"Outthinking the Owners of the World": Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on the Purpose of Public Education

How did Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar conceptualise the role of casteist and racist systems of education in maintaining inhuman relationships between groups of people in the United States and India respectively? How did they envision public education as a form of liberatory social reconstruction in response to the specific conditions of caste, patriarchy, colonialism and empire that existed at the time? In my talk, I will discuss the resonances between Dr. Du Bois’ idea of a public education founded on the principles of Black Studies in his text The Education of Black People and Dr. Ambedkar’s idea of a democratic public education system as one institution that is key to annihilating caste in The Annihilation of Caste. I conclude by asking, what solidarities become possible when placing Dr. Du Bois and Dr. Ambedkar in dialogue.