Understanding Ambedkar with Dr. Shashi Tharoor

Learn about the grit, brilliance and blind spots of Dr. Ambedkar

It takes grit and discipline to write a book every year, run elections, fulfil the duties of your day job, manage trolls and still maintain a positive outlook towards life. That is precisely what Dr. Shashi Tharoor has been doing throughout his political career.

We hosted him to discuss his latest book on Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and asked him the following questions:

1. How and why did you start working on this book?

2. Is not knowing about your caste a form of privilege?

3. Non-brahmin solidarity was a key part of Ambedkar’s career. Please comment along with references to his early career

4. Tell us a bit about his financial struggles

5. Gramsci, Ambedkar, Marxism – connect the dots

6. When did Ambedkar start thinking that Congress does not have room for them?

7. Gandhi and Ambedkar had a complex relationship. What were their fundamental differences socially and economically?

8. Did it shape the way Ambedkar saw the British Raj?

9. Tell us a bit about the significance of Poona pact on Ambedkar and Dalits at large

10. Was Ambedkar an early feminist?

11. Tell us a bit about Ambedkar’s political career. Was he good at building alliances?

12. How did the Hindu Code Bill shape?

13. Has history been unkind to Ambedkar?

14. What were some of Ambedkar’s blind spots?

15. Ambedkar in 2022 – influence on politics, culture and economics?