Centre for Ambedkar Studies

About the Centre

The “Centre for Ambedkar Studies” was established in April 2010 with the approval of the University Executive Council under the School of Social Sciences. The Centre intends to explore the multiple dimensions of Ambedkar’s thought in-depth and give it its legitimate place within the academic curriculum of social and human sciences. The Centre will archive documentation on subaltern thinkers: Buddha, Bhakti Movement, Phule, Periyar, Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, and Iyothe Thass. More importantly, the methodological/theoretical orientation of the Centre is to have an interdisciplinary approach to study Ambedkar’s thought and explore the specific historical, economic, social and political contexts in which his thought has been articulated. The Ambedkar Studies also focuses on the influences of Ambedkar’s thought on the economic, political and socio-cultural life of the various sections of the Indian society, specifically the Women, Minorities, Tribes and Dalits.
Further, the Centre would like to critically weigh the post-colonial Indian state and its policies on poverty, rural development, empowerment, violence against the subalterns from Ambedkar’s perspective. The Centre’s central objective is to have an interdisciplinary approach to study Ambedkar’s thoughts by involving the major departments of Social Sciences: Anthropology, History, Economics, Sociology, Political Science and human sciences: Philosophy and Literature.

The main objectives of the Centre are:

• To analyse the historical precedence of pre-modern and modern social thought, and its influence on Ambedkar’s ideas.
  To study Ambedkar’s constitutional and legal thought.
• To study the economic thought of Ambedkar in totality, which includes ideas on welfare economics, planning, agriculture, industrial development and development economics.
• To study the post-Ambedkar consequences of Ambedkarite thinking in various parts of the country.
• To study and promote philosophical and political dimensions of Ambedkar’s thought within the larger scheme of Indian nativity in both English and Vernacular languages.

The above objectives will be sought with the help of a core group of faculty, researchers, and other constituent departments’ extended support.

The Centre offers the following interdisciplinary courses for III^rd and IV^thsemester students of Masters degree:

Introduction to Ambedkar’s Thought

Ambedkar’s Anthropology of Indian Society