Recovering the Story of Pragmatism in India: Bhimrao Ambedkar, John Dewey, and the Origins of Navayana Pragmatism Available to Purchase

While Many Have Explored the international reception of Dewey's thought—for instance, by Hu Shih in the Chinese context—little has been said about the fate of pragmatism in India. Yet there is a line of discernable influence to Indian politics and civil rights movements in the person of Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891–1956). Ambedkar was a famous Indian statesman and anti-caste activist, but he was also a formidable intellectual and philosopher whose collected works span over twenty volumes. He also was highly educated in the West, earning degrees from universities in America and England. Importantly for the fate of pragmatism in India, one of the academic mentors that made a significant impact on Ambedkar during his education at Columbia University (1913–1916) was John Dewey. There is something special about this relationship, as Ambedkar spoke admiringly of Dewey throughout his life, and in ways that he did not praise his other professors. One well-known...