Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition Read Online Free
Author: B.R. Ambedkar
in Modern India . New York: Columbia University Press/New Delhi: Navayana.
Vyam, Durgabai, Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan and S. Anand. 2011. Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability . New Delhi: Navayana.
Weiss, Gordon. 2011. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers . London: The Bodley Head.
Wolpert, Stanley. 1993. A New History of India . New York: Oxford University Press. (Orig. Publ. 1973.)
Zelliot, Eleanor. 2013. Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement . New Delhi: Navayana.
Zinn, Howard and Anthony Arnove. 2004. Voices of a People’s History of the United States . New York: Seven Stories Press.
Annihilation of Caste
Know truth as truth and untruth as untruth.—Buddha
He that will not reason is a bigot. He that cannot reason is a fool. He that dare not reason is a slave—H. Drummond a
Preface to the Third Edition, 1944
The second edition of this essay appeared in 1937, and was exhausted within a very short period. A new edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my intention to recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development,” which appeared in the issue of the Indian Antiquary journal for May 1917. f But as I could not find time, and as there is very little prospect of my being able to do so, and as the demand for it from the public is very insistent, I am content to let this be a mere reprint of the second edition.
I am glad to find that this essay has become so popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for which it was intended.
B.R. A MBEDKAR
22, Prithviraj Road
New Delhi
1 December 1944
Prologue
On 12 December 1935, g I received the following letter from Mr Sant Ram, the secretary of theJat-Pat Todak Mandal:
My dear Doctor Saheb,
Many thanks for your kind letter of the 5th December. I have released it for press without your permission for which I beg your pardon, as I saw no harm in giving it publicity. You are a great thinker, and it is my well-considered opinion that none else has studied the problem of caste so deeply as you have. I have always benefited myself and our Mandal from your ideas. I have explained and preached it in the Kranti h many times andI have even lectured on it in many conferences. I am now very anxious to read the exposition of your new formula—“It is not possible to break caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the caste system, is founded.” Please do explain it at length at your earliest convenience, so that we may take up the idea and emphasise it from press and platform. At present, it is not fully clear to me.
Our executive committee persists in having you as our president for our annual conference. We can change our dates to accommodate your convenience. IndependentHarijans i ofPunjab are very much desirous to meet you and discuss with you their plans. So if you kindly accept our request and come to Lahore to preside over the conference it will serve double purpose. We will inviteHarijan leaders of all shades of opinion and you will get an opportunity of giving your ideas to them.
The Mandal has deputed our assistant secretary, Mr Indra Singh, to meet you at Bombay in Xmas and discuss with you the whole situation with a view to persuade you to please accept our request.
The Jat-Pat Todak Mandal is, I was given to understand, an organisation of caste-Hindu social reformers, with the one and only aim, namely, to eradicate the caste system from amongst the Hindus. As a rule, I do not like to take any part in a movement which is carried on by caste Hindus. Their attitude towards social reform is so different from mine that I have found it difficult to pull on with them. Indeed, I find their company quite uncongenial to me on account of our differences of opinion. Therefore when the Mandal first approached me, I declined their invitation to preside. The Mandal,
Vyam, Durgabai, Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan and S. Anand. 2011. Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability . New Delhi: Navayana.
Weiss, Gordon. 2011. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers . London: The Bodley Head.
Wolpert, Stanley. 1993. A New History of India . New York: Oxford University Press. (Orig. Publ. 1973.)
Zelliot, Eleanor. 2013. Ambedkar’s World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement . New Delhi: Navayana.
Zinn, Howard and Anthony Arnove. 2004. Voices of a People’s History of the United States . New York: Seven Stories Press.
Annihilation of Caste
Know truth as truth and untruth as untruth.—Buddha
He that will not reason is a bigot. He that cannot reason is a fool. He that dare not reason is a slave—H. Drummond a
Preface to the Third Edition, 1944
The second edition of this essay appeared in 1937, and was exhausted within a very short period. A new edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my intention to recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called “Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development,” which appeared in the issue of the Indian Antiquary journal for May 1917. f But as I could not find time, and as there is very little prospect of my being able to do so, and as the demand for it from the public is very insistent, I am content to let this be a mere reprint of the second edition.
I am glad to find that this essay has become so popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for which it was intended.
B.R. A MBEDKAR
22, Prithviraj Road
New Delhi
1 December 1944
Prologue
On 12 December 1935, g I received the following letter from Mr Sant Ram, the secretary of theJat-Pat Todak Mandal:
My dear Doctor Saheb,
Many thanks for your kind letter of the 5th December. I have released it for press without your permission for which I beg your pardon, as I saw no harm in giving it publicity. You are a great thinker, and it is my well-considered opinion that none else has studied the problem of caste so deeply as you have. I have always benefited myself and our Mandal from your ideas. I have explained and preached it in the Kranti h many times andI have even lectured on it in many conferences. I am now very anxious to read the exposition of your new formula—“It is not possible to break caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the caste system, is founded.” Please do explain it at length at your earliest convenience, so that we may take up the idea and emphasise it from press and platform. At present, it is not fully clear to me.
Our executive committee persists in having you as our president for our annual conference. We can change our dates to accommodate your convenience. IndependentHarijans i ofPunjab are very much desirous to meet you and discuss with you their plans. So if you kindly accept our request and come to Lahore to preside over the conference it will serve double purpose. We will inviteHarijan leaders of all shades of opinion and you will get an opportunity of giving your ideas to them.
The Mandal has deputed our assistant secretary, Mr Indra Singh, to meet you at Bombay in Xmas and discuss with you the whole situation with a view to persuade you to please accept our request.
The Jat-Pat Todak Mandal is, I was given to understand, an organisation of caste-Hindu social reformers, with the one and only aim, namely, to eradicate the caste system from amongst the Hindus. As a rule, I do not like to take any part in a movement which is carried on by caste Hindus. Their attitude towards social reform is so different from mine that I have found it difficult to pull on with them. Indeed, I find their company quite uncongenial to me on account of our differences of opinion. Therefore when the Mandal first approached me, I declined their invitation to preside. The Mandal,
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