Vol. 17, Part III · pages 546–550

156 THE TIDE OF BUDDHISM WOULD NEVER RECEDE IN INDIA A letter was published in Prabuddha Bharat of 12th May 1956 requesting to celebrate 2500th Buddha Jayanti by all the branches of Indian Buddhist Council. Accordingly a historical meeting has arranged at ‘Nare Park’ Bombay on 24th May 1956. About seventy five thousand people were assembled for this meeting. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Balasaheb Kher, former Prime Minister of Bombay State. He spoke on the life of Buddha and his Dhamma. 1 After his speech Dr. B. R. Ambedkar declared that he would embrace Buddhism in October 1956. In his speech he made a vitriolic attack on Veer Savarkar who had written a series of articles on the non-violence preached by Buddhism. Dr. Ambedkar with a snort of rage said. He would reply to Savarkar if he knew precisely what Savarkar had to say. It seemed as if there was again a fierce debate between the leaders of Hinduism and those of Buddhism. Those alone, Dr. Ambedkar roared, who aimed at uplifting them were entitled to criticize them. He said his critics should leave him alone ; let him and his people have the freedom to fall into a ditch. Dr. Ambedkar stated frankly that his people were his sheep, and he was their shepherd. There was no theologian as great as he. They should follow him, and they would get knowledge by and by. To him Buddhism differed from Hinduism. He further observed : “Hinduism believes in God. Buddhism has no God. Hinduism believes in soul. According to Buddhism there is no soul. Hinduism believes in Chaturvarnya and the Caste System. Buddhism has no place for the Caste System and Chaturvarnya.” He told his followers that his book on Buddhism would be published soon. He had closed all the breaches in the organization of Buddhism and would now consolidate it; so the tide of Buddhism would never recede in India. The communists should study Buddhism, so that they might know how to remove the ills of humanity. 1 : Prabuddha Bharat, dated 2nd June 1956.

518 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES During his speech Dr. Ambedkar compared himself with Moses who had led his people from Egypt to Palestine, the land of freedom. According to him, there were three causes for the decline of any religion. Lack of abiding principles in it ; lack of versatile and conquering orators ; and lack of easily understandable principles. He also declared that he was going to build a magnificient temple of Buddha. Thus ended his last speech in Bombay. 1 zz 1 : Keer, Pp. 492-93.

157 PROSPECTS OF DEMOCRACY IN INDIA * The subject assigned to me is, “What are the prospects of democracy in India”? Most Indians speak with great pride as though their country was already a democracy. The foreigners also, when they sit at a dinner table to do diplomatic honour to India, speak of the Great Indian Prime Minister and the Great Indian Democracy. From this, it is held without waiting to argue that where there is a Republic, there must be democracy. It is also supposed that where there is Parliament which is elected by the people on adult sufferage and the laws are made by the People’s Representatives in Parliament elected after every few years, there is democracy. In other words, democracy is understood to be a political instrument and where this political instrument exists, there is democracy. Is there democracy in India or is there no democracy in India ? What is the truth ? No positive answer can be given unless the confusion caused by equating democracy with Republic and by equating democracy with Parliamentary Government is removed. Democracy is quite different from a Republic as well as from Parliamentary Government. The roots of democracy lie not in the form of Government, Parliamentary or otherwise. A democracy is more than a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living. The roots of Democracy are to be searched in the social relationship, in the terms of associated life between the people who form a society. What does the word ‘Society’ connote ? To put it briefly when we speak of ‘Society,’ we conceive of it as one by its very nature. The qualities which accompany this unity are praiseworthy community of purpose and desire for welfare, loyalty to public ends and mutuality of sympathy and cooperation. Are these ideals to be found in Indian Society ? The Indian Society does not consist of individuals. It consists of an innumerable collection of castes which are exclusive in their life * Voice of America, 20th May 1956.

520 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES and have no common experience to share and have no bond of sympathy. Given this fact it is not necessary to argue the point. The existence of the Caste System is a standing denial of the existence of those ideals of society and therefore of democracy. Indian Society is so imbeded in the Caste System that every thing is organized on the basis of caste. Enter Indain Society and you can see caste in its glaring form. An Indian cannot eat or marry with an Indian simply because he or she does not belong to his or her caste. An Indian cannot touch an Indian because he or she does not belong to his or her caste. Go and enter politics and you can see caste reflected therein. How does an Indian vote in an election? He votes for a candidate who belongs to his own caste and no other. Even the Indian Congress exploits the Caste System for election purpose as no other political party in India does. Examine the lists of its candidates in relation to the social composition of the constituencies and it will be found that the candidate belongs to the caste which is the largest one in that constituency. The Congress, as a matter of fact, is upholding the Caste System against which it is outworldly raising a outcry against the existence of caste. Go into the field of industry. What will you find ? You will find that all the topmost men drawing the highest salary belong to the caste of the particular industrialist who owns the industry. The rest hang on for life on the lowest rungs of the ladder on a pittance. Go into the field of commerce and you will see the same picture. The whole commercial house is one camp of one caste, with no entry board on the door for others. Go into the field of charity. With one or two exceptions all charity in India is communal. If a Parsi dies, he leaves his money for Parsis. If a Jain dies, he leaves his money for Jains. If a Marwadi dies, he leaves his money for Marwadis. If a Brahmin dies, he leaves his money for Brahmins. Thus, there is no room for the downtrodden and the outcastes in politics, in industry, in commerce, and in education. There are other special features of the Caste System which have their evil effects and which militate against Democracy. One such 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

521PROSPECTS.........IN INDIA jealous of one another. It is an ascending scale of hatred and descending scale of contempt. This feature of the Caste System has most pernicious consequences. It destroys willing and helpful co-operation. Caste and class differ in the fact that in the Class System there is no complete isolation as there is in the Caste System. This is the second evil effect in the Caste System accompanied by inequality. This manifests itself in the fact that the stimulus and response between two castes is only one-sided. The higher caste act in one recognised way and the lower caste must respond in one established way. It means that when there is no equitable opportunity to receive the stimulus from and to return the response from different caste, the result is that the influences which educate some into masters, educate others into slaves. The experience of each party loses its meaning when the free interchange of varying modes of life experience is arrested. It results into a separation of society, into a privileged and a subject class. Such a separation prevents social endosmosis. There is a third characteristic of the Caste System which depicts the evils thereof which cuts at the very roots of democracy. It is that one caste is bound to one occupation. Society is no doubt stably organized when each individual is doing that for which he has aptitude by nature in such a way as to be useful to others; and that it is the business of society to discover these aptitudes and progressively to train them for social use. But there is in a man an indefinite pluralities of capacities and activities which may characterize an individual. A society to be democratic should open a way to use all the capacities of the individual. Stratification is stunting of the growth of the individual and deliberate stunting is a deliberate denial of democracy. How to put an end to the Caste System ? The first obstacle lies in the system of graded inequality which is the soul of the Caste System. Where people are divided into two classes, higher and lower, it is easier for the lower to combine to fight the higher, for there is no single lower class. The class consists of lower and lowerer. The lower cannot combine with the lowerer. For the lower is afraid that if he succeeds in raising the lowerer, he may well himself lose the high position given to him and his caste.