Welcome to the Annihilation of Caste Multimedia Study Environment (MSE) which was produced by Frances Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages, Columbia University and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, with additional sponsorship and funding from the Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) was the first highly educated (Ph.D., Columbia University), politically prominent member of the ritually-polluted Hindu "Untouchable" castes. Dr. Ambedkar wrote the "Annihilation of Caste" for the 1936 meeting of a group of liberal Hindu caste-reformers in Lahore. After reviewing the speech, conference organizers revoked Ambedkar's invitation. He then self-published the work, which became an immediate classic. Gandhi wrote a refutation in his own newspaper. Ambedkar then answered Gandhi's refutation, and included the whole thing in appendices. The Multimedia Study Environment includes the Annihilation of Caste, edited for classroom use by Fran Pritchett; her explanatory annotations; and several other major texts by Ambedkar, including The Buddha and His Dhamma; Pakistan, or, the Partition of India; and the Indian Constitution.
The text source for this version of the Annihilation of Caste is reprinted from: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1. Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1979, pp. 25-96. Annihilation of Caste was first published in Bombay, 1936; 2nd ed. 1937; 3rd ed. 1944.
The text was edited for classroom use by Prof. Frances W. Pritchett, Columbia University. The prefaces and the Prologue have not been edited or annotated. Original spellings of proper names have been retained. All italics that emphasize English sentences are Dr. Ambedkar's, as are the occasional double exclamation points. Capitalization of English terms represents a systematization of Dr. Ambedkar's preferred usage (for example, "Caste" is a system but in it are "castes"). Editing has consisted of correcting typographical errors, improving punctuation for greater clarity, breaking up extremely long paragraphs, and in a few cases adjusting grammar to correspond to modern American usage. Section titles in square brackets have been supplied by the editor. Two starred notes in Appendix II have been incorporated into the text itself. The original text is available on this site for anyone who wants to check anything in it. The annotations that accompany the text are intended to represent Dr. Ambedkar's views, and the kinds of information available to him, when he wrote the "Annihilation of Caste."
We have made strenuous efforts to locate the rights holder for images and text excerpts. If you feel that copyright has been attributed wrongly or that you are the copyright holder for a particular element, please send feedback.
Faculty Partner & Editor:
Frances Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages,
department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures
Project Manager:
Daniel Beeby
Web Design:
Marc Raymond, Lead
Zarina Mustapha
Assistant Editor & Researcher:
Snigdha Koirala
Quality Assurance:
Brian O'Hagan
Production Director:
Ted Bongiovanni
Executive Producers:
Frank Moretti
Maurice Matiz
Copyright © The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York 2004