ENGLISH

Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anticaste Intellectuals

By Gail Omvedt

Book information

Publisher
Navayana
Year
2008
ISBN
8189059459, 9788189059453
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
15 MB (15779969 bytes)
Edition
Paperback
Pages
304\304
Topic
History
Time added
2019-02-04 13:19:41

Description

The bhakti radical Ravidas (c 1450–1520), calling himself a ‘tanner now set free’, was the first to envision an Indian utopia in his song “Begumpura”—a modern casteless, classless, tax-free city without sorrow. This was in contrast to the dystopia of the brahmanical kaliyuga. Anticaste intellectuals in India posited utopias much before Thomas More, in 1516, articulated a Renaissance humanist version. Gail Omvedt, in this study, focuses on the worldviews of subaltern visionaries spanning five centuries—Chokhamela, Janabai, Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram, the Kartabhajas, Phule, Iyothee Thass, Pandita Ramabai, Periyar and Ambedkar. She charts the development of their utopian visions and the socioeconomic characteristics of the societies conceived through this long period.

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