The book discusses Dr Ambedkar`s philosophical intervention on power for reclaiming human dignity and locates its significance for making a constructive contribution to the existing theories and concepts of power.
Dr B R Ambedkar proposed a rational-legal approach to usher in a balance of power among political institutions under the framework of political democracy through checks and balances - constitutionalising the state structure. However, he was not satisfied with this formal mechanism for ensuring a check on the excesses of power. What he believed in was to usher in the balance of power among the social groups at the societal level to the formal distribution of power under political democracy. For him, this formal balance of power under political democracy would not be effective without the balance of power in the society - constitutionalising the social framework. The book explores the conceptual and philosophical moorings of the relationship between the consolidation of social democracy as propounded by Dr Ambedkar and the democratisation of political power and its deployment for human progress.
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ISBN-13
978-93-5640-983-5 (9789356409835)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Dhananjay Soindaji is a civil servant of the 2008 batch belonging to the Indian Revenue Service. He is an alumnus of RTM Nagpur University, IIT Delhi and the University of Chicago. He has been a faculty at the National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur, India. He is the author of Inheritance, Hierarchy, and Caste: Origins of Political Decay in India (2022). The author has been a regular guest faculty of Comparative Politics, Political Thought and Political Sociology at undergraduate and graduate schools. In addition to his academic pursuits and administrative commitments, he has been regularly involved in community service and development activities, particularly in the area of education.
Autor*in
Additional Commissioner, Department of Revenue, Government of India
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Professor Scott Stroud
Introduction: Reclaiming Power Track -The Ambedkar Way
PART I: POWER AND ITS PROBLEM
1. The Problem of Power - A Humanist Investigation
2. History as Struggle for Power - Revolution and Counter-Revolution
3. Social Order and Power - Beyond Visible Decisions
4. Subtlety of Power - Social Conscience and Power Relations
PART II: POWER AND ITS HUMANIST PURPOSE
5. Constitutionalising Power - Humanist Interventions To The Constitutional Reforms in India
6. Reclamation of Human Dignity - Reason, Religion, Morality and Power
7. Necessity of State Power - Democratic State, Constitutional Morality and Social Transformation
8. Democratising Power - Fraternity, Political Representation and the Minorities
9. Who Should Rule - People`s Power and Democratic Politics
Conclusion: Humanist Approach to Power - Challenges and Imperatives
References
Index
About the author
