The Evolution of Pragmatism in India

The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: An Intellectual Biography of B.R. Ambedkar

By Scott R. Stroud | HarperCollins India

₹749

Few people know that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar studied directly under the American philosopher John Dewey at Columbia University between 1913 and 1916 — an experience that shaped his intellectual life for decades to come. In this rigorously researched biography, communication scholar Scott R. Stroud traces how Ambedkar absorbed, reworked, and ultimately pushed back against Dewey's pragmatism, adapting it into a philosophy suited to India's specific struggle against caste oppression. Stroud follows this thread from Ambedkar's Columbia classrooms through his final years in the 1950s, when he reconstructed the story of Buddhism itself — showing how pragmatist ideas of reconstruction and meliorism shaped both Ambedkar's political thought and his persuasive rhetoric.

Why You'll Love This Edition

• Uncovers Ambedkar's formative years under philosopher John Dewey at Columbia

• Traces the direct link between American pragmatism and Ambedkar's fight against caste

• Praised as "a magnificent study" by the New York Review of Books

• Sheds new light on Ambedkar's turn to Buddhism late in life

• A rare intellectual biography for serious students of Ambedkar's philosophy, from Namami Prakashan

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