Marx and Ambedkar Continuing the Dialogue

There are two important strains running through the book — one is to trace Ambedkar’s own views on Marxism and the second is to study interplay of concepts of caste and class. Marxism is essentially a European theory written in an atmosphere shorn off the complexities of the caste system and community ownership. “The historical context of Ambedkar in the 20th century is fundamentally different from that of Marx in the 19th century,” the authors write.

“Keeping in view the commonality and relevance of the Marxian and Ambedkarite ideologies, this book is an attempt to analyse the historical settings in which Marxian and Ambedkarite thoughts and ideologies emanated and were received; the position and role of caste and religion in the contextual setting and finally to study the class-caste equations and differences in the historical and modern contexts and to locate the class-caste interests in the recent phenomenon called identity politics.” Comrade D. Raja is the Secretary, National Council, Communist Party of India and Member of Rajya Sabha, Indian Parliament. He is one of the ideologues of the Communist Party of India and an intellectually grown up leader of the Party.

Dr. N. Muthu Mohan is a known Marxist in Tamilnadu and former Professor of Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He presently works on themes such as Third World Marxism and Reconstructing the relations between Marxism and Religion.