Thread by @gauravsabnis

"I know that Hindus are sick of me. I know that I am not a persona grata with them. Knowing all this, I have deliberately kept myself away from them. I have no desire to inflict myself upon them. I have been giving expression to my views from my own platform"
#AmbedkarJayanti

"I have no desire to ascend the platform of the Hindus, to do within their sight what I have been doing within their hearing. If I am here it is because of your choice and not because of my wish. Yours is a cause of social reform."
#AmbedkarJayanti

"Under the rule of the Peshwas in the Maratha country, the untouchable was not allowed to use the public streets if a Hindu was coming along, lest he should pollute the Hindu by his shadow. The untouchable was required to have a black thread either on his wrist or around his neck

"his neck, as a sign or a mark to prevent the Hindus from getting themselves polluted by his touch by mistake. In Poona, the capital of the Peshwa, the untouchable was required to carry, strung from his waist, a broom to sweep away from behind himself the dust he trod on, "

"lest a Hindu walking on the same dust should be polluted. In Poona, the untouchable was required to carry an earthen pot hung around his neck wherever he went—for holding his spit, lest it falling on the earth should pollute a Hindu who might unknowingly happen to tread on it."

(Gaurav:) These are selected excerpts from Annihilation of Caste, a book/speech every Indian should read at least once a year in its entirety. Available for free in easy formats from his alma mater Columbia, it should be on every Indian smartphone.
#AmbedkarJayanti

I have kept his words almost exactly as they are, except maybe a tiny copy edit with a pronoun or a preposition to fit in a tweet.

That's the best way at least for me to celebrate #AmbedkarJayanti I think. Give his words a wider audience. So this will be an AOC thread.

"Let me take more recent facts. The tyranny practised by the Hindus upon the Balais, an untouchable community in Central India, will serve my purpose. You will find a report of this in the Times of India of 4th January 1928."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"High-caste Hindus—viz., Kalotas, Rajputs & Brahmins, including Patels & Patwaris of Kanaria, Bicholi-Hafsi, Bicholi-Mardana, & about 15 other villages in Indore district (of Indore State)—informed the Balais of their respective villages that if they wished to live among them,"

"they must conform to the following rules:

. Balais must not wear gold-lace-bordered pugrees.

. They must not wear dhotis with coloured or fancy borders.

. They must convey intimation of the death of any Hindu to relatives of the deceased—no matter how far away they live"

". In all Hindu marriages, Balais must play music before the processions and during the marriage.

. Balai women must not wear gold or silver ornaments; they must not wear fancy gowns or jackets.

. Balai women must attend all cases of confinement [=childbirth] of Hindu women."

"Balais must render services without demanding remuneration, and must accept whatever a Hindu is pleased to give.
If the Balais do not agree to abide by these terms, they must clear out of the villages.

Balais refused to comply; and the Hindu element proceeded against them."

"Balais were not allowed to get water from the village wells; they were not allowed to let go their cattle to graze. Balais were prohibited from passing through land owned by a Hindu, so that if the field of a Balai was surrounded by fields owned by Hindus,"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"the Balai could have no access to his own field. The Hindus also let their cattle graze down the fields of Balais. Balais submitted petitions to the Court of Indore against these persecutions; but as they could get no timely relief, and the oppression continued,"

"hundreds of Balais with their wives and children were obliged to abandon their homes—in which their ancestors had lived for generations—and to migrate to adjoining States: that is, to villages in Dhar, Dewas, Bagli, Bhopal, Gwalior and other States."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Hindus of Kavitha Gujarat ordered untouchables not to insist upon sending their children to the common village school maintained by Government. What sufferings untouchables of Kavitha had to undergo, for daring to exercise a civic right against wishes of Hindus, is well known.

"Ahmedabad dist Gujarat. In November 1935 some untouchable women of well-to-do families started fetching water in metal pots. The Hindus looked upon the use of metal pots by untouchables as an affront to their dignity, and assaulted the untouchable women for their impudence."

"An untouchable of Chakwara who had returned from a pilgrimage had arranged to give a dinner to his fellow untouchables of the village, as an act of religious piety. The host desired to treat the guests to a sumptuous meal, and the items served included ghee (butter) also."

"Hindus in their hundreds, armed with lathis, rushed to the scene, despoiled the food, and belaboured the untouchables—who left the food they had been served with and ran away for their lives. And why was this murderous assault committed on defenceless untouchables?"

"The reason given is that the untouchable host was impudent enough to serve ghee, and his untouchable guests were foolish enough to taste it."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Ghee is undoubtedly a luxury for the rich. But no one would think that consumption of ghee was a mark of high social status. The Hindus of Chakwara thought otherwise, and in righteous indignation avenged themselves for the wrong done to them by the untouchables,"

"who insulted them by treating ghee as an item of their food—which they ought to have known could not be theirs, consistently with the dignity of the Hindus."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"This means that an untouchable must not use ghee, even if he can afford to buy it, since it is an act of arrogance towards the Hindus. This happened on or about the 1st of April 1936!"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Having stated the facts, let me now ask the political-minded Hindus, "Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow a large class of your own countrymen like the untouchables to use public schools?"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of public wells? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them the use of public streets?"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them to wear what apparel or ornaments they like? Are you fit for political power even though you do not allow them to eat any food they like? I can ask a string of such questions. But these will suffice."

"Every Congressman who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country, must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class. How is it then that the 'social reform party' lost the battle?" #AmbedkarJayanti

"To understand this correctly it is necessary to take note of the kind of social reform which the reformers were agitating for. In this connection it is necessary to make a distinction between social reform in the sense of the reform of the Hindu family, "

and social reform in the sense of the reorganization and reconstruction of the Hindu Society. The former has a relation to widow remarriage, child marriage, etc., while the latter relates to the abolition of the Caste System."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"The Social Conference was a body which mainly concerned itself with the reform of the high-caste Hindu family. It consisted mostly of enlightened high-caste Hindus who did not feel the necessity for agitating for the abolition of Caste, or had not the courage to agitate for it."

"They felt quite naturally a greater urge to remove such evils as enforced widowhood, child marriages, etc.—evils which prevailed among them and which were personally felt by them. They did not stand up for the reform of the Hindu Society."
#AmbedkarJayanti

"the view that social reform need not precede political reform is a view which may stand only when by social reform is meant the reform of the family. That political reform cannot with impunity take precedence over social reform in the sense of the reconstruction of society,"

"That political reform cannot with impunity take precedence over social reform in the sense of the reconstruction of society, is a thesis which I am sure cannot be controverted."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Let me now turn to the Socialists. Can the Socialists ignore the problem arising out of the social order? The Socialists of India, following their fellows in Europe, are seeking to apply the economic interpretation of history to the facts of India."

(Gaurav: This bit is almost exactly what Dr. King was saying to the socialists and a few years ago, BLM activists saying to the Bernie fans in reference to socialism and black liberation.)

"They propound that man is an economic creature, that his activities and aspirations are bound by economic facts, that property is the only source of power. They therefore preach that political and social reforms are but gigantic illusions, that economic reform by equalization "

" of property must have precedence over every other kind of reform. One may take issue with every one of these premises—on which rests the Socialists' case for economic reform as having priority over every other kind of reform."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"One may contend that the economic motive is not the only motive by which man is actuated [=motivated]. That economic power is the only kind of power, no student of human society can accept."

"That the social status of an individual by itself often becomes a source of power and authority, is made clear by the sway which the Mahatmas have held over the common man. Why do millionaires in India obey penniless Sadhus and Fakirs?"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"Why do millions of paupers in India sell their trifling trinkets which constitute their only wealth, and go to Benares and Mecca? That religion is the source of power is illustrated by the history of India, where the priest holds a sway over the common man "

"often greater than that of the magistrate, and where everything, even such things as strikes and elections, so easily takes a religious turn and can so easily be given a religious twist."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"The fallacy of the Socialists lies in supposing that because in the present stage of European Society property as a source of power is predominant, that the same is true of India, or that the same was true of Europe in the past."

"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."

#AmbedkarJayanti

"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."
#AmbedkarJayanti

"Is it enough for a Socialist to say, "I believe in perfect equality in the treatment of the various classes?" To say that such a belief is enough is to disclose a complete lack of understanding of what is involved in Socialism."

If Socialism is a practical programme and is not merely an ideal, distant and far off, the question for a Socialist is not whether he believes in equality. The question for him is whether he minds one class ill­treating and suppressing another class as a matter of system, "

"as a matter of principle—and thus allowing tyranny and oppression to continue to divide one class from another.

The assurance of a Socialist leading the revolution that he does not believe in Caste, I am sure will not suffice. The assurance must be the assurance proceeding from

"from a much deeper foundation—namely, the mental attitude of the compatriots towards one another in their spirit of personal equality and fraternity. Can it be said that the proletariat of India, poor as it is, recognises no distinctions except that of the rich and the poor?"

"Can it be said that the poor in India recognize no such distinctions of caste or creed, high or low? If the fact is that they do, what unity of front can be expected from such a proletariat in its action against the rich?"

#AmbedkarJayanti

"That the social order prevalent in India is a matter which a Socialist must deal with; that unless he does so he cannot achieve his revolution; and that if he does achieve it as a result of good fortune, he will have to grapple with the social order if he wishes to realize "

"his ideal—is a proposition which in my opinion is incontrovertible. He will be compelled to take account of Caste after the revolution, if he does not take account of it before the revolution."

"This is only another way of saying that, turn in any direction you like, Caste is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster."

#AmbedkarJayanti

(Gaurav: replace caste with race and you get basically what black scholars have been saying forever, and also what critical race theory. Dr. Ambedkar is basically talking intersectionality here with the socialists, just like Dr. King would in coming decades.)

I have to go prep for teaching and some research meetings, so I'll close this thread here for now.

And leave you with the homework of googling the pdf and reading it all today. It's just 50 pages.

The greatest writer, the greatest mind India ever produced.

#AmbedkarJayanti