The Socio-political Ideas of BR Ambedkar

Liberal constitutionalism in a creative mould

Bidyut Chakrabarty

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367586881
• eBook ISBN: 9781351124423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), popularly known as Babasaheb stands out for his relentless battle against caste discrimination. He was a voice for the marginalized of India's demography that remained peripheral due to well-entrenched socio-economic and political prejudices.

This book is an analytical account of how Ambedkar's socio-political ideas evolved as part of his wider politico-ideological challenge against self-motivated designs for exploitation of human beings by human beings. The author contends that it was an ideological discourse that he built in a context when dominant nationalist viewpoints seem to have hardly left space for any other discourse to grow. The book argues that Ambedkar's socio-political ideas were an outcome of his personal experiences of social atrocities which were justified as integral to the caste system. The book comprises six substantial chapters which delve into the socio-political ideas of BR Ambedkar, concentrating on those sets of ideas through which he established his claim as an original thinker in opposition to the dominant nationalist discourse. Unlike the most conventional studies of Ambedkar's thoughts and ideas, the book provides a new methodological tool to decipher their conceptual roots. It is therefore argued that Babasaheb's unique conceptualization of social justice was not just an outcome of his existential existence of being a Dalit, but an offshoot of his own understanding of liberalism as a mode of emancipating human beings from shackles of authority, power and domination.

Examining Ambedkar's ideas, the book charts and examines the growth and consolidation of constitutional democracy in India since it was inaugurated with the acceptance of the 1950 Constitution. It will be of interest to scholars in the fields of Indian political theory, South Asian politics and history.

Part I

The moment of departure

History is a design but is not pre-determined since the processes that constitute history are outcome of events, ideas and also their reconceptualization in specific socio-economic and political milieu. In other words, history can never be fixed; it is a constantly flowing wave which one can capture in an explanatory mould. What is critical in history is the context which shapes, if not determines, its nature and, to a significant extent, texture. For instance, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) is a text that evolved out of uncertainty that the British society had witnessed in the seventeenth century, the culmination of which took place in 1688 with the ascendancy of parliament following the Glorious Revolution. This remarkable text represents a moment of departure in the sense that it not only articulated the massive ideational transformation but also helped understand the context for the growth and consolidation of newer ideas, conceptual parameters and also politico-ideological designs signifying newer concerns. While fiercely critiquing the prevalent Hindu social order, BR Ambedkar evolved a significantly new mode of thinking which was not exactly in conformity with the prevalent ones because it had contrarian politico-ideological antecedents. A votary of inclusive social existence, Babasaheb raised his voice against social exclusion which, he strongly felt, was an outcome of well-entrenched prejudices, upheld by the upper caste Hindus for protecting their selfish interests. It was a system that drew sustenance from the distorted interpretation of the so-called authentic texts supportive of Hindu social order. In so doing, he deployed newer conceptual categories which he evolved, of course, on the basis of his understanding of the basic values of Enlightenment philosophy besides the context in which he was born and nurtured. The primary concern here is to discern and elaborate some of those dominant ideas that form the core of Ambedkar’s politicoideological discourse which radically altered the texture of the nationalist politics as soon as it unfolded.

A liberal to the core, Ambedkar endeavoured to constitutionalize India in accordance with the core principles and values of Enlightenment philosophy. Sources are manifold: his existential experiences of being born as a Mahar in a highly caste-conscious Maratha society; his exposure to Western liberal values both as a student and an activist, and finally, the unquestionable influence of his academic mentor, John Dewey, at Columbia University in the US. There is no denying that his ideas were an offshoot of his involvement as an activist in various campaigns and also his sustained effort in understanding the historicalsociological roots of social exclusion in India. A careful scan of his writings shows that while questioning the prevalent system of social prejudices, which are argued to be axiomatic, he also evolved his mode of conceptualization which creates a new genre of thought raising newer issues and uncomfortable questions. At a rather conventional level, it is surely a point of departure since Babasaheb’s socio-political ideas did not appear to have been critical in shaping the mainstream nationalist thinking; at a far more theoretically innovative level, they also epitomize a moment of departure because his conceptual intervention helped build a meaningful politico-ideological design for inclusive human existence which the nationalists did not seem to appreciate perhaps for specific strategic reasons.

1 Reconceptualizing conventional ideas and values

BR Ambedkar was, like Gandhi, an activist-cum-theoretician. A votary of inclusive social existence, he raised his voice against social exclusion which, he strongly felt, was an outcome of well-entrenched prejudices, upheld by the upper-caste Hindus for protecting their selfish interests. It was a system that drew sustenance from the distorted interpretation of the so-called authentic texts supportive of Hindu social order. In so doing, he deployed newer conceptual categories which he evolved, of course, on the basis of his understanding of the basic values of Enlightenment philosophy and the context in which he was born and nurtured. The primary concern here is to discern and elaborate some of those dominant ideas that form the core of Babasaheb’s politico-ideological discourse which radically altered the texture of the nationalist politics as soon as it unfolded.

Ambedkar was a liberal par excellence, which he epitomized in his endeavour to constitutionalize India in accordance with the core principles and values of Enlightenment philosophy. Sources are manifold: his existential experiences of being born as a Mahar in a highly caste-conscious Maratha society; his exposure to Western liberal values both as a student and an activist, and finally, the unquestionable influence of his academic mentor, John Dewey, at Columbia University in the US. There is no denying that his ideas were an offshoot of his involvement as an activist in various campaigns and also his sustained effort in understanding the historical-sociological roots of social exclusion in India. A careful scan of his writings shows that while questioning the prevalent system of social prejudices, which are argued to be axiomatic, he also evolved his mode of conceptualization which creates a new genre of thought raising newer issues and uncomfortable questions. The text that he left for posterity reveals that he formulated a number of concepts to address ‘the social abnormalities’ that he confronted and also reformulated some of the acceptable conceptual parameters while being engaged with the available literature justifying social exclusion as given. There were two issues which appeared to have bothered him most: on the one hand, he was not persuaded to believe that graded inequality based on the caste hierarchy was justified because, in his perception, it was created with a socio-economic motive, nurtured by the caste Hindus exclusively for partisan interests; hence, on the other, while exposing the inherent limitations of the arguments in favour of caste segregation, Babasaheb also took up the cudgels against the leading nationalists, including Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who pursued the same discourse to defend Varnashrama. While conceptualizing Ambedkar’s socio-political ideas, one needs to be sensitive to two important sources of his ideational moorings. On the one hand, he was influenced, to a significant extent, by the Enlightenment values which came to him from his academic training in India and later in the West; one cannot however, on the other, discount the impact of India’s socio-economic context on the shaping of his perceptions and ideas. Besides drawing on his existential experiences as a Dalit, he also evolved his distinct approach to socio-political issues out of his dialectical interactions with the Congress ideologues, including Gandhi. Since his conceptual discourse was primarily an outcome of his encounter with the established ideas, being nurtured by the mainstream nationalists, it was not, as per a commentator, ‘philosophical, but sociological, legal, moral, public policy-driven and even rhetorical’.¹ In other words, it was articulated principally in the activist perspective which clearly drew on those major, and also significant, philosophical/ conceptual paradigms which lent voice to the struggle against well-entrenched divisive social prejudices. There are, of course, universal parallels: whether it was against racism in the US or caste atrocities in India, the oppositional voices were articulated with identical ideological aims and objectives. A cursory look at these campaigns confirms that the prevalent socio-economic context is as important as the ideas that generate concerns and also justify attacking the artificially designed system in support of vested interests. So, Babasaheb’s sociopolitical ideas can be said to have upheld and also contributed to a genre of thinking that flourished in adverse circumstances and also in contradiction with the so-called settled ideas and systemic memory. One should also remember that the views and ideas that he put forward seem to have followed the footsteps of Jotirao Phule (1827–1890), the Marathi who raised his voice against indignities being meted out to the lower castes for no fault of their own.²

By delving into those sets of ideas through which BR Ambedkar established his claim as an original thinker in opposition to the dominant nationalist discourse, the chapter seeks to identify the ideational trend that he seems to have privileged. As is obvious, these ideas cannot be understood, let alone conceptualized, independent of the context in which Babasaheb pursued his relentless struggle for social empowerment in circumstances which were not exactly in his favour. It was therefore not an easy task; nonetheless, by being committed to social justice and unstinted freedom for the underprivileged, he, while fighting the battle against caste discrimination, actually evolved a discourse with application to similar circumstances in which discrimination was justified and also endorsed as perfect. In other words, although Babasaheb evolved his mode of thinking in the specific context of India, his ideas have universal application since they are empowering and also inspirational to those who keep on suffering due to entrenched social prejudices, complemented by political pampering of one section of the population against another and lack of economic equality.

The aim of this chapter is to argue that BR Ambedkar was an activist-cumthinker, just like Gandhi, who also had evolved a distinct set of ideas that informed his kind of politics. It was a complex mode of thinking combining his concern for social justice with the politico-constitutional design that he built to translate his politico-ideological preferences into reality. Broadly speaking, BR Ambedkar addressed two complementary issues: first, there were issues which attracted his attention which are primarily existential issues; and there were issues which are epistemological in the sense that they represent his quest for a new defence (or otherwise) of what he received as derivative ideas. In view of this analytical division, the chapter will focus on the following ideas, classified under two broad subheadings – existential constraints and epistemological interventions – which Babasaheb had adequately developed in his long battle for human empowerment and against the debilitating social tendencies.

Existential constraints as sources of a critique

As is well known, one’s social context acts decisively in shaping one’s approach to issues concerning one’s life. BR Ambedkar was no exception here. With his birth as a Dalit, he was placed in a social universe which privileged the non-Dalits over their Dalit counterparts. This was sacrosanct and hence needed to be upheld. Despite occasional challenges by social reformers, including Dalit ideologues and activists, the situation did not seem to be radically different when Babasaheb arrived on the scene. The social context in which he engaged with the so-called divinely-ordained customary practices was an important source of his epistemological concerns. By subjecting the socially justified but discriminatory designs of governing inter-personal relationships, he created a new genre of thinking by reconceptualizing some of the fundamental theoretical categories within, of course, the conceptual paradigm of constitutional liberalism. This does not therefore seem odd that Babasaheb strongly felt that in liberal constitutional governance lay the liberation of the untouchables; and, hence, from the very beginning of his political career, he always espoused for constitution-driven public governance, a belief that he championed whenever occasion arose. Illustrative here is the series of his speeches that he delivered before the 1919 Southborough Commission (also known as the Franchise Commission), the 1930–1932 Round Table Conferences and later the 1946–1949 Constituent Assembly. It has been rightly argued that Ambedkar’s ‘political trajectory was distinguished by his lifelong effort to find a language into which the existential realities of Dalit deprivation could be adequately translated’.³ The purpose was to unleash processes guaranteeing ‘the existential fullness of personhood historically denied to Dalits and to develop means of redress to counter the complex inequities of the caste order’.⁴ Implicit here are two important concerns which are critical to his politico-ideological aims: on the one hand, by arguing that Dalits were as equal as anybody else, he sought to create an independent space for them within the Jeffersonian claim of men being born equal, a classical liberal conceptualization that justified Ambedkar’s legitimate claim of Dalits being treated equally. While defending his stance, he, on the other, argued in classical liberal terms when he insisted that significant social transformation was possible if the state was proactively involved in such processes. In other words, by stressing the importance of the state, rule of law, supported by a complementary mindset, and, of course, the alert Dalits, he reiterated the familiar li...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I The moment of departure
• Part II The moment of manoeuvre
• Part III The moment of arrival
• Conclusion
• Select bibliography
• Index