Critical Caste Studies And Civic Education: Perspectives On Ambedkar’s Social Justice

Abstract

Rather than looking at the growth and advancement of humans, the foundations of Indian education and its philosophy have been examined through the prism of caste. In pre-independent and early post-independent India, communities living under dominant and resistance regimes shaped the educational landscape. Dwijas controlled education in the early stages by imparting knowledge derived from sacred scriptures. The Bhumiputras, or sons of the earth, posed a challenge to the Varnashrama for Dwijas, the prevalent and biased method of knowledge acquisition. Historically, the Charvakas/Lokayatas and Buddhist schools of thought have given rise to the Bhumiputra, a new alternative education system founded on egalitarian and materialist philosophy. Education was subject to dominance and resistance in the shape of mixed secular and feudal praxis following the arrival of Muslim authority in mediaeval India. How specifically did the Dalit’s educational chances get expanded by colonial modernity along the lines of secular and nation-state formations? The caste-class concepts of nationalism and secularism persisted, as did the reinforcement of domination in educational opportunities. Social reformation, anti-caste protests, and self-respect campaigns in the direction of social fairness and equitable educational opportunities were the forms of opposition that first appeared. More specifically, it aims to understand and depict Adi-Andhra, the collective autonomous category of Dalits. Within this framework, this paper’s primary goal is to identify different educational streams that were effective at different scales as well as the contradictions that arose in the process of Dalit identity and cultural formation in Deccan Nizam’s Hyderabad State and Colonial Coastal Andhra between 1906 and 1956.