The Annihilation of Caste by Ambedkar. Until I read it, I was the garden variety "casteism is bad BUT merit is important AND caste is dead in cities AND what about creamy layer AND there was this guy I knew who was richer than me but got a reserved seat AND..." brahmin boy. https://twitter.com/NGKabra/status/1334857242756018180

Us savarnas have a preternatural resistance to reading anything by Ambedkar. I've been trying to convince my brahmin/kshatriya/vaishya friends to read Annihilation of Caste for years since I read it. Only succeeded with one. Most others, even the aware empathetic ones, avoid it.

Default savarna reading patterns

- Here's Nehru's autobio
- Ooh love it!

- Here is Gandhi's
- Lovely!

- How about Mein Kampf?
- Interesting! Let's try it.

- Annihilation of Caste?
- Oh yes, Ambedkar was great. But currently I'm reading the Obamas. Maybe in 2021? 2022?

The biggest reason savarnas avoid reading anything by Ambedkar ad much as they can, is that he laid out in very clear, factual, scholarly terms what the problem with Hindu society is. Almost a century ago. We keep avoiding his writings so we can sustain our delusions.

There has literally never been a better writer and thinker in Indian socio-political history than B.R. Ambedkar. Even in pure writing and argumentation, regardless of ideology, a couple of levels above prolix contemporaries like Gandhi and Nehru and Savarkar.

There is an urgency and clarity that comes through in Ambedkar's writings that comes from an obviously intense personal place. Others wrote like they were trying to impress the King and The Times reviewers. Ambedkar wrote like someone in a hurry to fix the world.