Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda, Associate Professor, Politics, SIAS has authored an essay in Frontline titled Ambedkar wouldn’t alter a comma. Will you?“
This essay examines how freedom of speech is tested not by outright prohibition, but by conditional invitations and institutional pressures. Using B.R. Ambedkar’s refusal to alter his ‘Annihilation of Caste’ speech for the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal in 1936 as a central example, it highlights the distinction between permission and autonomy. The piece argues that contemporary democracies face similar challenges, where defamation suits, regulatory actions, and institutional anxieties subtly narrow acceptable discourse. Ambedkar’s unwavering stance against censorship, even at the cost of exclusion, serves as a powerful lesson in intellectual courage and the preservation of expressive autonomy in an increasingly curated public sphere.
