Media, Modernity and Minorities: Subtleties of Exclusion in the ‘Public Discourse’

Some of India’s most significant early reflections on the minority predicament within a democracy came from B.R. Ambedkar, leader of what were called the ‘untouchable’ castes within Hinduism. Ambedkar faced a situation in which the ritually ostracised communities outside the caste-Hindu fold enjoyed the right to vote and were assured of formal equality under the law. Yet, for all that, they remained oppressed in the real world.