Commentary on Ambedkar’s Posthumously Published “Philosophy of Hinduism”

Rajesh Sampath

doi:10.26812/caste.v1i1.141

Abstract

This paper offers a critical commentary of Ambedkar's posthumously published "The Philosophy of Hinduism," which was discovered shortly after his death. Given previous, considerable contributions in the fields of law, economics, political and social theory, the work appears to be the beginnings of what remains an incomplete treatise on a new area of investigation for Ambedkar. In this work, Ambedkar tackles the murky and opaque sub-field of philosophy, namely the philosophy of religion. This paper unpacks some of Ambedkar's key insights on the nature of the philosophy of religion to test what elements - considered from a philosophical point view - constitute a religion. Furthermore, given the historical paradigmatic shifts in the nature of religion from antiquity to modernity, Ambedkar identifies two conceptual revolutions from which he will introduce two criteria - utility and justice - to evaluate the nature of Hinduism as a religion. Given his life-long quest to understand Hinduism and caste, ultimately, Ambedkar's goal to overcome what he says is the systemic and structural inequality of caste in the Indian social order leads him to certain negative conclusions: namely whether Hinduism can be characterized as a religion if in fact modern religions must have a foundation in some intrinsic dimension of social justice. This paper constitutes Part I of a longer commentary. The aspiration is that a longer Part II will ultimately extend Ambedkar's philosophical investigation into new domains for which he did not have the opportunity to explore.

Highlights

In 2014, The Dr Ambedkar Foundation within the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of the Government of India reprinted Vol 3 in the collected works titled Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches.[1]
Energy, and dynamism of this unique social leader who laid the constitutional foundations for the post-colonial Independent secular democratic India would be difficult
Asking how so much could be accomplished in a single lifetime is one thing; asking how one person could contribute to so much across so many different scholarly fields while being one of the greatest social movement leaders of the twentieth century is another

Summary

Introduction

In 2014, The Dr Ambedkar Foundation within the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of the Government of India reprinted Vol 3 in the collected works titled Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches.[1]. In utilizing the phrase, a ‘philosophy of religion’ (and not just philosophy in general independent of any religion), Ambedkar is laser-focused on his primary task, namely exposing the inner-workings of Hinduism that allows it to substantiate, perpetuate, and concatenate an unjust and immoral scheme for society.

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Conclusion