The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is organising an Institute lecture on April 12, 2023. The details of the lecture are given below:

Title: 'Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Evolution of Pragmatism in India'

Speaker: Dr. Scott R. Stroud, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of Texas, Austin

About the speaker: Dr. Scott R. Stroud is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes on various topics in ethics, rhetoric and philosophy. He is the author of two major books, John Dewey and the Artful Life and Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric. He is the co-founder of the first "Center for John Dewey Studies" in India at Savitribai Phule Pune University. His recent book 'The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction' (University of Chicago/HarperCollins India, 2023) is the most comprehensive account to date of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar's encounter with Deweyan pragmatism at Columbia University during 1913-1916 and the ways it shaped his innovative pursuit of social justice in India.

Abstract: Most know that Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, chief architect of the Indian constitution and powerful proponent of rights and respect for India's most oppressed, thought highly of his former teacher, John Dewey. But what do we know about the specifics of their relationship? In this talk, Dr. Scott R. Stroud discusses some of the main themes in his recently published book, The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's educational experiences with John Dewey at Columbia University in 1913-1916 will be detailed, as well as Dr. Ambedkar's voracious reading of many of Dewey's works long after the young reformer left New York. Expanding on this historical account of their educational and intellectual relationship will be the most thorough accounting to date of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's appropriation of Deweyan concepts and methods to forge a new vision of pragmatism. His Navayana pragmatism represents an approach that centers on social democracy, the dignity of human personality, and the need to relieve oppression while creating the conditions for fraternity.