Relevance of Ambedkar's Ideology

Even while championing social egalitarianism and popular liberties and criticising the sway of big business and landlordism, campaigning for social and economic democracy, he remained a conscious ideological and political adversary of Marxism and Communism – for the basic reason that he found them challenging in the same way he found Buddhism inspiring. He had a number of interesting things to say about tricky national problems – Kashmir, language, nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity and so on – and his analysis lit up the field for a proper democratic understanding of federalism and Centre-State relations in India. On international questions and foreign policy, his approach was that of a centrist-conservative dissenting from non-alignment and from the Nehruvian (not to mention radical) world view. The recent period of socio-political development in India has seen a blossoming of Hindutva and a majority chauvinist ideological and political offensive which can only be classified as extremist in relation to national unity. 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. Ambedkar is of central relevance to the growing human rights movement and is fast emerging as the pan-Indian leader, a symbol of the Dalits and other oppressed masses. This book is a significant contribution to the understanding of Ambedkar’s life, ideology, and mission.