Published by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2017 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002 Sales centres: Allahabad Bengaluru Chennai Hyderabad Jaipur Kathmandu Kolkata Mumbai Selection and Introduction Copyright © Bhalchandra Mungekar 2017 Passages quoted on pp. 111–112, 118–120, 123–124, and 177–178 from Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar by Changdeo Bhagwanrao Khairmode are reprinted by permission of Sugava Prakashan Ltd. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Government of Maharashtra for permission to reprint copyright material from Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vols. 1–17. The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him/her which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher ISBN: 978-81-291-3507-0 Fourteenth impression 2022 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 The moral right of the author has been asserted. Typeset by SÜRYA, New Delhi Printed in India This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

To Babasaheb

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1. CASTE AND UNTOUCHABILITY

ix 1

2. ECONOMICS OF CASTE AND HINDU SOCIAL ORDER

46

3. PHILOSOPHY OF THE HINDU RELIGION

69

4. STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS

104

5. SWARAJ AND POLITICAL SAFEGUARDS FOR THE DEPRESSED CLASSES

118

6. CONVERSION IS THE ONLY WAY FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES

157

7. VIEWS ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND LABOUR WELFARE

188

8. ON THE MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

252

9. THE CHALLENGES BEFORE THE PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY IN INDIA AND THEIR REMEDIES

287

10. THOUGHTS ON LINGUISTIC STATES

318

11. BUDDHA OR KARL MARX

346

12. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN

375

13. THOUGHTS ON PAKISTAN, OR THE PARTITION OF INDIA

385

14. OTHER THOUGHTS

412

BIBLIOGRAPHY

439

INTRODUCTION

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the tempo of the world has been accelerating forward at a breathtaking speed. However, in India, an indigenously created caste-based segregation, our version of racism, a minute and comprehensive form of discrimination and oppression that has existed for millennia, has been at work with the same speed, but unfortunately in the opposite direction. For the section classified as the Depressed Classes, day-to-day life is in itself a grave struggle, a manifold fight for survival. In every modern, democratic nation, people want to feel fully alive rather than merely survive. In order to for them to do so, the polity is required to imbibe a sense of socio-economic and political equality, as well as liberty. However, in India, this is not, and has never been, the case, and there is no way to know how long, in the ongoing civilizational process, this human greed for adoring and enjoying certain privileges over others is going to last. But as long as inequality and discrimination exist, a struggle to get rid of this yoke by the deprived masses will certainly continue to be part of the socio-political fight for generations to come. The nature of the struggle by the sieged population fighting to annihilate these caste fortifications has always been defensive rather than offensive. The credit for this civility goes to Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, one of the tallest, yet most neglected and often misunderstood intellectual-political leaders in the mainstream socio-political discourse of modern India. Perhaps because he fundamentally challenges the iniquitous

x

INTRODUCTION

Hindu social order, he has been rendered the most controversial of the mass political leaders in India. However, the fact remains that his key text, The Annihilation of Caste, contains persuasive arguments, heavily supported with solid facts, as well as a sophisticated, logical tone. This seminal book on the one hand depicts a rebellion against caste and untouchability and wants to destroy it; and on the other, it advocates non-enmity with coercion towards the tormentor, implicitly advising that there are always other practices available to push forward a struggle for justice responsibly rather than indulging in punitive violent measures. So the epoch-making approach Ambedkar adopts, though corrective and hence confrontational, is both a peacemaking as well as peacekeeping one. Ambedkar and Gandhi Ambedkar was the pioneer intellectual in the study of caste and untouchability. He delved into such details that with all their possible and conceivable dimensions, he fought caste discrimination at all given levels: social, political, economic and educational. His Annihilation of Caste is both an illuminative as well as a redemptive text. Ambedkar used his writings and lectures to confront a world of indifference and betrayal in order to pursue his reformative agenda, equal in dimension to that of Gandhi’s. The power of his reason was such that Gandhi described him as a ‘challenge to Hinduism’. But unfortunately he did not receive the attention, the critical acclaim, or the adulation he deserves, the way Gandhi did. Ambedkar was of the view that political safeguards for Untouchables were necessary as the Untouchables constituted the largest minority, and that without these safeguards they would not be able to enjoy political and social freedom. This was viewed as a direct challenge to Gandhi’s unchallenged leadership and therefore the conflict between the two was inevitable. Being a multifaceted personality—an economist, a sociologist, a barrister, an editor, a constitutionalist of the first rank, a professor,

INTRODUCTION

xi

an able parliamentarian, an educationist and a commentator on Buddhism—Ambedkar was predestined to engage himself beyond personality conflicts and look into the problems of India from both a macro as well as micro perspective. Ambedkar’s Legacy Ambedkar’s views and efforts towards the abolition of caste and untouchability necessarily differed from those of his predecessors because he was born an Untouchable himself, who had suffered indignities and humiliations while growing up and also in his preliminary professional career. His struggle was meant to raise a whole community, which until then had been condemned to endure abandonment, betrayal and social invisibility resulting in imposed poverty, though by virtue of their resolve they had always managed to survive even under such inhuman circumstances. His writings became the manifesto of social emancipation for the supressed masses. Throughout his argumentative and active life he had always dreamt of a casteless, democratic and fraternal Indian society which would be prosperous enough to be responsible for their individual as well as social well-being. Ambedkar’s basic arguments were against the institutionalization of the caste-based isolation and discrimination prevalent in the Hindu mind. Regretfully, in the course of time, this evil mindset had conquered many of the other religious communities in India. Hence, in view of the Hindus’ unwillingness to lay aside the yoke of casteism, he felt compelled to find kinship in Buddhism, a religion free from the inhuman practice of segregation. His intellectual integrity, showing his uncompromising commitment to his cause, was so strong that when he was asked to remove parts of his planned lecture in Lahore on ‘The Annihilation of Caste’, he promptly wrote back: ‘I shall not change even a comma in the text of the lecture.’ As a result, the organizers cancelled the lecture and it remained undelivered. Ambedkar thereafter published it in a personal capacity.

xii

INTRODUCTION

Besides being a social revolutionary, Ambedkar was a devoted patriot and a great nation builder. For all the disappointment he suffered thanks to the Indian socio-political system, he remains one of the greatest thinkers of renewal worldwide. He dealt with all the burning problems facing the country and provided lasting solutions. Not a single issue that related to India remained untouched by him. As an active intellectual politician, whose carefully evolved ideas are still valid today, Ambedkar had prominently participated in the making of the Indian Constitution as its chief architect. The prime aim and mission of his life was the abolition of caste discrimination from the fabric of India. He wanted to bring the downtrodden and oppressed people freedom from caste-based oppression and untouchability. To this end he challenged the system and fought for structural reforms in the way Indian polity and society was organized. To select a mere 500 pages and leave out the remaining about 17,500 pages of the corpus of Dr Ambedkar’s forward-looking and thought-provoking writings and speeches, of which each page is worth reading and reflecting upon, appeared to be a herculean task for me. But then I remembered that this selection is meant to act as a trailer to the edifice of his writings, and as a stepping stone to a better understanding of Ambedkar. So please treat it as a token of my lifelong commitment to the legacy of that great thinker and even greater human being. It is also gratifying to me that this book is being published around the time of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar. Before I end, please allow me to gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and cooperation that was extended to me by a number of scholars and friends. But first and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the Government of Maharashtra for publishing the collected writings and speeches of Dr Ambedkar (under Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches) since 1978 and making them available to the larger public at one place. I also pay tribute to the late Shri Vasant Moon for his pioneering and painstaking efforts to collect, compile and edit the first fifteen volumes in the series.

INTRODUCTION

xiii

I am especially grateful to R.K. Mehra and his entire team at Rupa Publications that gave due priority to the publication of this anthology in a befitting manner and at an appropriate time. I must make a special mention of the cooperation rendered by Ritu Vajpeyi-Mohan and Amrita Mukerji during the process of publishing the book. I thank Shri Rajvinder Singh, my very close friend, who has had tremendous involvement in the completion of this work. I am thankful to Kapish Mehra and Elina Majumdar for impressing upon me the urgency to bring this book out as early as possible. Dr Sanjay Das, Jitendra Mungekar and Pravin Kadam also need a special mention for their invaluable help in preparing the manuscript. I express my heartiest sentiments towards my wife, Leena, and to my children, Kranti, Sushil and Purva, who have always been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration in all my academic endeavours. Last but not least, I thank the readers, who, I am sure, will appreciate my humble effort to cull out the essence of Ambedkar’s lone and epoch-making battle to seek justice for the millions of downtrodden people in India, particularly the so-called Untouchables, while at the same time remaining continuously engaged in the building of a modern India. PROFESSOR BHALACHANDRA MUNGEKAR

201, Brahmaputra, Dr B.D. Marg New Delhi – 110001 26 January 2016.

1 CASTE AND UNTOUCHABILITY

Section 1.1: The Origin of Caste According to well-known ethnologists, the population of India is a mixture of Aryans, Dravidians, Mongolians and Scythians. All these stocks of people came into India from various directions and with various cultures, centuries ago, when they were in tribal state. They all, in turn, elbowed their entry into the country by fighting with their predecessors, and after a stomachful of it settled down as peaceful neighbours. Through constant contact and mutual intercourse they evolved a common culture that superseded their distinctive cultures. It may be granted that there has not been a thorough amalgamation of the various stocks that make up the peoples of India, and to travellers from within the boundaries of India, the East presents a marked contrast in physique and even in colours to the West, as does the South to the North. But amalgamation can never be the sole criteria of homogeneity as predicated of any people. Ethnically all people are heterogeneous. It is the unity of culture that is the basis of homogeneity. Taking this for granted, I venture to say that there is no country that can rival the Indian peninsula with respect to the unity of its culture. It has not only a geographic unity, but it has over and above all a deeper and a much more fundamental unity—the indubitable cultural unity that covers the land from end to end. But it is because of this homogeneity that caste

495