Annihilation of Caste

"Annihilation of Caste is an undelivered speech written in 1936 by B.R. Ambedkar who fought against the country's practice of untouchability. In a letter dated 12 December 1935, the secretary of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal (Society for the Abolition of Caste system), an anti-caste Hindu reformist group organization based in Lahore, invited B.R. Ambedkar to deliver a speech on the caste system in India at their annual conference in 1936. Ambedkar wrote the speech as an essay under the title "Annihilation of Caste" and sent in advance to the organizers in Lahore for printing and distribution. The organizers found some of the content to be objectionable towards the orthodox Hindu religion and They wrote to Ambedkar seeking the removal of sections which they found, in their words, "unbearable."Ambedker declared in response that he "would not change a comma" of his text. After much deliberation, the committee of organizers decided to cancel their annual conference in its entirety, because they feared violence by orthodox Hindus at the venue if they held the event after withdrawing the invitation to him. Ambedkar subsequently published copies of the speech as a book on 15 May 1936 at his own expense."–Amazon.com