Ambedkar’s direct action doctrine derived from American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre

Evidence

‘Direct action’ is a method Ambedkar (BASWS 5, 375) advocated for the assertion of the civil rights of Untouchables. When Ambedkar was at Columbia University (1913–16), he was likely exposed to the views of American feminist anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912), whom the anarchist Emma Goldman called the “most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced”. In 1912, de Cleyre wrote a famous essay called “Direct Action”, which she defined as collective action against and mass resistance to state and capitalist oppression. “Every person who ever had a plan to do anything, and went and did it, or who laid his plan before others, and won their cooperation to do it with him, without going to external authorities to please do the thing for them, was a direct actionist … Every person who ever in his life had a difference with anyone to settle, and went straight to the other persons involved to settle it, either by a peaceable plan or otherwise, was a direct actionist.” The term was also popularised by the Industrial Workers of the World founded in 1905 in Chicago; its mouthpiece was called Direct Action. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1125

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘likely exposed’ phrasing is speculative — worth verifying whether Ambedkar’s library or Columbia years show a de Cleyre or IWW influence more directly.