Caste is not just a sociological element meant to describe the nuanced stratification of Hindus into various categories. Within the power relationships, caste is also seen as an effective social capital, used by one group to dominate another, thereby producing justified reactions from the oppressed group. The bi-polarity of Hindu social order into the ?lower and upper? castes creates two distinct and conflicting sets, each having its own cultural and social values. However, the ideals represented by the Brahmanical elites were always considered as a ?great tradition? and the representative face of India, whereas assertions and resisting voices from the other groups were belittled as narrow gestures.
Gail Omvedt?s Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond situates the caste question in a historical perspective, showcasing the political prudence of the social movements in developing an alternative tradition of resistance. The author?s main objective in the book is to free the alternative tradition developed by the anti-caste movements from the hegemonic clutch of Hindu elite and provide it a separate and equal space in the history of ideas. The chronology of social movement, mainly from ?Buddha to Ambedkar,? is vast, which covers all the three epochs of civilisation. In the contemporary discourses on caste questions, the term ?Dalit? is located as the representative voice of the oppressed masses in this journey.
However, the author states the limitation of this popular term in representing the varied nature of caste struggle, which belongs to so many, including Buddha, Phule and Ramabai.
Omvedt presents an impressive chronological account of various traditions, which contested the inequalities persistent in Hindu religion and promoted concrete revolutionary values to replace them. The struggle against Hindu orthodoxy has a majoritarian appeal which includes the Dalits (against untouchability), Shudhra castes (question of social backwardness), women (for its patriarchal domination) and Dravidians (against the hegemonic rule of north India-centric Hindu culture). Omvedt locates the continuation of this conflict in the current political context also, and argues that the political Hindutva represents the official voice of traditional Brahmanism and movements like the Dalit Panthers and Bahujan Samaj Party follow the progressive legacy of anti-caste movement in India.
The author presents a crisp anthology of these oppositions and claim they form a ?great tradition? in a parallel way. There are very few books available that narrates the historical journey of anti-caste struggle from the perspective of the oppressed castes.
Omvedt categorically emphasises the importance of rewriting social history from a Dalit perspective. Therefore, its academic merit rests with its ideological orientation without really making a dent in the current scholarships on caste. This work should be treated as an introductory guide book to understanding the essential elements of anti-caste struggles in India. It tries to discuss most of the popular assertions, movements and leaders, who contributed immensely in making the ?Dalit vision? for a just society.
On the critical part, the book is very condensed, mostly with political judgments, without really going into the debates of the era. Further, in the section on BSP, the author only presents a factual narration of the political movement, but never explains what makes BSP a leading representative agency of caste struggle in India today?
To mention one typographical error, Gyan Pandey is spelled as Cyan Pandey (page no. 4). However, the book is a valuable piece for early students of caste politics, social history and religio-cultural movements.
?The writer teaches political science at Delhi University