EQUALITY IN BUDDHISM AND THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Abstract

Since we marked Dr. Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary on April 14, 2016, we still face an informidable question. First, if Indians, by and large, accepted the new Constitutional regime of the independent nation-state and continue to both abide by the idea of equal citizenship and respect the rule of law, then why do caste prejudice, caste violence and social inequality based on caste hierarchy persists in such a rampant way?   At this juncture, Dr Ambedkar’s fearless analysis of the caste system, of chaturvarnya, of notions of pollution, of unalterable or rigid social hierarchy and so forth, and of the implications of the hegemony of the shastras must be read, re-read and made part of a national debate. His major theoretical exposition of such questions is contained in 1936 presidential address which stirred up a hornet’s nest, the radical Annihilation of Caste. This ideological offering to the building of a new India must be ranked on a par with his signal and justly celebrated contribution to the making of a Republican Constitution. In this work, Dr Ambedkar emphasized the anti-social, anti-progress character of an unjust social order as well as its vital connection, through networks of force and ideology, with political power. The caste system, in his analysis, militated against fraternity, “sanghatan and cooperation for a good cause”, public charity and broad-based virtue and morality. When critics challenged him to specify his “ideal society” in lieu of a caste-based order, he replied: “My ideal would be a society based on liberty, equality and fraternity.” He specified that his ideal society would be mobile; there would be “social endormosis”; there would be fraternity, which was only another name for Buddhism; and Buddhism is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoining communicated experience and breeding an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow human beings. He had a great deal to say about Buddhism religion as a real way of life and about citizens’ rights, about authoritarianism and also about a healthy democratic political system. He detested hereditary, dynastic rule and a one-party system. Over a historic century, the many-sided achievement of Dr Ambedkar – as an individual of prodigious intellectual, political and moral gifts and as a towering national figure representing large forces of historical change in a process that is painfully incomplete – inspires awe. It is high time we turned and returned to Dr. Ambedkar — not just within the confines of the Dalits community, whatever its undeniably special relationship with its greatest leader — but as Indians on the verge of entering into a reactionary phase in our political history. Whether through his conflict with Gandhi, or his rejection of Hinduism and adoption of Buddhism; whether through his work on the making of the Constitution and his creation of the basic outlines of a reservation policy, or as a believer in associational forms of collective life, fraternity, equal citizenship and fundamental rights — in all respects, Ambedkar suggested the way forward to a more egalitarian, democratic, and enlightened society than India have ever been.