Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served as Law and Justice minister in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru, and inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement after renouncing Hinduism.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (BAMU), formerly Marathwada University, is located in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It is named after B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian jurist and politian. The university was established on 23 August 1958. Since its inception, the university has around 456 colleges affiliated to it in four districts of Maharashtra State.
Arun Krushnaji Kamble was an Indian Marathi language writer, professor, Politician, and Dalit activist. Arun Kamble, President and one of the founding members of Dalit Panthers of India, worked as a Head of Marathi department at University of Mumbai. He was the National General Secretary of Janata Dal. He took many major decisions in favour of Dalit, Backward Class and Minorities.
Namantar Andolan was a Dalit and Navayana Buddhist movement to change the name of Marathwada University, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University. It achieved a measure of success in 1994, when the compromise name of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University was accepted. The movement was notable for the violence against Dalits and Navayana Buddhists.
Narendra Damodar Jadhav is an Indian economist, educationist, public policy expert, professor and writer in English, Marathi and Hindi.
Subhash C. Kashyap is a former secretary-general of 7th Lok Sabha, 8th Lok Sabha and 9th Lok Sabha and Lok Sabha Secretariat from 1984 to 1990. He is also a well known political scientist, an expert in the Indian Constitution, Constitutional Law, Parliamentary Experts and a distinguished scholar. He also headed an International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation, IPU at Geneva till 1983. Kashyap was honorary constitutional advisor to the Government of India on Panchayati Raj Laws and Institutions. He is also recipient of several prestigious awards for the Best Books in Constitution, Law and Political Science. At present Dr. Kashyap is an honorary research professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi. He was also a member of the National Commission to Review the Working of Constitution and chairman of its drafting and editorial committee.
The Ambedkar cartoon is an issue that rocked the Parliament of India on 11 May 2012. Both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were adjourned on that day due to the ruckus created by the opposing parties. The issue was taken up by Thirumavalavan, an MP from the state of Tamil Nadu. He put the issue to parliament, but was at first denied permission to speak about it. He then showed a copy of the controversial cartoon that allegedly insulted the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution of India, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
The Namantar Shahid Smarak is a large memorial sculpture dedicated to those who died in the Namantar Andolan. In 2013, 19 years after the movement's success, the city government of Nagpur erected the monument in memory of the valour and the sacrifice of the Dalit martyrs. The memorial was built by contractor Sunil Sharma on 2,225 m2 of land at a cost of ₹1.58 crore.
Dalit studies is a new field of research in India which looks at the problem of marginalised groups, namely Dalits, tribals, religious minorities, women from excluded groups, denotified tribes, physically challenged and similar groups in economic, social and political spheres. Dalit studies scholars also undertake research on the nature and forms of discrimination and social exclusion faced by marginalised groups.
Madhav Sadashiv Gore (1921–2010) was an Indian social scientist, writer, academic and the chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. He was the Director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), the vice-chancellor of the University of Mumbai and a recipient of the Life Time Achievement Award of Indian Sociological Society.
Valerian Rodrigues is an Indian political scientist. He is known for his influential work on Babasaheb Ambedkar, and for his formulations of themes in Modern Indian Political Thought. Rodrigues has made substantial contributions to the debate on the working of the Indian Parliament, constitutionalism in India, and agrarian politics in India. As a Professor at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, he was popular for his lectures on Indian Political Thought and Intellectual History, and critically reading the same through political concepts of modernity, secularism and nationalism. Before joining JNU, Rodrigues taught at the Department of Political Science at Mangalore University, Karnataka, India.
Nandu Ram is an Indian sociologist and retired professor. He is the former dean of school of social sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and was one of the founding professors of the Dr. Ambedkar Chair in Sociology at JNU.
Dr Savita Bhimrao Ambedkar, was an Indian social activist, doctor and the second wife of B.R. Ambedkar. Ambedkarites and Buddhists refer to her as Mai or Maisaheb, which means 'Mother' or ‘Respected Mother’ in the Marathi language.
Vasantrao Naik Mahavidyalaya, Aurangabad, is an undergraduate and postgraduate, coeducational college situated in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. It was established in the year 1972. The college is affiliated with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University.
Gangadhar Vithoba Pantawane was an Indian Marathi language writer, reviewer and Ambedkarite thinker from the state of Maharashtra. He was the follower of B. R. Ambedkar, polymath and the father of the Indian Constitution. He is one of the pioneers of the dalit literary movement in Maharashtra. In 2008, he was elected president of the first Marathi Vishwa Sahitya Sammelan that was held in the United States. His pioneering journal, Asmitadarsh, galvanised generations of Dalit writers and thinkers. In 2018, he was honored with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Ambedkarism is the name given to the teaching, ideology or philosophy of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian economist, barrister, social reformer, and the first of Minister of Law and Justice in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. Ambedkarism includes special focus on subjects such as fraternity, democracy, communal electorates, conversion out of Hinduism, political power, rule of law, Navayana, among others. An Ambedkarite is one who follows the philosophy of Ambedkar. Prominent followers of Ambedkarite ideology include Periyar and Jyotirao Phule among others.
Amita Singh is an Indian political scientist, currently serving as a professor of law and governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University, in Delhi, India. She is also a member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and has published widely on public administration in India. Singh has been criticized for controversial statements made regarding Dalits, Muslims, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Gopal Guru is an Indian political scientist. He is the editor of the journal Economic and Political Weekly. He is a retired professor in political science at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was a visiting professor at Columbia University, Oxford University and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Earlier, he taught at the University of Delhi and the University of Pune.
Wandana Sonalkar is an Indian economist, and an author and translator. She retired as Professor teaches at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in 2017, and previously taught at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. Her research focuses on gender and caste in India. She has published translations of several books from Marathi to English, including the autobiographies of Urmila Pawar and R.B. More, and in 2021, she published Why I am Not a Hindu Woman, an autobiography and critique of misogyny, caste and violence in the context of the Hindu religion.
