Annihilation of Caste

by B.R. Ambedkar

If Socialism is a practical programme and is not merely an ideal, distant and far off, the question for a Socialist is not whether he believes in equality. The question for him is whether he minds one class ill-treating and suppressing another class as a matter of system, as a matter of principle and thus allow tyranny and oppression to continue to divide one class from another.

Men will not join in a revolution for the equalization of property unless they know that after the revolution is achieved they will be treated equally and that there will be no discrimination of caste and creed.

The defences are many. It is defended on the ground that the Caste System is but another name for division of labour and if division of labour is a necessary feature of every civilized society then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the Caste System.

It is also a division of labourers.

But in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments.

This division of labour is not spontaneous; it is not based on natural aptitudes.

Social and individual efficiency requires us to develop the capacity of an individual to the point of competency to choose and to make his own career.

This principle is violated in the Caste System in so far as it involves an attempt to appoint tasks to individuals in advance, selected not on the basis of trained original capacities...

With such changes an individual must be free to change his occupation.

If a Hindu is seen to starve rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to be found in the Caste System.

By not permitting readjustment of occupations, caste becomes a direct cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country.