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A review by uditnair24
Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar
5.0
One of the fiercest commentaries on the deplorable practice of caste system of India. Ambedkar thinks that there can be no fundamental reform in the Hinduism until and unless caste system is annihilated. This leads him to another proposition which is the sanction behind the caste system is religious in nature. As a result you either get out of the fold of the Hinduism as he himself did or destroy the sanctity of the texts which prescribe the caste system or supports it indeed.
He passionately tears into each and every justification given for caste system. He does this with scholarly backing and also bit of common sense which seems to be missing all the times.
The best part about the work is that it has lessons for everybody. For eg even the people who wish for the so called hindu unity have been given insights through this. Ambedkar firmly believes that without the end of caste system there cannot be a unity of the so called majority in india. Although he is so brutal with his analysis that most of the right wingers would be too uncomfortable reading or even understanding him.
Just to give a little insight into his take on chaturvarna system let me quote him verbatim here_
"There cannot be a more degrading system of social organization than the Chaturvarnya. It is the system which deadens, paralyses and cripples the people from helpful activity. This is no exaggeration. History bears ample evidence. There is only one period in Indian history which is a period of freedom, greatness and glory. That is the period of the Mourya Empire. At all other times the country suffered from defeat and darkness. But the Mourya period was a period when Chaturvarnya was completely annihilated, when the Shudras, who constituted the mass of the people, came into their own and became the rulers of the country. The period of defeat and darkness is the period when Chaturvarnya flourished to the damnation of the greater part of the people of the country."
Further he goes on to give solutions too. First as I mentioned above is to get out of the fold of Hinduism. Second would be question the authority of scriptures. Probably the third one is the most feasible one which is inter caste or interfaith marriages. Once you mix the blood there is no purity as such and this cannot be refuted at all.
The parting paragraph of this commentary is directly addressing the Hindus and here it is -
"The Hindus must consider whether the time has not come for them to recognize that there is nothing fixed, nothing eternal, nothing sanatan; that everything is changing, that change is the law of life for individuals as well as for society. In a changing society, there must be a constant revolution of old values and the Hindus must realize that if there must be standards to measure the acts of men there must also be a readiness to revise those standards."
He passionately tears into each and every justification given for caste system. He does this with scholarly backing and also bit of common sense which seems to be missing all the times.
The best part about the work is that it has lessons for everybody. For eg even the people who wish for the so called hindu unity have been given insights through this. Ambedkar firmly believes that without the end of caste system there cannot be a unity of the so called majority in india. Although he is so brutal with his analysis that most of the right wingers would be too uncomfortable reading or even understanding him.
Just to give a little insight into his take on chaturvarna system let me quote him verbatim here_
"There cannot be a more degrading system of social organization than the Chaturvarnya. It is the system which deadens, paralyses and cripples the people from helpful activity. This is no exaggeration. History bears ample evidence. There is only one period in Indian history which is a period of freedom, greatness and glory. That is the period of the Mourya Empire. At all other times the country suffered from defeat and darkness. But the Mourya period was a period when Chaturvarnya was completely annihilated, when the Shudras, who constituted the mass of the people, came into their own and became the rulers of the country. The period of defeat and darkness is the period when Chaturvarnya flourished to the damnation of the greater part of the people of the country."
Further he goes on to give solutions too. First as I mentioned above is to get out of the fold of Hinduism. Second would be question the authority of scriptures. Probably the third one is the most feasible one which is inter caste or interfaith marriages. Once you mix the blood there is no purity as such and this cannot be refuted at all.
The parting paragraph of this commentary is directly addressing the Hindus and here it is -
"The Hindus must consider whether the time has not come for them to recognize that there is nothing fixed, nothing eternal, nothing sanatan; that everything is changing, that change is the law of life for individuals as well as for society. In a changing society, there must be a constant revolution of old values and the Hindus must realize that if there must be standards to measure the acts of men there must also be a readiness to revise those standards."