October 14, 2009. The Annihilation of Caste —the CCNMTL-developed multimedia study environment (MSE) that provides digital text of the undelivered 1936 speech by Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar alongside annotations and educational resources—is featured in the new online exhibit, "Caste, Ambedkar, and Contemporary India." The exhibit was curated by Bindu Bhatt, South and Southeast Asian studies librarian, and complements the upcoming conference "Caste and Contemporary India" held this week in honor of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, chief architect of the Indian constitution and Columbia alumnus.

The MSE was developed in partnership with Frances Pritchett, professor of modern Indic languages at Columbia University, and includes digital text of The Annihilation of Caste, over 100 explanatory annotations, a historical timeline of Dr. Ambedkar’s life, and several other major texts by Dr. Ambedkar. The publicly-accessible site was partially funded by the Southern Asian Institute and released in 2004 for use in the undergraduate course, Introduction to Indian Civilization.

Visit the Caste, Ambedkar, and Contemporary India online exhibit to access the MSE in addition to a selection of resources from the South Asian Studies Collections at Columbia University Libraries and other online materials that explore issues of caste through the lens of gender, politics, art, constitutional history, and religion in contemporary India.