EDUCATION, RESERVATION AND EMANCIPATION: ANTI-CASTE INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS IN MODERN INDIA

Paper Title

EDUCATION, RESERVATION AND EMANCIPATION: ANTI-CASTE INTELLECTUAL TRADITIONS IN MODERN INDIA

Abstract

This paper examines the central role of education, reservation, and emancipation in the intellectual traditions of anti-caste movements in modern India. While colonial modernity introduced Western education as a tool of governance, anti-caste thinkers from Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule to Periyar E.V. Ramasamy and B.R. Ambedkar reconceptualized education as an instrument of critical consciousness and liberation from caste slavery. The study traces how this emphasis on education evolved into a political demand for representation and reservation in legislatures, public employment, and educational institutions. Drawing on primary writings such as Phule’s Gulamgiri (1873), Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste (1936) and States and Minorities (1947), and Periyar’s editorials in Kudi Arasu, the paper argues that reservation was not envisioned as a welfare measure but as a mechanism for ensuring equal citizenship and dismantling monopolies over knowledge, power and capital. Through a historical-analytical approach, the research shows that anti-caste traditions linked emancipation not merely to social reform but to structural transformation — securing self-respect, rationalist thinking, and democratic participation. The paper concludes that the triad of education, reservation and emancipation remains a foundational framework for understanding social justice in contemporary India.
KEYWORDS : Anti-Caste Thought, Education and Emancipation, Reservation, Social Justice, Jyotirao Phule, B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar, Dalit Intellectual History, Modern India.