INSTUCEN Trust invites you to join a 3-day course titled “Educate, Agitate, Organize”, to be taught by Shri Aman Nawaz, Assistant Professor of English, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University.
Summary
Number of Sessions: 3
Dates: 28th to 30th June, 2023.
Timings: 7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Venue: Zoom
Fees: ₹750/-
Resource Person: Aman Nawaz, Assistant Professor of English, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University
About the sessions:
The course will focus on a study of selective writings of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar spanning over forty years, beginning with Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development to Buddha and His Dhamma. Ambedkar’s writings, as is well known, form an important part of his project for #Dalit emancipation, which brings together different facets of his career as an #anti-caste intellectual and an activist committed to “his” people. The lecture series is divided into three parts.
The first lecture discusses #Ambedkar as a student of #caste and later as an anti-caste activist who kept experimenting with different strategies for the #emancipation of the Dalits. It would discuss various forms of his activism, such as his negotiations with the colonial government for Dalit self-representation, his participation in various #Hindu #reform movements such as the #TempleEntry and #MahadSatyagraha, and his decision to leave the Hindu fold after the #PoonaPact debacle.
The second lecture would discuss Ambedkar’s counterfactual historical endeavours in order to “imagine” a past for the #Untouchables, giving the Dalit past a “language” of history. It would also discuss how his texts challenge the idea of a homogeneous Hindu India before the Islamic invasions and argue that there never existed a common Indian culture in ancient times. This would follow an interrogation of the history of ancient India and a critique of Indian historiography, as well as his attempt to trace the lineage of the Untouchables to #Buddhism as it comes across in his writings.
The final lecture discusses Ambedkar’s conversion to #Navayāna Buddhism and his “gospel” of Buddhism, The Buddha and His Dhamma, which stands as his “most complete exposition of an older tradition updated to suit the complex requirements of a modern, secular India,” in Gauri Vishwanathan’s words. The lecture would attempt to answer a few questions. Why did the same Ambedkar, who visualises a strong state as the protector of Dalits, convert to a different religion for emancipation? Why did the same Ambedkar who enshrines the Indian #Constitution with #secular and #democratic values convert to Buddhism? It would also discuss how his conversion to Buddhism makes a statement on the inefficiencies of the Indian #republican government and how Ambedkar considers #religion as a force that operates within the limits of the law by a reading of his 1956 magnum opus.
Registration Instructions:
1. Please register on the website at the following link https://instucen.org/user-account
2. After Registering and creating your login credentials. Log in and navigate to the Course page.
3. On the course page Click on Get Course and then Go to cart.
4. You can Apply a coupon, if applicable here. Review your order and proceed to checkout. Enter Billing Information.
5. Place an order and Pay on the Payment Gateway.
6. Course will now be available in your profile’s ‘Enrolled courses’ tab.
