Political thought of B.R. Ambedkar, Lecture notes of Political Science

Download Political thought of B.R. Ambedkar and more Lecture notes Political Science in PDF only on Docsity! NET - Ambedkar 1. His writings in ascending order - 'Annihilation of Caste', 'Who were the Shudras?', 'The Untouchables', 'The Buddha and his Dharma'. 2. Being an untouchable himself, he fought against the massive social structure that created social disabilities by sheer courage and never say die attitude, and went on to become a constitutional list, a parliamentarian, scholar and jurist. 3. He reinvented the entire notion of anti-untouchability and social reform movement throughout India. And he carried out his movements on long-term basis, unlike his predecessors. 4. He was an innovator; he included in the movements critical aspects of empowerment that were previously unaddressed. Before, emancipation of untouchables remained confined to social a d religious reforms. Ambedkar wanted to include the idea of appropriate representation of untouchables in the political bodies as well as govt. services. 5. His thought process was a direct product of his first-hand experience being an untouchable himself. Unlike Gandhi, he battled for the socio-political rights of the untouchables. 6. In 1919 he was called upon to depose before the Southborough Committee set up to suggest amendments in qualification criteria for voting rights. Here he tried to secure separate electorate and reserved seats for the untouchables. 7. Started weekly paper 'Mooknayak' to propagate interests of depressed classes. He tried to establish himself as a lawyer but failed, partly due to his untouchable status. 8. Set up the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha in 1924 ans started the paper Bahiskrit Bharat in 1927. 9. Organised the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927 emphasising the rights of the untouchables. Clashes with caste Hindus led him to publicly burn the Manusmriti . 10. Founded the Samaj Samata Sangh and Samata Sainik Dal in 1927. appointed as member of Bombay legislative assembly. 11. In 1930s he turned his focus towards securing more separate places and positions fir untouchables in the constitutional framework. 12. Gandhi’s epic fast unto death against the separate electorate for the untouchables led to the signing of the Poona Pact, the core of which was to have a joint electorate with reservation of seats for the depressed classes. This seemingly compulsive Pact did not appear to have satisfied Ambedkar. 13. He no more remained sure of the potentiality of the Hindu religion to reform itself and afford the respectful place to the untouchables within its fold. 14. He noted that at the outset, the Hindu society composed of classes which from the earliest times existed in the form of the Brahmans (the priestly class), the Kshatriya (the warrior class), the Vaishayas (the trading class) and the Shudras (the artisans or the menial class). The fundamental characteristic of this system was the scope for graduation of an individual from one particular class to the other, provided he earned the essential qualities of that class. Such a subdivision of the society appeared natural given the diversity in the innate responsibilities to be shouldered by different sets of people. Gradually, however, these subdivisions started losing their open-door character of the class system and became self-closed units called castes. 15. Trying to understand the Vedic justification for the caste system in his ‘Who were the Shudras?’ Ambedkar precisely analysed the Rig Veda and found a typical explanation of the origin of the caste system in the Purusha Shukta. 16. He evolved the idea of ‘Broken Men’ to demarcate those who after being defeated in the tribal wars were broken into bits and wandered around in various parts of the land. Such broken men in India, over the years, became the follower of Buddhism given the emphasis of this religion on the equality and dignity of every person in society. However, when, under the pressure of Brahmans, the majority of people returned to the fold of Hinduism, the broken men remained the follower of Buddhism, thereby coming into direct retaliatory ploys of the Brahmans. 17. Annihilation of Caste is one of the foremost monographs published by Ambedkar aimed at explaining the exploitative nature of caste and calling for its annihilation in order to secure a social order based on equal status and dignity for all. 18. The basic argument of Ambedkar in the Annihilation of Caste is that caste system is the debilitating institution of the Indian society which instead of doing any good has wrought irreparable loss to the untouchables and, therefore, needs to be eradicated without any repentance. 19. He begins by exposing the inherent nature of the caste system which has been found to be grounded in false notions of division of labour in conjunction with the gradation of labourers as well. Indefensible on the basis of overtly ridiculous notions like biological purity, caste remains an irrelevant factor in so far as the economic efficiency is concerned. 20. Rather imbued with inherent anti-social spirit, the system of caste has not only gone to exclude the aboriginal tribes from within its fold but also created wedges amongst various sub- caste groups as well. 21. It overwhelmingly negates the idea of an ideal society based on the virtues of liberty, equality and fraternity. The system of caste, therefore, needs to be understood in a dispassionate and unattached manner in order to get to the reality of things as ordained by caste. 22. Ambedkar tries to unmask the hidden pernicious motivations behind the idea of Chaturvarnya, as the foundation of the caste system. 23. Even from the practical point of view, Chaturvarnya seems to be surrounded by a number of diffi culties like explaining and establishing the basic difference between caste and the principle underlying varna; ignoring the uniqueness of every individual and by strait-jacketing all the individuals into just four classes would be like killing the ingenuity of each individual; negating of the idea of a penal system to deal with all the people equally; and fi nally ignoring the position of the women in such a system. 24. The abolition of caste, thus, argues Ambedkar, can be achieved only by intermarriage. Being a realist to the core, Ambedkar raises the question on the chances of the success of social reform aimed at annihilating the caste. He very perceptibly discerns that of the various methods of bringing out social reform, the one to suit the purpose of abolishing caste would need to be routed through the denouncement of the fundamental religious notions. 25. Caste has a divine basis. You must therefore destroy the sacredness and divinity with which caste has become invested. In the last analysis, this means you must destroy the authority of the Shashtras and the Vedas’ 26. He maintains that the rules (practical regulations) which justify exploitative character of caste system must be destroyed while the principles (intellectual norms) of the religion may be retained.