Modernization and Dalit Education: Ambedkar's Vision

Modernization in India was initiated by Britain's East India Company through its educational policy. When the British left India, there were three modernist education projects in operation. A man by the name of Baba Saheb Ambedkar also developed his own vision of an education movement for the people of India. Ambedkar asserted that British education did not help Dalits, a marginalized group in Indian society. Modernization and Dalit Education is devoted to the major contributions of Ambedkar in education, the theory of Dalit development, and the need for industrialization. The natural corollary of modernization in India includes, according to Ambedkar, the translation of democratic values not only in social life but in economic life too, through the promotion of the public sector. The book also examines Ambedkar's ideas about the contemporary educational problems of Dalits, such as the equality of opportunity in education, the empowerment of Dalits through education, and the marginalization of Dalits in emerging areas of study in higher education. It concludes with a retort that development in general, and the emancipation of Dalits in particular, is possible only through parliamentary democracy.