Dalit Visions [Paperback]

Omvedt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998 | Series: Tracts for the times

Dalit Visions explores and critiques the sensibility which equates Indian tradition with Hinduism, and Hinduism with Brahmanism; which considers the Vedas as the foundational texts of Indian culture and discovers within the Aryan heritage the essence of Indian civilisation. It shows that even secular minds remain imprisoned within this Brahmanical vision, and the language of secular discourse is often steeped in a Hindu ethos. The tract looks at alternative traditions, nurtured within dalit movements, which have questioned this way of looking at Indian society and its history. While seeking to understand the varied dalit visions that have sought to alter the terms of the dominant order, this tract persuades us to reconsider our ideas, listen to those voices which we often refuse to hear and understand the visions which seek to change the world in which dalits live.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gail Omvedt is a scholar-activist working with new social movements, especially women's groups and farmers' organizations. A Ph.D from the University of California, she has been a citizen of India since 1982. She has been actively involved in anti-caste campaigns since the 1970s. Her academic writings include several books and articles on class, caste and gender issues, most recenlty Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements in India (1993) and Dalits and the Democratic Revolution (1994). She is a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development and lives in Kasegaon in southern Maharashtra. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Orient Longman; 1 edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8125006362
• ISBN-13: 978-8125006367
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,388,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating History of the Turbulent 20th Century in Indian Identity, December 22, 2008

By 

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Lotus Eff... - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dalit Visions: The Anti-Caste Movement and the Construction of an Indian Identity, Rev. Edition, Pa (Paperback)

Unless you are an Indian historian, you are probably not expecting to find Lenin and Buddha mentioned in one sentence... or to have Hinduism and Buddhism contrasted in terms of social orthodoxy (former) and egalitarianism (latter)... or to read about Gahndi and the Aryan invasion theory of the Indian subcontinent on the same page... This is the book that would breach all of these expectations and give you a glimpse of the bewildering complexity of definining Hinduism. While somewhat cumbersome for an uninitiated, this tract's history-rich factual narrative is balanced with wonderful and often surprising exerpts of political poetry of the Indian dalit/proletarian movement. "Dalit Visions" is a dizzying overview of a turbulent, volatile, and, at times, violent political scene of the Indian politics spanning late 19th to late 20th century.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D.

author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, 2008)

www.eatingthemoment.com