A Vision For True Democracy
Arvind Kumar
Dr. Ambedkar And Democracy: An Anthology by Christophe Jaffrelot and Narender Kumar Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2018, 263 pp., 850
August 2018, volume 42, No 8

Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living of con-joint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men’ (p. l). This quote by Dr. BR Ambedkar is testimony to his ideals of equality and the conception of inclusion of people from all groups in society, with a special emphasis on the depressed classes and the minority groups. His articulation also reflects that notional democracy has to come clean of the procedural cobwebs to attain its substantive goals. The socio-political milieu in which Ambedkar was born pushed him and inspired his untiring journey for progressive endeavours, for emancipation of excluded masses, and the struggle against ostracization. Ambedkar had rightly observed that the prevalence of inequality and lack of liberty in Indian society were deeply rooted in the atrocious web of the caste system. His precision in foreseeing how the evils of the caste system stood against his idea of democracy was aptly reflected in one of his lectures: one special feature of the caste system lies in its being accompanied by what is called ‘Graded-inequality’. Castes are not equal in their status. They are standing one above another. They are jealous of one another. It is an ascending scale of hatred and descending scale of contempt. It destroys the willing and helpful co-existence. (p. 242)

The Hindu social order has continuously prevented the inclusion of members of the so-called lower social groups in political participation, decision making or law making processes, to privileges of attaining freedom and fraternity as equal beings. Indian polity was also tainted by communal pigments and its dreadful manifestations are apparent. Ambedkar was therefore, convinced that political democracy can bloom only in the presence of social and economic democracy. The very idea of social democracy involves the idea of social justice, and equality remained a vital element in Ambedkar’s notion of justice (p. xii). The question remains as to how one grapples with the challenge of actualizing equality in a society that is both hierarchical and brutal. Ambedkar had definitive solutions to such problems, which he prescribed as safeguards and affirmative action in the Indian Constitution.

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