Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 8 (Political Science)
Book Name – Indian Political Thought (Himanshu Roy/ M.P. Singh)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. The Context
2. Understanding Ambedkar
3. Ambedkar’s Notion of Socio-Cultural Rights
4. Ambedkar’s Notion of Political Rights
5. Ambedkar’s Notion of Economic Rights
6. Industrialization as an Alternative for Indian Economy
7. The Khoti System
8. Mahar Vatan
9. The Bombay Moneylenders Bill
10. Labour Movement
11. Economics of the Caste System
12. Ambedkar’s Critique of Marxism
13. State Socialism
14. Nationalization of Agricultural Land
15. Conclusion
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- Political Science (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + Political Science
LANGUAGE
Ambedkar: Democracy and Economic Theory
Chapter – 29
Table of Contents
The Context
- The epistemology of the caste system challenges universal notions of liberty, equality, fraternity, and justice.
- Power discourse permeates the entire caste hierarchy, rendering those at the bottom almost immobilized.
- The socio-cultural, economic, and political landscapes of people’s lives are controlled by the caste structure.
- Many protest movements and social reformers have tried to undermine caste hegemony, but it was in the twentieth century that a vigorous ideological and political attack was mounted.
- The effort to dismantle caste hegemony was expedited by B. R. Ambedkar, influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution and other western ideologues.
- Ambedkar also drew upon Buddhist precepts, as well as the works of Jotiba Phule, Narayana Guru, and Periyar Ramaswamy Naickar.
- Ambedkar’s legal acumen helped him synthesize his knowledge in the Indian context.
- During the anti-colonial struggle, Indian society was in transition, providing Ambedkar with a fertile platform to develop his ideas.
Understanding Ambedkar
- For Ambedkar, social justice meant providing equal opportunity for each person to develop their total personality in every sphere of life.
- A free social order recognizes the individual as an end in himself/herself, with terms of association based on liberty, equality, and fraternity.
- Equality is significant because it is rooted in the notion that the individual is inviolable.
- The concept of justice emphasizes the right of the individual to be treated as an equal and to be respected, regardless of caste, class, gender, or other discriminations.
- Ambedkar’s liberalism is discussed within the broader paradigm of liberty, equality, and justice.
- He emphasized political rights as a pathway to economic and social rights.
- For Ambedkar, rights were not only standards but also ends and means, providing the theoretical perspective and empowerment for achieving social justice.
- Ambedkar used one set of rights to struggle against the state and realize other rights.
- In Western societies, state interference in realizing rights is minimal, but in Indian society, the state plays a vital role in ensuring rights due to its egalitarian nature.
- Ambedkar’s transformative perspective is a major contribution to the discourse on Indian liberalism.