Ambedkar: An Overview

by B.R. Ambedkar

In another heart-rending episode, Ambedkar puts forward the point that a person who is an Untouchable to a Hindu is also treated as an Untouchable by a Parsi (or, for that matter by a person of any other religion) as well. It was his return from abroad to Baroda in 1918 that opened his eyes to the deeply entrenched practice of Untouchability in India. Availing a scholarship from the Maharaja of Baroda he travelled to Columbia University in the United States of America for higher studies. Those five years in the West completely wiped out of his mind the consciousness of being an Untouchable. Ignoring better opportunities in Indian Education Services, he felt committed to serve the Baroda State which had sponsored his studies abroad. He joined as a probationer in the Accountant General’s Office of the Maharaja of Baroda. Once in the Indian soil, again he faced the trials and tribulations of securing a lodging for himself on account of being an Untouchable. Finally, by impersonating as a Parsi he lodged himself in a Parsi inn. But on the eleventh day of his stay he had to face the wrath of a few Parsi youths and had to leave the inn—a wrath that was directed at his caste identity. Out on the street again, he failed to secure shelter even from his close friends—one a caste-Hindu and the other an Indian Christian. Ultimately, he quit Baroda and left for Bombay.

Ambedkar discrimination at the hands of parsis

Hinduism rests on exclusionary principles. So, conversion was very intimate to his thought. In a speech delivered to the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference in 1936, he brought out the two aspects of conversion—material as well as spiritual.2 The weapons of boycott and exclusion perpetuated by the caste-Hindus on the Untouchables amounted to class-struggle. Denials of varied economic and social activities actually pitted one class against another. He felt that it could be put to successful use as long as the oppressed class failed to stand up with strength against the tyranny.

Ambedkar thinking of conversion

Apart from the material need, the spiritual need for conversion was put forward by Ambedkar, as he thought individual welfare and progress was the real aim of religion. However, there was no place for an individual in Hindu society. According to him, religion has to impose rules for the maintenance of happiness in society, but the character of the rules has to be based on principles of equality of all individuals. As long as the practice of inequality and injustice goes unabated, all soothing effects of social reformers of Hindu religion could only be a misleading one to perpetuate the system.

Ambedkar Conversion 2

The term Untouchable is a label. A signifying label by which people are treated as filthy and defiling. What the Untouchables do to escape from the ‘label’ is to take names borrowed from myths or historical characters to hide the identity. By a mere change of name, e.g. as the the Chamar call themselves Ravidas or the Bhangis renaming themselves as Valmikis would not changed the lived-in world for them. Even a lofty condescending term of ‘Harijan’ i.e., the children of God would still keep them within the folds of Hinduism. So, he designed salvation as an escape from Hinduism through conversion.

Ambedkar Conversion 3

Ambedkar: An Overview synoptically captures the materialism of disillusionment through substantive arguments. One gets richer as one weaves through the different themes to be able to relate and answer, why the lost faith in mainstream nationalist movement is intrinsically linked to a paradigm of ‘denied by birth’. One gains an alternative perspective to review and reorganize Indian society on the principles of fraternity.

Overall Context of book

Equal Citizenship The Depressed Classes cannot consent to subject themselves to majority rule in their present state of hereditary bondsmen. Before majority rule is established, their emancipation from the system of Untouchability must be an accomplished fact. It must not be left to the will of the majority. The Depressed Classes must be made free citizens entitled to all the rights of citizenship in common with other citizens of the State. (A) To secure the abolition of Untouchability and to create the equality of citizenship, it is proposed that the following fundamental right shall be made part of the Constitution of India.

Political safeguard of the untouchables 1

Free Enjoyment of Equal Rights It is no use for the Depressed Classes to have a declaration of equal rights. There can be no doubt that the Depressed Classes will have to face the whole force of orthodox society if they try to exercise the equal rights of citizenship. The Depressed Classes, therefore, feel that if these declarations of rights are not to be mere pious pronouncements, but are to be realities of everyday life, then they should be protected by adequate pains and penalties from interference in the enjoyment of these declared rights.

Political safeguard of the untouchables 2

Take the caste system. Islam speaks of brotherhood. Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. Regarding slavery, nothing needs to be said. It stands abolished now by law. But while it existed, much of its support was derived from Islam and Islamic countries. While the prescriptions by the Prophet regarding the just and humane treatment of slaves contained in the Koran are praiseworthy, there is nothing whatever in Islam that lends support to the abolition of this curse. As Sir W. Muir has well said:31 ‘…rather, while lightening, he riveted the fetter… There is no obligation on a Muslim to release his slaves…’ But if slavery has gone, caste among Musalmans has remained. As an illustration, one may take the conditions prevalent among the Bengal Muslims. The Superintendent of the Census for 1901 for the Province of Bengal records the following interesting facts regarding the Muslims of Bengal:

Caste among Muslims

Within these groups there are castes with social precedence of exactly the same nature as one finds among the Hindus. I. Ashraf or better class Mahomedans. (1) Saiads (2) Sheikhs (3) Pathans (4) Moghul (5) Mallik (6) Mirza

Caste among muslims 2

Ajlaf or lower class Mahomedans. (1) Cultivating Sheikhs, and others who were originally Hindus but who do not belong to any functional group, and have not gained admittance to the Ashraf Community, e.g. Pirali and Thakrai.

Caste among Muslims 3

(2) Darzi, Jolaha, Fakir and Rangrez. (3) Barhi, Bhalhiara, Chik, Churihar, Dai, Dhawa, Dhunia, Gaddi, Kalal, Kasai, Kula Kunjara, Laheri, Mahifarosh, Mallah, Naliya and Nikari. (4) Abdal, Bako, Bediya, Bhat, Chamba, Dafali, Dhobi, Hajjam, Mucho, Nagarchi, Nat, Panwaria and Madaria, Tuntia. III. Arzal or degraded class. (1) Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugta, Mehtar. The Census Superintendent mentions another feature of the Muslim social system, namely, the prevalence of the panchayat system. He states: ‘The authority of the panchayat extends to social as well as trade matters and…marriage with people of other communities is one of the offences of which the governing body takes cognizance. The result is that these groups are often as strictly endogamous as Hindu castes. The prohibition on inter-marriage extends to higher as well as to lower castes, and a Dhuma, for example, may marry no one but a Dhuma. If this rule is transgressed, the offender is at once hauled up before the panchayat and ejected ignominiously from his community. A member of one such group cannot ordinarily gain admission to another, and he retains the designation of the community in which he was born even if he abandons its distinctive occupation and takes to other means of livelihood…thousands of Jolahas are butchers, yet they are still known as Jolahas.’

Caste among muslims 4

There can, thus, be no manner of doubt that the Muslim Society in India is afflicted by the same social evils as afflict the Hindu Society. Indeed, the Muslims have all the social evils of the Hindus and something more. That something more is the compulsory system of purdah for Muslim women. As a consequence of the purdah system, a segregation of the Muslim women is brought about. The ladies are not expected to visit the outer rooms, verandahs, or gardens; their quarters are in the backyard. All of them, young and old, are confined in the same room. No male servant can work in their presence. A woman is allowed to see only her sons, brothers, father, uncles and husband, or any other near relation who may be admitted to a position of trust. She cannot go even to the mosque to pray, and must wear burqa (veil) whenever she has to go out. These burqa women walking in the streets is one of the most hideous sights one can witness in India. Such seclusion cannot but have its deteriorating effects upon the physical constitution of Muslim women. They are usually victims to anaemia, tuberculosis, and pyorrhoea. Their bodies are deformed, with their backs bent, bones protruded, hands and feet crooked. Ribs, joints and nearly all their bones ache. Heart palpitation is very often present in them. The result of this pelvic deformity is untimely death at the time of delivery.

Purdah

Being deprived of healthy social life, the process of moral degeneration must and does set in. Being completely secluded from the outer world, they engage their minds in petty family quarrels, with the result that they become narrow and restricted in their outlook. They lag behind their sisters from other communities, cannot take part in any outdoor activity and are weighed down by a slavish mentality and an inferiority complex. They have no desire for knowledge, because they are taught not to be interested in anything outside the four walls of the house. Purdah women in particular become helpless, timid and unfit for any fight in life. Considering the large number of purdah women among Muslims in India, one can easily understand the vastness and seriousness of the problem of purdah. The physical and intellectual effects of purdah are nothing as compared with its effects on morals. The origin of purdah lies, of course, in the deep-rooted suspicion of sexual appetites in both sexes and the purpose is to check them by segregating the sexes. But far from achieving the purpose, purdah has adversely affected the morals of Muslim men. Owing to purdah, a Muslim has no contact with any woman outside those who belong to his own household. Even with them, his contact extends only to occasional conversation. For a male there is no company of, and no commingling with, the females, except those who are children or aged. This isolation of the males from females is sure to produce bad ef...

Fate of muslim women

What can that special reason be? It seems to me that the reason for the absence of the spirit of change in the Indian Musalman is to be sought in the peculiar position he occupies in India: He is placed in a social environment which is predominantly Hindu. That Hindu environment is always silently but surely encroaching upon him. He feels that it is de-musalmanizing him. As a protection against this gradual weaning away, he is led to insist on preserving everything that is Islamic without caring to examine whether it is helpful or harmful to his society. Secondly, the Muslims in India are placed in a political environment which is also predominantly Hindu. He feels that he will be suppressed and that political suppression will make the Muslims a depressed class. It is this consciousness that he has to save himself from being submerged by the Hindus socially and politically, which to my mind is the primary cause why the Indian Muslims as compared with their fellows outside are backward in the matter of social reform. Their energies are directed to maintaining a constant struggle against the Hindus for seats and posts, in which there is no time, no thought and no room for questions relating to social reform. And if there is any, it is all overweighed and suppressed by the desire, generated by pressure of communal tension, to close the ranks and offer a united front to the menace of the Hindus and Hinduism by maintaining their socio-religious unity at any cost.

Babasaheb about fate of indian muslims in the larger context

The same is the explanation of the political stagnation in the Muslim community of India. Muslim politicians do not recognize secular categories of life as the basis of their politics because to them it means the weakening of the community in its fight against the Hindus. The poor Muslims will not join the poor Hindus to get justice from the rich. Muslim tenants will not join Hindu tenants to prevent the tyranny of the landlord. Muslim labourers will not join Hindu labourers in the fight of labour against capital. Why? The answer is simple. The poor Muslim sees that if he joins in the fight of the poor against the rich, he may be fighting against a rich Muslim. The Muslim tenant feels that if he joins in the campaign against the landlord, he may have to fight against a Muslim landlord. A Muslim labourer feels that if he joins in the onslaught of labour against capital, he will be injuring a Muslim mill-owner. He is conscious that any injury to a rich Muslim, to a Muslim landlord or to a Muslim mill-owner, is a disservice to the Muslim community, for it is thereby weakened in its struggle against the Hindu community. How Muslim politics has become perverted is shown by the attitude of the Muslim leaders to the political reforms in the Indian states. The Muslims and their leaders carried on a great agitation for the introduction of representative government in the Hindu state of Kashmir. The same Muslims and their leaders are deadly opposed to the introduction of representat...

Indian muslim issues

That there were from the very beginning four varnas in the Indo– Aryan society is a view which is universally accepted by all classes of Hindus, and also by European scholars. If the thesis advanced in the last chapter, namely, that the Shudras were Kshatriyas, is accepted, then it follows that this theory is wrong and that there was a time when there were only three varnas in the Indo–Aryan society, viz Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. Thus, the thesis, while it solves one problem, at the same time creates another. Whether anybody else sees the importance of this problem or not, I do. Indeed, I am aware of the fact that unless I succeed in proving that there were originally only three varnas, my thesis that the Shudras were Kshatriyas may not be said to be proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. While it is unfortunate that I should have landed on a thesis, which, while holding out a promise of solving the problem, creates another, I feel fortunate in having strong and cogent evidence to show that there were originally only three varnas among the Indo–Aryans. The first piece of evidence I rely upon is that of the Rig Veda itself. There are some scholars who maintain that the varna system did not exist in the age of the Rig Veda.

Rig veda varnashrama

THE MAHATMA SEES great virtue in a Brahmin remaining a Brahmin all his life. Leaving aside the fact that there are many Brahmins who do not like to remain Brahmins all their lives, what can we say about those Brahmins who have clung to their ancestral calling of priesthood? Do they do so from any faith in the virtue of the principle of ancestral calling, or do they do so from motives of filthy lucre? The Mahatma does not seem to concern himself with such queries. He is satisfied that these are ‘real Brahmins who are living on alms freely given to them, and giving freely what they have of spiritual treasures.’ This is how a hereditary Brahmin priest appears to the Mahatma—a carrier of spiritual treasures.

Critique of gandhi 1

Why does the Mahatma cling to the theory of everyone following his or her ancestral calling? He gives his reasons nowhere. But there must be some reason, although he does not care to avow it. Years ago, writing on ‘caste versus Class’ in his Young India,115 he argued that the caste system was better than a class system on the ground that caste was the best possible adjustment for social stability. If that be the reason why the Mahatma clings to the theory of everyone following his or her ancestral calling, then he is clinging to a false view of social life. Everybody wants social stability, and some adjustment must be made in the relationship between individuals and classes in order that stability may be had. But two things, I am sure, nobody wants. One thing nobody wants is a static relationship, something that is unalterable, something that is fixed for all times. Stability is wanted, but not at the cost of change when change is imperative. The second thing nobody wants is mere adjustment. Adjustment is wanted, but not at the sacrifice of social justice.

Critique Of gandhi 2

Some might think that the Mahatma has made much progress, inasmuch as he now only believes in varna and does not believe in caste. It is true that there was a time when the Mahatma was a full-blooded and a blue-blooded sanatani Hindu.116 He believed in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the puranas, and all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures; and therefore, in avatars and rebirth. He believed in caste and defended it with the vigour of the orthodox.117 He condemned the cry for inter-dining, inter-drinking, and intermarrying, and argued that restraints about inter-dining to a great extent ‘helped the cultivation of will-power and the conservation of a certain social virtue.’118 It is good that he has repudiated this sanctimonious nonsense and admitted that caste ‘is harmful both to spiritual and national growth’, and maybe his son’s marriage outside his caste has had something to do with this change of view. But has the Mahatma really progressed? What is the nature of the varna for which the Mahatma stands? Is it the Vedic conception as commonly understood and preached by Swami Dayanand Saraswati and his followers, the Arya Samajists? The essence of the Vedic conception of varna is the pursuit of a calling which is appropriate to one’s natural aptitude. The essence of the Mahatma’s conception of varna is the pursuit of one’s ancestral calling, irrespective of natural aptitude.

Critique Of gandhi 3

What is the difference between caste and varna, as understood by the Mahatma? I find none. As defined by the Mahatma varna becomes merely a different name for caste, for the simple reason that it is the same in essence—namely, pursuit of one’s ancestral calling. Far from making progress, the Mahatma has suffered retrogression. By putting this interpretation upon the Vedic conception of varna, he has really made ridiculous what was sublime. While I reject the Vedic varnavyavastha for reasons given in the speech, I must admit that the Vedic theory of varna as interpreted by Swami Dayanand and some others is a sensible and an inoffensive thing. It did not admit birth as a determining factor in fixing the place of an individual in society. It only recognized worth. The Mahatma’s view of varna not only makes nonsense of the Vedic varna, but it makes it an abominable thing. Varna and caste are two very different concepts. Varna is based on the principle of each according to his worth, while caste is based on the principle of each according to his birth. The two are as distinct as chalk is from cheese. In fact, there is an antithesis between the two. If the Mahatma believes, as he does, in everyone following his or her ancestral calling, then most certainly he is advocating the caste system, and in calling it the varna system he is not only guilty of terminological inexactitude, but he is causing confusion worse confounded. I am sure that all his confusion is due to the fact that...

Critique Of gandhi 4

The real reason why the Mahatma is suffering from this confusion is probably to be traced to two sources. The first is the temperament of the Mahatma. He has in almost everything the simplicity of the child, with the child’s capacity for self-deception. Like a child, he can believe in anything he wants to believe in. We must therefore wait till such time as it pleases the Mahatma to abandon his faith in varna, as it has pleased him to abandon his faith in caste.

Critique Of gandhi 5

The second source of confusion is the double role which the Mahatma wants to play—of a Mahatma and a politician. As a Mahatma, he may be trying to spiritualize politics. Whether he has succeeded in it or not, politics have certainly commercialized him. A politician must know that society cannot bear the whole truth, and that he must not speak the whole truth; if he is speaking the whole truth it is bad for his politics. The reason why the Mahatma is always supporting caste and varna is because he is afraid that if he opposed them he would lose his place in politics. Whatever may be the source of this confusion the Mahatma must be told that he is deceiving himself, and also deceiving the people, by preaching caste under the name of varna. The Mahatma says that the standards I have applied to test Hindus and Hinduism are too severe, and that judged by those standards every known living faith will probably fail. The complaint that my standards are high may be true. But the question is not whether they are high or whether they are low. The question is whether they are the right standards to apply. A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning, if religion is held to be a necessary good for the well-being of the people. Now, I maintain that the standards I have applied to test Hindus and Hinduism are the most appropriate standards, and that I know of none that are better. The conclusion that every...

Critique Of gandhi 6

Unlike the Mahatma, there are Hindu leaders who are not content merely to believe and follow. They dare to think, and act in accordance with the result of their thinking. But unfortunately they are either a dishonest lot, or an indifferent lot when it comes to the question of giving right guidance to the mass of the people. Almost every Brahmin has transgressed the rule of caste. The number of Brahmins who sell shoes is far greater than those who practise priesthood. Not only have the Brahmins given up their ancestral calling of priesthood for trading, but they have entered trades which are prohibited to them by the shastras. Yet how many Brahmins who break caste every day will preach against caste and against the shastras? For one honest Brahmin preaching against caste and shastras because his practical instinct and moral conscience cannot support a conviction in them, there are hundreds who break caste and trample upon the shastras every day, but who are the most fanatic upholders of the theory of caste and the sanctity of the shastras. Why this duplicity? Because they feel that if the masses are emancipated from the yoke of caste, they would be a menace to the power and prestige of the Brahmins as a class. The dishonesty of this intellectual class, who would deny the masses the fruits of their thinking, is a most disgraceful phenomenon.

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