Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Conception of Struggle and the Emancipation of Dalits

 

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Conception of Struggle and the Emancipation of Dalits

SR Darapuri I.P.S.(Retd)

Introduction

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) occupies a unique place in the history of modern India as the foremost philosopher, jurist, economist, constitutionalist, and social revolutionary who devoted his entire public life to the emancipation of the Scheduled Castes, whom he called the "Depressed Classes" and who are now commonly referred to as Dalits. Unlike many social reformers who regarded caste discrimination as a moral aberration that could be corrected through appeals to conscience, Ambedkar understood caste as a deeply entrenched system of social, economic, political, and religious domination. Consequently, he argued that the liberation of Dalits could never be achieved through charity, paternalism, or the goodwill of the privileged classes. It required sustained struggle, conscious organization, democratic mobilization, constitutional action, and intellectual transformation.

For Ambedkar, struggle was not merely an instrument for obtaining immediate concessions. It was a process through which an oppressed people recovered their dignity, acquired political consciousness, and transformed themselves into equal citizens. His famous slogan—"Educate, Agitate, Organize"—summarizes this comprehensive philosophy of emancipation. Education was to awaken critical consciousness, agitation was to challenge injustice through democratic means, and organization was to convert scattered individuals into a powerful social movement capable of altering existing structures of power.

Ambedkar's conception of struggle remains one of the most influential contributions to modern democratic thought. It continues to inspire movements against caste oppression, social exclusion, and discrimination, not only in India but also in broader discussions on human rights and social justice across the world.

Understanding the Nature of Caste Oppression

Ambedkar's understanding of struggle emerged from his analysis of the caste system itself. He rejected the belief that untouchability was merely a social evil that could be removed while preserving the caste order. In his seminal work Annihilation of Caste, he argued that untouchability was only the most extreme manifestation of a much larger system of graded inequality.

According to Ambedkar, caste is fundamentally different from other forms of social hierarchy because it divides society into numerous hereditary groups arranged in a fixed hierarchy. Every caste enjoys superiority over those below it while remaining subordinate to those above it. This system prevents solidarity among the oppressed and enables the continued domination of privileged groups.

Since caste is maintained through religion, social customs, economic dependency, and political exclusion, Ambedkar concluded that its destruction requires struggle on every one of these fronts simultaneously. Social reform without political power would remain ineffective, while political democracy without social equality would remain unstable and incomplete.

Rights Are Won Through Struggle

A central theme running throughout Ambedkar's writings is that rights are never voluntarily granted by dominant groups. History demonstrates that every oppressed community has had to fight for justice through organized collective action.

Ambedkar repeatedly warned Dalits against depending upon the generosity or sympathy of upper-caste reformers. He believed that charity humiliates whereas rights confer dignity. Justice cannot rest upon compassion but must be secured through equality before the law and equal participation in political power.

For this reason, Ambedkar emphasized self-reliance. He encouraged Dalits to become active participants in shaping their own destiny rather than passive recipients of reforms initiated by others. Freedom achieved through struggle possesses moral and political value because it transforms the oppressed into conscious citizens rather than beneficiaries of benevolence.

Dr. Ambedkar had said, “lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers but by relentless struggle.”

Educate: The Foundation of Liberation

Ambedkar regarded education as the first condition of emancipation. Having personally experienced the humiliations imposed by caste discrimination despite his extraordinary academic achievements, he understood both the transformative potential of education and the barriers preventing Dalits from acquiring it.

Education, in Ambedkar's view, was not simply a means of obtaining employment. It cultivated rationality, scientific thinking, self-respect, and political awareness. An educated community could challenge religious superstition, question oppressive customs, understand constitutional rights, and participate effectively in democratic institutions.

He repeatedly appealed to Dalit parents to educate their children even under conditions of extreme poverty. The struggle for schools, scholarships, hostels, higher education, and professional opportunities formed an essential component of his broader programme for social emancipation.

Today, Ambedkar's insistence on education remains highly relevant in addressing educational inequality, digital exclusion, and unequal access to quality institutions.

Agitate: Democratic Resistance to Injustice

The second element of Ambedkar's programme was agitation. This term has often been misunderstood. Ambedkar did not advocate violence or lawlessness. Instead, he believed that injustice must be confronted through peaceful yet determined democratic action.

Agitation included public meetings, processions, satyagrahas, petitions, legal challenges, newspaper campaigns, legislative advocacy, and political mobilization. Silence in the face of injustice, according to Ambedkar, only strengthened oppressive institutions.

His own political career illustrates this philosophy. The Mahad Satyagraha of 1927 asserted the right of untouchables to draw water from a public tank. Although seemingly a struggle over access to water, it was in reality a struggle for equal citizenship and human dignity. Likewise, the Kalaram Temple Entry Movement challenged the religious exclusion imposed upon Dalits, exposing the contradiction between the proclaimed universality of Hindu religion and the actual practice of caste discrimination.

These struggles demonstrated Ambedkar's belief that symbolic acts of resistance could awaken political consciousness among the oppressed while exposing the moral bankruptcy of discriminatory institutions.

Organize: Collective Strength as Political Power

Ambedkar recognized that education and agitation would remain ineffective without organization. Individual achievement could not dismantle a system sustained by collective privilege.

Consequently, he established organizations such as the Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, the Independent Labour Party, the Scheduled Castes Federation, and numerous journals that provided intellectual leadership to marginalized communities.

Organization enabled Dalits to articulate common demands, negotiate with governments, contest elections, influence legislation, and resist social discrimination. It transformed scattered victims of oppression into an organized political community capable of defending its interests.

Ambedkar repeatedly emphasized that disunity among oppressed groups benefited only those who wished to preserve existing hierarchies. Organization, therefore, became the indispensable instrument of democratic struggle.

Political Power and Social Transformation

One of Ambedkar's most significant contributions was his insistence that social equality required political power. Unlike reformers who concentrated solely on changing social attitudes, Ambedkar understood that laws, institutions, and representation profoundly influence social relations.

His demand for separate electorates, later modified into reserved legislative seats through the Poona Pact, reflected this understanding. Political representation ensured that Dalits would possess an independent voice in legislative bodies rather than relying upon upper-caste representatives to defend their interests.

Ambedkar famously observed that political power is the key to all social progress. Representation in legislatures, government services, educational institutions, and public administration would gradually alter the balance of power within Indian society.

His role as Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution enabled him to institutionalize many safeguards for equality, fundamental rights, affirmative action, and constitutional remedies. Yet he never regarded constitutional guarantees as sufficient by themselves.

Constitutional Methods and Continuous Vigilance

After independence, Ambedkar consistently argued that constitutional democracy requires continuous struggle. While he rejected violent revolution and unconstitutional methods where democratic remedies were available, he equally rejected complacency.

In his final address to the Constituent Assembly, he warned that constitutional morality cannot survive unless citizens remain vigilant in defending liberty, equality, and fraternity. Democratic institutions function effectively only when people actively participate in public life and resist attempts to undermine constitutional values.

Thus, Ambedkar's philosophy of struggle after independence emphasized elections, public debate, peaceful protest, judicial remedies, legislative action, and civil society mobilization. Constitutional methods became instruments of organized democratic struggle rather than substitutes for social movements.

The Religious Dimension of Struggle

Ambedkar ultimately concluded that caste was inseparable from the religious doctrines that sanctioned it. He therefore argued that social equality could not be fully realized within a religious framework that treated hierarchy as sacred.

His conversion to Buddhism in October 1956 represented the culmination of decades of intellectual and political struggle. It was not merely a change of faith but a declaration of human dignity and equality. Through Navayana Buddhism, Ambedkar offered Dalits a moral philosophy founded upon liberty, equality, fraternity, rationality, and compassion.

The mass conversion movement demonstrated that struggle also involves creating alternative ethical and cultural foundations for society.

Economic Justice as an Essential Component of Liberation

Ambedkar consistently argued that caste oppression cannot be separated from economic exploitation. Landlessness, indebtedness, unemployment, exclusion from skilled occupations, and unequal access to resources reinforced social discrimination.

He therefore advocated labour rights, state intervention in key industries, social insurance, living wages, land reforms, and public welfare measures. Economic independence would enable Dalits to resist caste domination more effectively.

His economic thought anticipated many contemporary discussions concerning inclusive development, social security, and distributive justice.

Women and the Dalit Movement

Ambedkar regarded women's emancipation as inseparable from the emancipation of Dalits. He encouraged women to participate actively in political movements and public life. He campaigned for women's education, equal property rights, maternity benefits, and legal reforms through the Hindu Code Bill.

He understood that caste reproduces itself through patriarchal control over marriage and family. Consequently, the struggle against caste necessarily required the struggle against gender inequality.

Contemporary Relevance

More than seven decades after Ambedkar's death, caste discrimination continues to exist despite constitutional guarantees. Atrocities against Scheduled Castes, discrimination in educational institutions, unequal access to land and employment, manual scavenging, residential segregation, and social exclusion demonstrate that legal equality alone has not eliminated structural inequality.

Ambedkar's philosophy therefore remains profoundly relevant. His emphasis on education is reflected in continuing struggles for equal access to quality schools and universities. His insistence upon organization inspires Dalit movements, student organizations, labour unions, women's groups, and civil society initiatives. His advocacy of constitutional methods provides guidance for defending democratic institutions and fundamental rights.

Equally significant is his insistence upon fraternity. Ambedkar understood that liberty and equality cannot flourish in a society lacking mutual respect and shared citizenship. The struggle for Dalit emancipation is therefore not merely a struggle for one community but for the democratization of Indian society itself.

Conclusion

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar conceived struggle as the indispensable path to the emancipation of Dalits. Rejecting charity, paternalism, and passive reform, he argued that liberation requires education, democratic agitation, collective organization, political representation, constitutional action, economic justice, and moral transformation. His struggles at Mahad, Nashik, the Round Table Conferences, the Constituent Assembly, and finally through conversion to Buddhism illustrate a coherent philosophy aimed at dismantling every institutional basis of caste oppression.

Ambedkar's enduring message is that oppressed communities become free not when others choose to liberate them but when they themselves become conscious, organized, and determined to claim their rights. His call to "Educate, Agitate, Organize" continues to serve as a timeless programme for achieving liberty, equality, fraternity, and human dignity. In contemporary India, where caste-based inequalities persist despite constitutional guarantees, Ambedkar's conception of struggle remains both an ethical imperative and a practical guide for building a truly democratic and socially just society.

Zelliot, Dr. Eleanor - Interview on Dalit Liberation, Hindutva Fascism and Cultural Revolution - By Yoginder Sikand

Zelliot, Dr. Eleanor - Interview on Dalit Liberation, 
Hindutva Fascism and Cultural Revolution

- By Yoginder Sikand

Dr. Eleanor Zelliot, a leading American Scholar, has done pioneering work through her studies of various aspects of the Dalit liberation movement, about which she speaks here to Yoginder Sikand.

Q:  How did you develop an interest in the Dalit Movement?

A:  I got interested in Ambedkar when I was reading widely about India when I was at the university, and found his name in most books which I referred to. I however, had no analyze to explain his rise. I have been supporting the African-American movement since I was 14, so the comparable Indian movement was a natural subject for me.

Q:  You have written a great deal on Dalit Cultures. How would you define that term ?

A:  Every act, including a poem, song, object or design that a person who defines himself or herself as a Dalit does or creates act of creation arising out of the fact of the consciousness of one's being a Dalit is a part of Dalit Culture.

Q.  Can non-Dalits play any role in developing Dalit Culture?

A.  A white man cannot write Black literature, though he can write wonderfully well about Black society.

John Griffin, a white American sociologist, painted himself black, lived in a black ghetto for two months, and then wrote a book which be claimed faithfully represented an insider 's view of Black society in America.

But the blacks asserted that despite this attempt at identifying with them, he was unable to fully capture the story of their plight.

The same is true for the Dalits in India. Non-Dalits cannot write Dalit literature, but they have a crucial role to play in facilitating its development. The social awakening brought about by non-Dalit reformers in Maharashtra such as Ranade, Agarkar and Bhandarkar did play a crucial role in the later rise of the Ambedkarite movement. A group of Maharashtrian non-Dalits were the first to publish radical literature written by Dalits. I therefore see the possibility of non-Dalits being facilitators to the Dalit movement but not its guides or preachers. Non-Dalits cannot direct the Dalit movement. When Gandhi announced that he was a "Harijan” that ended forever the possibility of his leadership of the Dalits.

Q.  Do you see the possibility of a radical liberation theology on Latin American lines emerging in Ambedkarite Buddhism today?

A.  To a great extent, conversion to Buddhism has meant psychological liberation to many Dalits. The Dalits today appear to be moving towards a socially more engaged Buddhism, but not really in the direction of liberation theology. This is akin to the recent developments in Thai and Vietnamese Buddhism. The Dalits could learn a lot from the efforts of people like the Vietnamese scholar Thich Nat Than who teaches "Buddhism and Social Action" in France. There are several training institutes for the Buddhist Sangha in Maharashtra, but 1 am not sure if the Sangha is really necessary. What is required are more lay teachers moving from one Vihara E or Dalit settlement to the other.

There is also a pressing need to develop Buddhist cultural activities to transmit the message of social emancipation through dramas, folk songs etc. The cultural side of Buddhism bas been neglected by the Sangha. Buddhism appeals directly to the intellectual, but for the masses one requires more colour, more activity.

Q:  But are these efforts radical enough or are they at best reformist?

A:  I am not quite sure what the term "Revolution" really means today. Marxists in many countries, while not ignoring macro-level issues, are thinking in terms of local problems, grassroots level organizations and decentralized leadership. And as far as liberation theology E is concerned, I do not think it has as yet emerged in India and most certainly not in Hinduism. Instead, what has happened is that the secular Indian intelligentsia has left the field of religion completely to the conservatives and reactionaries. In such a situation, where is the possibility of liberation theology emerging?

Q.  Is it possible to creatively draw upon the epics, legends and collective memory of the Dalits and other oppressed groups to assist in their mobilization for social emancipation?

A. Such a venture would work wonders for arousing the awareness of the Dalits. Much work has to be done to collect the peoples own versions of history or oral history their stories and songs of defiance of caste oppression, etc. These can then be used by activists in the field in a creative way. For instance, the stories of Eklavya, Shambhukh and the ballads of the Dusadhs of Bihar that an associate of mine has collected, could be used as crucial images in the creation of a positive Dalit culture. Dalit culture and the Dalit movement cannot be built on the mere negative platform of anti-Brahminism. The infusing of Dalit culture with the images of the long-forgotten Dalit heroes and heroines would serve as a positive foundation of the Dalit cultural movement.

Q:  Would the Ambedkarite Dalit cultural movement that you talk about be able to unite the various Dalit castes?

A:  I feel that Ambedkarites ought to make efforts to link their movement to the local folk heroes and anti-caste charismatic leaders of the various Dalit castes so that its appeal could be much wider. I saw a good instance of this at the Ravidas Temple at Ramakrishnapuram in New Delhi recently. A picture of Ambedkar there is placed next to one of Ravidas and this is an effective means to link the Ravidasis to the Ambedkarite Movement. However, it is also a fact that the Bhakti and a Untouchable Saints had a limited social programme, and the Dalit Cultural Movement needs to be aware of this. Preaching the equality of all people in the eyes of God is not the same as actually transforming society in the direction of social equality.

Q:  Is it not the case that many Dalits today have almost turned Ambedkar into another divine prophet and thereby refuse to critically evaluate or re-interpret Ambedkarism?

A:  It is true that many Dalit Buddhists are not going beyond Ambedkar. In the minds of these Dalits, Ambedkar was the one who gave them self-respect, and so they feel the same way about him as many Indians feel about their "Gurus". As regards the need to creatively reinterpret Ambedkarism today, some Dalits do not seem to agree and they appear to be arguing that if Marxism was in existence for 150 years but Marx was not capable of being critically evaluated until only some years ago, a somewhat similar logic operates in their strict adherence to the views articulated by Ambedkar.

Q: Do you sense any danger to the Dalit Movement as the result of the growing threat of Brahminical Hindu chauvinism?

A:  The RSS is trying to co-opt Ambedkar. They even go to the extent of claiming that Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, and Ambedkar had similar aims!- (laughs)...If the RSS are genuinely admirers of Ambedkar they ought to denounce caste and convert to Buddhism as Ambedkar did! It is simply impossible to go back to the Varna System as many Hindu revivalists argue. In today's context only the Brahmin Varna has any meaning and sociological relevance. Even in the Varna system the Shudras are considered to be menials, so attempting to revive this system would not change their degraded status at all.

A New Vision and an Action Plan for Dalits (Dr. R. P. Mani)

Dear Mr

Interview of Bhagwan Das : A Legendary Ambedkarite

Interview of Bhagwan Das : A Legendary Ambedkarite
Bhagwan Das is a Delhi-based Dalit lawyer. Author of numerous books on Dalit history and Ambedkarism, he is associated with several Dalit organisations. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he speaks about the religious traditions of the sweeper community to which he belongs
and about the challenges to the Dalit movement from Hindutva, which he identifies as the contemporary face of Brahminism.
Q: How did you get involved in the Dalit movement?
A: I was born in an Untouchable family in Himachal Pradesh. My father used to work as a sweeper in a post office. My mother was also from a sweeper family, but one which was semi-Muslim. I had the opportunity to meet Dr .Ambedkar on several occasions. I first met him in Bombay in 1943. After I joined the Air Force and got a posting in Bombay, I would regularly go to his house to meet him, three times a week. I would do the paper work that he would give me-making clippings from
newspapers, typing, procuring information that he required from different offices and so on. So, that is how I began getting involved in the Dalit struggle. When Dr .Ambedkar converted to Buddhism in 1956, I followed in his footsteps and in 1957 and embraced Buddhismalong with my family.
Q: Why did Dr .Ambedkar convert to Buddhism?
A: The Dalits have never been Hindus, because, being outcastes, they are outside the four-fold Hindu caste system. Buddhism, according to Dr. Ambedkar, was the original religion of the Dalits. It is a religion of freedom and liberation. Dr. Ambedkar believed, and rightly so, that all major social and political revolutions have been preceded by cultural and religious revolutions, and so for the Dalit struggle conversion was a fundamental necessity. We Dalits have never been Hndus. Actually, we had our own religious systems quite distinct from Brahminical beliefs and practices. Take the case of my own community, the sweepers (Bhangis). Their status was ambiguous. They were neither Hindus nor Muslims. It was difficult to place us anywhere because we did not worship any Hindu gods and nor did we go to mosques to pray. We had our own folk heroes whom we worshipped, but this tradition is now fast being forgotten, because Hindu organisations are desperately trying to Hinduise us. We sweepers had our own patron saint called Lal Beg. Later, the Arya Samajists tried to convert us into Hindus by claiming that we were descendants of Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, but I, for one, never accepted this myth.
Q: Who was Lal Beg?
A: Some say that Lal Beg was actually Lal Bhikku, who could have been a Buddhist saint. If you read the prayers of the sweeper community of northern India which are dedicated to Lal Beg you get a very interesting picture. These prayers are called Kursi Namas. They were collected together by Youngson and published in The Indian Antiquaries. They read like the first book of the Genesis in the Old Testament, tracing the lineage of our heroes. The Kursi Namas very clearly tell us that the sweepers are neither Hindus nor Muslims. There is no mention of any Hindu gods like Rama or Krishna in them. But, very interestingly, the Kursi Namas all begin with the Qur'anic invocation Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim (`In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most ompassionate'), which is the standard Islamic form with which every verse of the Qur'an but one begins. And, they all end with the cry, which again is very Islamic, of `Bolo Momino Vohi Ek Hai!' [Say, O believers, that He alone is the One True Being!]. Now, at several places in the Kursi Namas, the names Lal Beg and Bala Shah are used interchangeably. Bala Shah was a leading Punjabi Sufi saint. The Punjabi Sufi Waris Shah writes in his Heer, which is really an encyclopedia of the Punjab of his times, that Bala Shah was the Pir or Sufi preceptor of two so-called low castes, the sweepers or Chuhras and the Pasis [Bala Pir Ai Churiyan Pasiyan Da].
Q: Are the sweepers still aware of this tradition?
A: Unfortunately, very few are, and this tradition is fast disappearing. One reason is because Hindu organisations have been sparing no effort to absorb the sweepers into the Hindu fold so as to increase Hindu numbers. They were afraid that otherwise the sweepers would all convert to Christianity, a process that began in 1873 and continued right until 1931. So, they used all means to prevent the conversion of the sweepers. As part of this broader agenda, they started selling the
story that the sweepers are actually Valmikis, descendants of Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana. In order to convince the sweepers of their claims, they argued that Bala Shah, the other name for Lal Beg, wasactually just a corrupted form of the name Valmiki.
O: But how could that be, considering that in the Ramayana Valmiki legitimises the caste system? He tells us that Rama beheaded the Shudra Shambukh simply because he was meditating in order to ascend to the heavens in his physical body?
A: Exactly, so it is just a myth. The problem with this so-called Valmiki connection is: which Valmiki are they talking about? The Brahminical Valmiki who is a Brahmin and claims to be the tenth son of Varuna? Or the Valmiki mentioned in the Puranas as a dacoit? The Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana champions the caste system, so how could he have been a sweeper? He was actually a Brahmin. The problem with the alleged connection between this Valmiki and the sweepers is
that at least when the Chamars claim Ravidas there's a link between the two, and so is the case with the claims of the Julahas and Bunkars [weavers] vis-a-vis Kabir, but there is absolutely nothing to link the Valmiki of the Ramayana with the sweepers.

Q: Has the attempted Sanskritisation of the sweepers by taking recourse to this mythical connection between them and Valmiki actually succeeded in improving their social status?
A: No, not at all. I would not call this process Sanskritisation. Rather, it was a cheap imitation of certain Brahminical customs and rituals. Sanskritisation does not result in any social mobility for
the sweepers. The trouble with caste is that if you try to throw it out from the front door, it creeps back again through the window or the back door. This has been the fate of conversion movements among the Dalits to Christianity, Sikhism and Islam as well, although these religions, in theory, are egalitarian, unlike Hinduism. As I see it, what is called Sanskritisation may result in some superficial changes of customs and names, but it does not result in any change in the
attitudes of the so-called `upper' castes towards the Dalits. That has been the experience of the sweepers who now claim to be Valmikis. So, if a sweeper begins to call himself a Valmiki or a Chamar a Ravidasi or Ad-Dharmi or a carpenter a Vishwakarma, this makes no fundamental
change in the attitudes of the Hindus towards them.
Q: What implications do you see Sanskritisation having for the Dalit liberation struggle?
A: Sanskritisation, to my mind, is simply another name for conversion of the Dalits to Hinduism, or, to be more precise, Brahminism, It has had a very negative impact on the Dalit quest for liberation. It further divides the Dalits. Take the case of the Chamars, the most populous caste in north India. Because of the process of what you call Sanskritisation, they are now divided into 62 sub-castes, none of which intermarries with the others. In Uttar Pradesh, the sweepers are
divided into several endogamous groups, And, besides this, Sanskritisation really does not result in any change in the attitudes of those who have been practicing untouchability towards them for
centuries. Shapes may change, forms may change, but the deep-rooted hatred remains. As I see it, the Hinduisation of the Dalits makes the process of Dalit assertion much more difficult, because the more Hinduised Dalit castes begin to hate their own people who are less Hinduised. Now, if you ask a Valmiki man to marry a Dhanuk or Bansphod woman, he would refuse, because the Dhanuks and Bansphods are much less Hinduised than the Valmikis.
Q: What implications does the Hindutva agenda have for the Dalit communities and their struggle for liberation?
A: In my opinion, the Hindutva organisations would like to bring the Dalits, who are actually not Hindus, into the Hindu fold and leave them there, at the bottom of the heap. Now, that is also what Gandhi attempted to do. He used to tell the Dalits that God had created them simply to serve the so-called upper castes and that they should carry on with their caste occupations in the hope that in their next life they would be born in a higher caste. That is also what the Hindutva project is all about. So, from the Dalit point of view, the rise of Hindutva is a very dangerous development. If you are really serious about bringing about a fundamental structural change, and not simply
cosmetic change, in this caste-ridden society whose roots are in religion, you have to strike at both the caste system as well as the religious ideology that gives it legitimacy. But this the Hindutva
organisations cannot and will not do.
Q: In an ideal Hindutva set-up, what would be the status of the Dalits?
A: In the Hindutva scheme of things, the ideal, so-called 'Golden Age' which they want to drag us back to is the age of the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Gita, the Manusmriti. What was the position of the Dalits and Shudras then? We were treated worse than slaves, and this was given religious sanction by these Brahminical scriptures that the Hindutvawadis champion. So, it may have certainly been a 'Golden Age' for them, but it was beyond doubt the darkest period in history for us Dalits. As I see it, the Hindutva organisations all aim at enforcing the varna system in some form or the other, and this has the most dangerous implications for us. I was recently reading a book by Golwalkar, one-time supremo of the RSS, where he says that the caste system did no harm at all. That glorification of caste may be good from their point of view, but not for us, certainly. To my mind, the rise of Hindutva is actually a product of growing Dalit consciousness, and as the Dalits have now begun struggling for their rights the Brahminical establishment, represented by Hindutva groups, are seeking to scuttle the Dalit liberation quest by diverting the Dalits to fight with other groups like the Muslims and the Christians.
Q: What do you think is the role of religion in the broader Dalitstruggle?
A: I personally feel that there are three institutions that are necessary for the proper functioning of a society. Firstly, the institution of marriage. Secondly, the institution of government. And thirdly, the institution of religion which gives people a moral code to live by and binds them together. This question agitated the mind of Dr .Ambedkar when he was considering severing his ties with Hinduism, with which the Dalits have only very nominally been attached historically. So, he gave us a new interpretation of Buddhism which resembles in many respects the liberation theology of the South American Catholics. The starting point in his religious quest was: What is the role of religion in society? He stressed that religion is a good nurse but can be a bad mistress, because the institution of religion has historically played both a constructive as well as a very destructive role.
Q: But many Mahayanist and Theravadin Buddhists claim that Ambedkar's interpretation of Buddhism is not in accordance with fundamental Buddhist teachings.
A: It is true that Dr .Ambedkar's interpretation of the Buddhist dhamma differs in several important respects from both the Mahayana and the Theravada, but then right from the early Buddhist period, from soon after the death of the Buddha, Buddhism has been characterized by a tremendous internal diversity. In Japan, for instance, there are some 1260 different Buddhist sects.
Q: What do you feel about the emergence of what is called Dalit Christian theology ?
A: Dalit Christian theology emerged in the last one decade, primarily as a response to the growing assertion of the Dalits. My own personal feeling is that it is being used as a means of self-defence by Dalits within the Church to challenge the `upper' caste hegemony in the Church structures and hierarchies. I don't see Dalit Christian theology as having had any noticeable impact on the non-Christian Dalits, however. In fact, many among the latter are quite suspicious of the aims of the Church now that it has suddenly begun to present itself as the champion of the Dalits. I feel that the Church authorities are now greatly alarmed as the number of Christians is going down, as several Dalit Christians are leaving the Church to avail of reservation benefits, which, according to the law, are not available to Christian Dalits. So, maybe Dalit Christian theology is also a means to stem that tide.
Q: So, would you say that the trend among the Dalits today is towards conversion to Buddhism rather than to Christianity?
A: Yes, at least that is how I see it. Buddhism gives them a sense of pride and identity and connects them to a glorious chapter in their own history. But the Buddhist conversion movement is not proceeding as rapidly as we would have liked it to. One reason is that very little attention has been paid to the proper training of bhikkhus [Buddhist monks], although this is something that Ambedkar seriously urged. He said that we should have regular seminaries for training monks, just
as the early Buddhists had, in the form of universities such as at Nalanda and Taxila. To begin with, we tried sending our monks to Thailand for training, but many of them went off to the West after
completing their course, instead of coming back to India to serve here. So, this is a great problem for us. But we are now planning to set up a seminary for training bhikkhus in the Terai region in Uttar Pradesh, where they will be taught the Buddhist scriptures, the philosophy of Ambedkarism as well as comparative religions.
Q: What has been the impact of the conversion to Buddhism on the Mahars of Maharashtra, the community to which Ambedkar belonged?
A: As I see it, their conversion has been largely limited to a change of rituals, and has not really made much of a difference in their social status. But because of their conversion many of them have givenu up drinking alcohol and worshipping Hindu gods like Rama and Krishna. In Maharashtra today, Buddhists are synonymous largely with Mahars, and so the attitudes of others towards them has not really changed, but at least conversion has given them a new sense of identity and self-respect.
Q: In your opinion, can conversion to Buddhism help the process of undermining the structures of caste?
A: That is what is happening today, although gradually. For instance, the Ambedkar Mission Society, with which I am associated, and whose members are all Buddhists, insists that at least one person in the family of all our members must marry outside his or her own caste. This is the only way to destroy the caste system. If Dalits from different castes begin to convert to Buddhism and start inter-marrying, the internal divisions that have historically worked to weaken the Dalits will gradually begin to disappear. Conversion to Buddhism, in my view, will help consolidate the Dalits into one community, giving them a sense of pride and a positive identity. If they do not convert, they will remain divided into several hundred caste groups and will not be able to assert themselves at all.
Posted by S.R. Darapuri I.P.S.(Retd.) at 11/19/2010 07:23:00 PM
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