Journal Article

Ambedkar, Gandhians and the Indian Village

Judge, Paramjit S

2021

Overview

M K Gandhi’s idea of the village was developed through his imagination of an ideal state that had an appeal from the masses and was also sought as the rightful response to the British colonial rule, whereas Ambedkar’s idea of the village was derived from his existential experience of living in Western countries as well as in Mumbai. [...]following Chandra (1992), it can be strongly believed that the binary opposition between modernity and tradition is normative and ideological when he writes, The dichotomy is projected back to explain and categorise even those actions, attitudes, beliefs and values that did not rest on, or stem from, such a polarity. [...]nationalism enabled a Dalit to be the chair of the Drafting Committee despite the fact that the Ambedkar– M K Gandhi relationship remained unfavourable after the Poona Pact in 1932. The existence of these village communities each one forming a separate little state in itself has according to Metcalfe contributed more than any other cause to the preservation of the people of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they have suffered, and is in a high degree conducive to their happiness and to the enjoyment of great portion of the freedom and independence.

• Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd
• Subject: Debates / Education / Imagination / International relations / Modernity / Nehru, Jawaharlal / Nonviolence / Postcolonialism / Social life & customs / Towns / Traditions / Violence