Ambedkar-Philosophy of Hinduism

AMBEDKAR'S PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM AND CONTEMPORARY CRITIQUES
PROF. M. M. NINAN
he cook. Undoubtedly pottery was a great civilising influence.
• The Middle State of Barbarism began when man learned to domesticate wild animals. Man learned
that captive animals could be of service to him. Man now became a herdsman, no longer dependent
for food upon the precarious chase of wild animals. Milk procurable at all seasons made a highly
important addition to his dietary. With the aid of horse and camel he traversed wide areas hitherto
impassable. The captive animals became aids to commerce, which resulted in the dissemination of
commodities as well as of ideas.
• The next discovery was of the Art of smelting iron. This marks the highest stage of advancement of
barbaric man. With this discovery man became a "tool-making animal" who with his tool could fashion
wood and stone and build houses and bridges. This marks the close of the advancement made by
barbaric man.
The dividing line which marks off Barbaric people from Civilised people, in the fullest sense of the word
Civilisation, is the art of making ideas tangible by means of graphic signs— which is called the art of
writing.
With this man conquered time as he had with the earlier inventions conquered space. He could now record his
deeds and his thoughts. Henceforth, his knowledge, his poetical dreams, his moral aspirations might be
recorded in such form as to be read not merely by his contemporaries but by successive generations of remote
posterity. For man his history became safe and secure. This was the steepest assent and the climbing of it
marks the beginnings of civilisation. Stopping here for the moment let us ask in what state of civilisation are the
Primitive Tribes.
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