Considered as a definitive work on Dalit movement and its cultural, social and political implications, DR Nagaraj’s revised edition of The Flaming Feet and Other Essays was launched by noted intellectuals in the city on Sunday.
In an august presence of writers and scholars, eminent writer and historian Ramachandra Guha said that the book had changed the way he looked at life. “Of the four books that have exerted great influence upon, The Flaming Feet is one amongst them,” he said.
Described by Ashis Nandy, a renowned social theorist, as the foremost non-Brahmin intellectual to emerge from India’s vast non-English speaking world, DR Nagaraj (1954-1998) was a profound political commentator and cultural critic.
“DR Nagaraj was a contemporary and modern intellectual. He was immensely knowledgeable and possessed proficiency in European and other western philosophies,” said Prof. UR Ananthamurthy, who was a mentor to Nagaraj.
The book was launched by prominent personalities, including Jnanapith awardee Prof. UR Ananthamurthy, leading social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan, historian Ramachandra Guha, Prof. Manu Chakravarthy among others.
Edited and compiled by Prof. Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi of San Francisco State University and published by Permanent Black, this book gives us Nagaraj’s vision of caste in relation to Dalit politics. It theorises the caste system as a mosaic of contestations centred around dignity, religiosity, and entitlement.
Examining moments of untouchable defiance, Nagaraj ardently attempts at redefining Dalit identity. More significantly, he argues against self pity and rage in artistic imagination and for re-creating the banished worlds of gods and goddesses.
The book launch was followed by a panel discussion on the theme that the book is based on.
“Once when I was speaking to Nagaraj on Dalit issue and Gandhiji’s role, he said that Gandhi had deprived Dalits of an important social tool-hate,” remembered Shiv Vishwanathan, who declared, on a lighter note, that Nagaraj and himself were rivals.
Other speakers were Prof. Raghurama Raju, Prof. VS Sridhar and Prof. Chandan Gowda.
Nagaraj attempted at mediating, through his observatory work in The Flaming Feet, the binary opposition that Gandhiji and Ambedkar posed each other.
“He addressed Mahatma Gandhi with the suffix ji and Ambedkar with the prefix Baba Saheb, thereby attempting to create a dialogue in a fashion unusual for a scholar,” observed Ramachandra Guha.
Revered as a leading reference archive on Dalit studies, The Flaming Feet first came out in 1993. Priced at Rs 595, the new edition is radically enriched and has unpublished articles, essays and lectures by Nagaraj.
“For those looking for great cultural encounters through individual encounters, The Flaming Feet is the ultimate resource,” said Prof. Manu Chakravarthy.
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