Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) was a radical thinker, economist, jurist, philosopher, and founder of a school of Buddhism. A prolific writer, he was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution and independent India’s first law minister. In 1935, he publicly declared that though he was born a Hindu, he would not die as one. Ambedkar eventually embraced Buddhism a few months before his death in 1956.
Alex George, a philosophy graduate from Birkbeck College, London, is an editor with Navayana, an independent anticaste press.
S. Anand is the cofounder and publisher of Navayana. He is the coauthor of the graphic biography Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability (2011) and editor of the annotated edition of Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste (2014).
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, best known for Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture, and Political Economy, is a political thinker. His latest book is From a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual: My Memoirs. He lives in Hyderabad.