The book sets out a discourse on Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's vast horizon of knowledge production. Through the essays in the book, the author has tried to deconstruct the reductionist approach adopted by mainstream academia, intelligentsia, and the Indian media to understand Ambedkar. It has recorded his erasures from various academic texts on sociology, history, literature, and creative fields like feature films. Juxtaposing this process of reductionism and erasure of Ambedkar, the book probes how he has been received and appreciated by international institutions and academicians; how, on the one hand, they have engaged with his writings on various aspects of society, polity, democracy, and social justice, and on the other, how they have hailed his academics in their writings. Further, the book maps the original and unique theoretical and philosophical insights provided by Babasaheb on Hindu social order with the place of an individual, varna, the genesis of caste, graded inequality, and the annihilation of caste, etc. Additionally, taking clues from the essential elements of social justice delineated by Plato and Rawls, this book has tried to search for the aspects of social justice in Ambedkar's thoughts. His refutations of thoughts of social scientists, such as Senart, Nesfield, and Risley, and recognition of thoughts of Ketkar, Jefferson, Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Tarde, Renan, and Acton, to name just a few, prove the point that Ambedkar should be regarded as one of the pioneers of Indian Sociology and treated at par with any national and international academics. In this sense, the book has underlined that Dalits are not engaged only in producing and analysing empirical data. Instead, they can evolve theoretical and conceptual propositions to deconstruct and reconstruct various social realities.

Vivek Kumar is a Professor of Sociology and a former Chairperson of the Centre for the Study of Social Systems (2018-2023), School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he earned his doctorate. He is also the Ambedkar Chair Professor in Sociology (I/C), instituted by the Ministry of Empowerment and Social Justice, Government of India. Prof. Kumar has also been the Convener of the Global Studies Program in collaboration with four international institutions. As a Fulbright Teacher's Fellowship recipient, he has been a visiting Associate Professor at Columbia University, New York. As a DAAD-UGC Fellow, he has also been a visiting faculty at Humboldt University, Berlin. His publications include Caste and Democracy in India, India's Roaring Revolution, and Dalit Leadership in India. His seminal articles include 'How Egalitarian is Indian Sociology?', and 'Indispensability of Interdisciplinarity in Studying Society: On Philosophy, Science in Sociology'.

This book is an attempt to take the discourse about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar among his followers in India and across the globe, regarding his vast horizon of knowledge production. Through the four essays in this book, we have tried to deconstruct the reductionist approach adopted by mainstream academia and intelligentsia across India to understand Ambedkar. The book has tried to record the erasure of Ambedkar from various academic texts of sociology, history, and literature. It has recorded these phenomena in the media and creative fields like feature films as well. Juxtaposing this process of reductionism and erasure of Ambedkar, this book has tried to probe how Ambedkar has been received and appreciated by international institutions and academicians. How, on the one hand, they have engaged with his writings on various aspects such as society, polity, democracy, and social justice, and on the other hand, how have they hailed his academic writings in their own writings.

The second chapter of the book maps the original and unique theoretical and philosophical insights provided by Ambedkar on Hindu social order with the place of the individual, varna, genesis of caste, and annihilation of caste. He has analysed why the Hindu social order is not an open social order and why this social order should be subservient to the demands of individuals. With his unique conceptualization of 'surplus men', 'surplus women', and imposition of endogamy over exogamy, Ambedkar has propounded a very novel theory of the genesis of the caste system in India. Further, quoting the French sociologist Tarde's 'law of imitation' as the main cause for the spread of the caste system, Ambedkar has opened a new vantage point for research in this area. Towards the end, the chapter has tried to highlight Ambedkar's scheme to annihilate the caste system by adopting certain measures like practicing inter-caste marriages, questioning the legitimacy of sacred texts of the Hindus, and dismantling the practice of priesthood by a single caste.

The theory of social justice, in general and Dr. Ambedkar's theory of social justice, in particular forms part of the third chapter. Although Ambedkar has not propounded exclusively a theory of social justice, however, taking cues from the basic elements of social justice delineated by thinkers such as Plato and Rawls, this chapter has tried to search for these elements in the thoughts of Ambedkar found in his writings and speeches.

I have identified five characteristics of Ambedkar's theory of social justice. These include one-individuals should be developed, in society, as free and independent agents; two- society should be based on equality, liberty, and fraternity; third-the establishment of true democracy based on social, economic, and political equality; fourth-establishing democracy through constitutional measures; and fifth-dispensing social justice by breaking the monopoly of the so-called upperstrata on political power.