In 1913, Dalit icon B R Ambedkar travelled to the US to enroll as a graduate student at the University of Columbia — on a scholarship offered by the Gaekwad of Baroda. He received a doctorate in Political Science there.

Nearly a century later, in an effort to invert traditional notions about Dalits and Sanskrit (regarded as the preserve of upper castes) Prof. Sheldon Pollock, a doyen among Sanskrit scholars, is instituting three fellowships each year in Sanskrit for Columbia — only for Dalits. The process of choosing the first set of scholars begins December 1.

Prof. Pollock, recipient of the Government of India’s President’s Award in Sanskrit, 2009, specializes in Sanskrit philology and Indian intellectual and literary history and, increasingly, comparative intellectual history. He is among the best known voices emphasizing the importance of studying literary culture, “both for aspects of civilization and barbarism”. He is presently William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Columbia.

In an email interview with The Indian Express, Prof. Pollock said the fellowships will be initially funded out of the Distinguished Achievement Award he has received from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation of New York City. But he intends to transform the Dalit Sanskrit Fellowship Initiative into a permanent endowment.

A Columbia graduate fellowship amounts to $250,000: $30,000 tuition and $20,000 stipend, granted annually for five years. He will need $150,000 per year for three fellows.

The initiative will be named after Ambedkar.

The move has received mixed response in India. Prof. Pran Nath Singh, Head of the Department of Sanskrit in Banaras Hindu University, said, “It’s a good thing if young scholars are being encouraged to take up Sanskrit, but to limit it to Dalits is pure politics.”

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