Ambedkar claims no one challenged this, except for the Buddha, who failed to counter the law givers. This social hierarchy was then propagated through subsequent texts, the Dharmasutras, Brahmanas and Manusmriti. His mouth, arms, thighs and feet became the four castes of Indo-Aryan people: priests, soldiers, traders and laborers. The Varnas were divided from the body of Parusha, a cosmic man sacrificed in the creation of life. He said this was an atomic bomb dropped on dogma, and it was a heresy to many.Īmbedkar begins with the Rig Veda (c. Blaming ancient Brahminism for a system of pain and penalty, he asserts that some parts of the Vedas were fabrications meant to serve Brahmin interests. He first dispenses with race: whether once Indo-Aryan or aboriginal was meaningless, as all groups were then mixed. Ambedkar says they comprised more than three quarters of all Hindus in 1946, so around 250M people. This short book is about the Shudras, the bottom class of the Varna system, laborers and service workers. His greatest triumph was his untiring fight for the rights of oppressed people: untouchables, shudras and women. Converting half a million Indians to Buddhism, he is considered the Maitreya by many Dalits.
After consecutive PhD's in New York and London, he rivaled Gandhi, helped to found the Republic and write the Constitution. His statues are everywhere, more frequent than Buddhas, planned higher than the Statue of Liberty, straddling stupas and pointing towards the sky.
Who Were the Shudras? And who am I to know? I am no one, but everyone in India knows B R Ambedkar.
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