The Reclamation of Human Personality: Paulo Freire and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar in Comparative Perspective

Résumé du livre

On the walls of the Foundation of His Sacred Majesty in the Indian city of Chennai, anorganization working against untouchability, Paulo Freire's photograph hangs next to the Dalit(untouchable) human rights leader, B.R. Ambedkar. Freire and Ambedkar were towering figuresamong radical social theorists of the last century. While Ambedkar is largely unknown outside ofIndia, Freire is widely respected by Dalit leaders but without a close knowledge of his ideas andrelevance to their situation. Now years after their deaths, their renown in the developing worldremains iconic, particularly among oppressed groups fighting for recognition and social justice. While of different generations and emerging from communities of suffering half way around theworld from each other, their thought and praxis deserve comparative analysis asking therelevance of their ideas to the rapidly changing and globalizing world of the poor and to thepresent notions of justice and human rights that permeate poor nations much more today than intheir formative years. For both thinkers, freedom is a personal and social transformation ofWagnerian proportions, affecting not only the oppressed but the oppressor in a quest for acommon humanity. Yet difference of context and culture imbue their work and these differencesmay yield lessons for the struggles ahead - particularly the role that religious movements playfor liberation or oppression.