I read this small 50 page powerful text by B.R. Ambedkar which was originally intended to be a speech delivered in Lahore on request of an organization called the Jat Pat Todak Mandal. The radical nature of speech forced the organizers to cancel the event and later, Dr. Ambedkar got the address published himself for circulation.
It is a strong commentary about the ills of the caste system and how deeply it has affected the Indian society. He champions the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity and emphasizes that there cannot be any political or economic reform unless they're preceded by social reform. I found many arguments put forth by him to be extremely enlightening.
" Religion, social status, and property are all sources of power and authority, which one man has, to control the liberty of another. One is predominant at one stage; the other is predominant at another stage. That is the only difference. If liberty is the ideal, if liberty means the destruction of the dominion which one man holds over another, then obviously it cannot be insisted upon that economic reform must be the one kind of reform worthy of pursuit. If the source of power and dominion is, at any given time or in any given society, social and religious, then social reform and religious reform must be accepted as the necessary sort of reform. "
He strongly speaks out against people like Gandhi and Arya Samaj who under the garb of Varnasharm actually supported Caste system. Point by point he rips apart the arguments given by the caste system apologists and exposes the fallacies in their logic.
The problem starts in the second half of the lecture where he proposes to get rid of almost all the religious text of hindus and to have one book as the the solution to the problem. This is where I disagree with him the most.
" The real remedy is to destroy the belief in the sanctity of the Shastras."
The authority of Hindu scriptures is probably the most important issue raised by Dr. Ambedkar. He assumes the Hindus to be a monolithic entity like the Muslims and the Christians, a very contentious claim which needs to be debated. He insists that the tolerant nature of Hindus is actually the result of their indifference and weakness on the whole because they were always a divided lot. To anybody who finds such arguments credible, I would recommend reading "The Hindu View of Life" by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
Repeatedly he has quoted verses from Manusmriti (the law book of Hindus) to give sanction to his views regarding the horrible practice of untouchability. It's true that many heinous practices of Hindus find their origin in Manusmriti. However, Manusmriti is not only a very recent text, in many ways it is also contradictory to what has essentially been preached in Vedas. That is why to form any assumption about Hinduism based on Manusmriti would be grossly inaccurate.
It is such simplistic measures which have had led to the rise of dangerous ideologies like Nazism, and violent Communism. Also, the dogmatic belief in "one book" is the root cause of the rise of Islamic terrorism today. His proposal of involving religion with state is what I found to be the most ill-thought out argument.
"A priest should be the servant of the State, and should be subject to the disciplinary action of the State in the matter of his morals, beliefs, and worship, in addition to his being subject along with other citizens to the ordinary law of the land. "
We only have to look across the border and at the middle east as to what horrors religion can unleash when it becomes a state matter.
Irrespective of what I find to be its shortcomings, Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important work of political writing in India. Caste system is still prevalent in its most dangerous form in many parts of the country. This work by Dr. Ambedkar is a must read for many who have not experienced the worst of caste system.
This essay, written almost 80 years ago is still relevant and it changes the perspectives of the reader on the Indian society.In the second edition, Dr. Ambedkar has published the criticism from Mahatma Gandhi and has replied to it in a very lucid and passionate manner and exposed how hollow some of Gandhi's beliefs were. It's an eye opener for anybody who believes in the superiority of Hindusim and makes him face the ground reality as to why huge population of India converted to other religions over the years.
