this month. The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother’s Memoir by Manish Gaekwad tells the story of Rekhabai, born in Pune and sold and trained as a tawaif while she was still a child. This memoir, written by her son, chronicles her life as a courtesan who defied societal norms in 1980s Calcutta and Bombay. “I was invested in her story because of its remarkable journey – of a woman who was sold, exploited, and yet survived and lived on her own terms,” Gaekwad says. In the book, “she narrates her turbulent life just as she always wanted to. Me being her son is incidental to her brilliant story – she deserves to be heard, read, and rejoiced by all.”’
This made us revisit Kunal Purohit’s review essay in the Himal archives on Saba Dewan’s Tawaifnama, documenting the forgotten history of courtesans and their role as early feminist figures in northern India.
Another title that caught our attention is Mauli, a 1993 novel by the late Badrinarayan Pradhan (best known for his Nepali translation of Maxim Gorky’s Mother) translated from the original Nepali by Anmole Prasad. The book follows the story of Malati Ghimeray, traversing 1940s India still under the British Raj and the upheavals of 1950s Nepal, with the undercurrent of a growing Communist movement on both sides of the border.
Mauli, published by Rachna Books, comes as part of a growing number of translations of Nepali-language fiction, and adds to important conversations on national and transcultural identity, ethnicity and feminism in the region.
Among the new translations of Nepali-language novels are Fruits of the Barren Tree by Lekhnath Chhetri, translated by Anurag Basnet (April 2023), and Song of the Soil by Chuden Kabimo, translated by Ajit Baral (January 2022), both set amid the Gorkhaland movement in the eastern Himalaya. These writers from different backgrounds are looking at the agitation from different perspectives, and we hope to explore these texts in a forthcoming review.
July also marks the publication of Amitav Ghosh’s latest book, Smoke and Ashes. Drawing on decades of research and travel for his renowned Ibis trilogy, this travelogue and memoir charts hidden histories of the opium trade across India, China, Britain and the United States. In an interview with Firstpost, Ghosh notes that the recent events in Manipur are an example of how pre-existing tensions in the region are exacerbated by opium, as the centres of Myanmar’s opium production are moving closer to the borders of the Indian Northeast: “This is a role that opium has often played in the past: it has a kind of multiplier effect in heightening social and political tensions.” We’re aiming at a review in the near future looking closely at this book as well.
Until next time, happy reading!
Shwetha Srikanthan
Assistant Editor, Himal Southasian