Ambedkar-Philosophy of Hinduism

AMBEDKAR'S PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM AND CONTEMPORARY CRITIQUES
PROF. M. M. NINAN
Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Jyotiba Phule, Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar
" As the centuries elasped, different people in different parts of the country stood for the same cause. The
examples for Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Jyotiba Phule etc. come handy. They stood with because of their love for
Hindu society, and their intention to bring reform to it. The living epitome of valiance and fortitude, freedom fighter
Vinayak Damodar Sawarkar, who had spent several years in Andaman prison (Kala Pani) had also started his
battle against casteism coming back to his hometown.
"Gandhi, however, had a different attitude towards this problem. When Sawarkar had pleaded to Gandhi to
completely do away with caste system, Gandhi had termed the system to be one of the fundamentals of
Hinduism, not just an obsolete facet, that could be done away with. He coined the term Harijan for those
lower castes, but in effect, that compartmentalized the victims of casteism, paving way for separatist identity
politics.
"But there is a difference in fighting for unification and equality and fighting for a separate identiy. Unfortunately,
while Ambedkar led his fight against Casteism, his writings only reveal his hatred against Hinduism and Islam both.
For example, in “Phisolophy of Hinduism”, Ambedkar writes how Manu Smriti categorically advocates inequality
and caste system. In fact, he even writes that Bhagwad Geeta and Vedas also promote inequality. However, while
driving his point home, that Hinduism intrinsically promotes inequality, he does that with his in-built prejudices and
well-nurtured hatred as we’ll soon see.
"He mentions the Purush-sookta of the Vedas, and writes that Purushasukta recognises the division of society into
four sections as an ideal and that the ideal relationship between the four sections is inequality. However, he doesn’t
quote the exact meaning of Purush sukta which envisages different classes as different parts of human body. It
compares Brahman to the head, Kshatriyas to the chest and arms, Vaishyas to the belly and thighs, and Shuras to
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