Phules, Ambedkar and Du Bois: For a just world without caste or race
Manipulation of truth continues to incite division, violence, and oppression. As ever, the voices of Phule, Du Bois and Ambedkar ring true. Their intellectual arguments, political positioning, activism, bold and uncompromising stand on securing human rights for all people remain relevant for the transformation of societies everywhere, writes P. Dayanandan
Casteism in India and racism in the USA are a disgrace to human dignity and impediment to progress. Both are products of twisted minds justifying every form of oppression and violence to seek and sustain power and wealth. Great men and women of vision and compassion fought against such prejudice, empowered the weak, and showed humanity a path of hope. Two such anti-caste icons of India, Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar, appreciated the struggles of antiracism leaders of America. Ambedkar corresponded with W.E.B. Du Bois. How their attitudes and work r
The Setting
Sunday, January 23, 1921. It was a good day to watch a fight. An audience of thirty-five hundred packed the Lexington Theater in midtown Manhattan. What was the fare for the afternoon? A boxing match? A wrestling bout? A martial arts exhibition? No, this was something else. This was an intellectual battle, a three-round debate between two economics professors on the resolution “That capitalism has more to offer to the workers of the United States than has socialism.”
Arguing the affirmative was an establishment figure, Edwin R.A. Seligman, a scion of a wealthy New York banking family and chairman of Columbia’s economics department.