(From A Part Apart The Life and Thought of BR Ambedkar by Ashok Gopal) The first edition cover of Annihilation of Caste which Ambedkar self-pubished on. The subtitle of the booklet read, “Speech prepared by Dr BR Ambedkar for the 1936 annual conference of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal of Lahore but NOT DELIVERED owning to the cancellation of the conference by the reception committee on the ground that the views expressed in the speech would be unbearable to the conference” (36). He then arranged for the distribution of Annihilation, “to let the public know and also to dispose of the printed copies” (28). Ambedkar refused to oblige, asked them to cancel the session of the conference that was to be addressed by him (35). The Mandal wanted two passages to be removed: on the need to destroy the Hindu religion and Ambedkar’s intention to “walk out of the fold of the Hindus” (BAWS 1: 31). After the Mandal received Ambedkar’s text, there was a flurry of correspondence. As he said in one of his letters to the Mandal, their queries were partly responsible for Annihilation (BAWS 1: 33). The Mandal had earlier sent him a list of questions faced by it often in its anti-caste crusade, and Ambedkar dealt with these in his text.
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