Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy Week 1

READING SUMMARY 1
Week 1 - ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy
20161245
BA LLB Section A

        “Annihilation of caste” is an undelivered speech written by Dr B.R Ambedkar in 1936 who was one of the pioneers against the practice of untouchability and caste-based discrimination in India. Dr B.R. Ambedkar was going to deliver this speech at an annual conference (1936) of Jat Pat Todak Mandal, which was an anti-caste Hindu reformist group organization based in Lahore. However, before Ambedkar could have delivered his speech the members of the group had revised the text in Ambedkar’s speech. Ambedkar in this speech had vehemently opposed the caste system and had bluntly spoken about the atrocities faced by the Dalits and untouchables. He went on differentiating between the concepts of “division of labour” and the “division of labourers”, the latter being prevalent in India. Division of labour is the separation of tasks in an economic system so that they can attain specialization whereas the division of labourers is the unnatural demarcation of labourers into watertight compartments. It is the hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other. Another major criticism of the practice of division of labour in India was that the division is not spontaneous nor based on natural aptitudes, rather it is based on appointing individuals in advance to particular tasks on the basis of the social status of their parents.
        One of the most interesting aspects of the speech is the portion where Ambedkar spoke of the notions of Hindutva and Hinduism. Ambedkar believed that there was no difference between Hindutva and Hinduism, this difference was propagated by the followers of Gandhi as it suited them. The very nature of the Hindu religion as it has come to categorise Dalits and untouchables into doing certain work which is expected to be done only by people belonging to these castes owing to their social status. Thus, for Hindu societies to function, they require division of labourers based on the caste system, thus the propagation of Hindutva and Hinduism would both lead to an adverse effect on the untouchables and the Dalits. Thus, the propagation of Hinduism which was branded by Gandhians as “Hindutva” was for practical purposes the same concept, because both these concepts carried adverse consequences for the Dalits and untouchables. Thus, Ambedkar denied any difference between the two concepts. Ambedkar also opposed Gandhi’s idea of self-sufficient villages being the epicentre of the country’s economy. The Indian villages in order to be self-sufficient would have to be dependent on the Dalits and untouchable performing certain tasks, hence atrocities against these castes would continue to exist on the basis of division of labourers, and hence finding opposition from Ambedkar

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