ABSTRACT
This chapter is a brief auto-ethnographic journey to reconstitute the researcher’s self vis à vis the Ambedkarite project. It is an attempt to relocate the hopes, fears, challenges and sufferings within the entire gambit of ‘Ambedkarism’, an ongoing struggle to interrogate the exclusionary practices in Indian society and transform the structures of exploitation in order to create an alternative ideology. Based on personal narratives, the everyday engagements of interrogating a caste-infested society, the chapter investigates the private and public visage of brahminical mentalities. The methodological framework revolves around certain signposts like the village caste conflicts, Ambedkar centenary celebrations and social justice agitations, as well as magazines like Hethuvadam (Atheism), Nalupu (The Black), Kula Nirmulana (Annihilation of Caste) and Dalita Rajyam (Dalit State). Many visionary individuals also facilitated the understanding of Ambedkarism. The experiences of different organizations like the Dalit Mahasabha, Ambedkar Yuvajana Sangham and Ambedkar Students Association in Hyderabad Central University; Enlightened Teachers Front and Youth for Social Justice in Delhi University and United Dalit Students Forum and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association in Jawaharlal Nehru University also played a major role in contouring the Ambedkarite project.
