Dr. Ambedkar’s Thoughts on Nationalism

Abstract

The psychological concept of nationalism establishes a sense of fraternity in the society on cultural, ethnic, racial, religious and linguistic basis. One of the nation builders of modern India, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar coined a narrative of Nationalism about freedom of India from social inequality and untouchability. He talked about freedom of India from social inequality and untouchability. This could be understood as a subaltern narrative about the upliftment of downtrodden, deprived and marginalised sections of the society; the section that did not have any participation in public life of colonial India. In this research paper, we will study the various aspects of Dr. Ambedkar's nationalism, in which he firmly stated that without emancipation of deprived people (Dalits), Indian freedom struggle was not deemed to be complete. He has presented the concept of practical nationalism in contrast to western and Indian extremist concepts, some aspects of which we will discuss in this article.