Scott R. Stroud delivered a lecture on ‘Ambedkar, Dewey and the Evolution of Pragmatism in India’. It was chaired by Nishikant Kolge.
Most know that Bhimrao Ambedkar thought highly of his former teacher, John Dewey, but do not know the specifics of their relationship. In this talk, the speaker discusses some of the main themes in his recently published book, The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: An Intellectual Biography of B.R. Ambedkar. It will detail Ambedkar’s voracious reading of many of Dewey’s works long after the young reformer left New York and his appropriation of Deweyan concepts and methods to forge a new vision of pragmatism. His Navayana pragmatism represents an approach that centers social democracy, the dignity of human personality, and the need to relieve oppression while creating the conditions for fraternity.
Scott R. Stroud is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes on various topics in ethics, rhetoric, and philosophy and is the author of books, John Dewey and the Artful Life and Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric. He is the co-founder of the first “Center for John Dewey Studies” in India at Savitribai Phule Pune University. His recent book, The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: An Intellectual Biography of B.R. Ambedkar (2023) is the most comprehensive account to date of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s encounter with Deweyan pragmatism at Columbia University during 1913-1916 and the ways it shaped his innovative pursuit of social justice in India.
Prathama Banerjee is Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Thursday, 20 April 2023, 4.30 pm, Seminar Room and Zoom http://bit.ly/3o17Eix
