Ambedkar-Philosophy of Hinduism

AMBEDKAR'S PHILOSOPHY OF HINDUISM AND CONTEMPORARY CRITIQUES
PROF. M. M. NINAN
VIII
DR. RADHAKRISHNAN
(1888-1975)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was first Vice President of India and second President of India. He was also a
philosopher and introduced the thinking of western idealist philosophers into Indian thought.
Very early in the history of Hinduism, the caste distinctions came to mean the various stratifications into which the
Hindu society settled. The confusion between the tribal and the occupational is the cause of the perpetuation of the
old exclusiveness of the tribal customs in the still stringent rules which govern the constitution of each caste. Caste
on its social side is a product of human organization and not a mystery of divine appointment. It is an attempt to
regulate society with a view to actual differences and ideal unity
The first reference to it is in the Purusa Sukta, where the different sections of society are regarded as the limbs of
the great self. Human society is an organic whole, the parts of which are naturally dependent in such a way that
each part is fulfilling its distinctive function conditions the fulfillment of function of its function by the rest.
In this sense the whole is present in each part, while each part is indispensable to the whole. Every society consists
of groups working for the fulfillment of the wants of the society.
As the different groups work for a common end they are bound by a sense of unity and social brotherhood. The
cultural and the spiritual, the military and the political, the economic classes and the unskilled workers
constitute the four-fold caste organization. The different functions of human life were clearly separated and their
specific and complementary character was recognized. Each caste has its social purpose and function, its own
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