As far as Indian society is concerned, Ambedkarism is human emancipation. Ambedkarism, in essence, is a theory of liberation for all Indians, even if it appears to be on the side of the oppressed castes, in a slightly broader perspective, there is a path to the emancipation of the entire human beings of the world in the Ambedkarism. As the upper castes say, Ambedkarism is not existentialism. Ambedkarism is not limited to theories of the struggle for self-esteem alone.

Ambedkarism, from the situation of being inhumane by the caste system, which harassing the vast majority of Dalit Bahujans and the Women from all kinds of oppression, provides the imperative to rebuild society on the basis of liberty, equality, and fraternity. This is where Ambedkarism has succeeded in drawing the attention of marginalised communities across the globe.

We have been witnessing the surge of Ambedkar’s influence globally, many nations recognising the efforts of Dr. Ambedkar. His bust was installed in his alma mater London School of Economics, and at Columbia University. The book “Waiting For A Visa” written by Ambedkar was added to the curriculum of Columbia University.

His legacy continued to grow overwhelmingly. In 2017 in Canada, British Columbia University, Simon Fraser University and York University instituted annual Ambedkar memorial lectures. In these three universities, Fraser had installed an Ambedkar bust in 2004 and York in 2015. In the USA, Brandeis University, Boston, had installed the statue of Ambedkar.

On the other hand, especially Ambedkar’s name spreading in the people who are subjected to discrimination throughout the world, they are studying Babasaheb Ambedkar and emulating his ideas to fight against the oppressors. An incident from Ghana University in 2018 stands as an example. Students of the University had toppled Gandhi’s statue for his racist remarks. They said “In India, if you want to give us a statue, give us a statue of Ambedkar. That is whose writings we can relate to as Black people.”

Very recently, in Canada the mayor of the city of Burnaby proclaimed April 14th as “DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR DAY OF EQUALITY”.

This is how, Ambedkar became the founding figure of the World, and Ambedkarism spreading from America to Europe to Australia.

Ambedkarism is not limited to the liberation of Dalit women alone. It emancipates all women in the world and even the savarna Hindu women from the patriarchal system. Hindu religion treated women as slaves, it did not give freedom, it not even allowed Savarna women to attain knowledge, but it confined them to the kitchen itself.

Ambedkar concern for women can be reflected in his Hindu Code Bill. Today, if women are leading dignified lives and reaching the top level in fields of Education, Politics, or in any other sectors, it is only because of reforms of Ambedkar. But, unfortunately, Savarna women with the arrogance of Caste are unable to realise the efforts of Ambedkar.

In Ambedkarism there are two types of liberation: First, Political emancipation and the second, psychological emancipation. Ambedkar went on using these two methods of liberation simultaneously for the sake of our society.

Ambedkar declared that political liberation was the key to social liberation. As a part of this, Ambedkar decided to establish The Republican Party Of India. In Writing and speeches of Ambedkar, Volume 17 part 2 we can observe the following excerpt “In order to invigorate the democratic forces in India and to bring new blood in his proposed Republican Party, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar established ‘The Training School for Entrance to Politics’ in July, 1956.”

Later on Kanshi Ram, and Mayawati succeeded in taking forward Ambedkar’s Political ideologies through BSP. On the other hand, Prakash Ambedkar through Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, and Chandrashekar Azad with his Bhim Army and Azad Samaj Party are carrying forward the Ambedkar values and ideas to accomplish the political goals of Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram, and for the Dalit emancipation through political power.

As Kanshi Ram said, Dalits should use their Caste as a tool for their emancipation. In fact, rather than being slaves in the Brahminical parties, Dalits should form their own political parties to achieve liberation politically.

According to Ambedkar, psychological liberation is physical liberation. To liberate psychologically and to escape economic and political discrimination, the only way for the lower castes is to get out of the Hindu religion; Brahminism, which poisoned the minds of the people with inequalities.

Ambedkar, by systematically analyzing the caste system and scientifically studying the anti-caste struggles of the past, provided a new concept of the annihilation of caste.

Ambedkar says in his Annihilation Of Caste “It is not possible to break Caste without annihilating the religious notions on which it, the Caste system, is founded.” Also, he says “Nothing can emancipate the outcastes except the destruction of the caste system.” in volume 17 part 1. By this Ambedkar came to the conclusions that the annihilating of caste is impossible without destroying the religious scriptures which sanctioned the caste. In this case, Ambedkar decided to leave the Hindu fold and wisely embraced Buddhism.

Ambedkar realised that Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism are compromised and got infected with the caste system. That was the reason for him to embrace the religion which teaches liberty, equality, and fraternity. Ambedkar emphasized that Dalits can achieve Psychological emancipation through conversion. And, he hoped his people would sacrifice everything to establish Buddhism in India.

Ambedkar during his life-time went on using these two methods simultaneously according to the situations to emancipate the lower castes. When we are able to see these two types of liberations combined, we can understand that Ambedkarism is not only existentialism but also the ism of human liberation.

According to Ambedkar democracy should function on the basis of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. And, Social movements should run on the principles of Educate, Agitate, and Organise. Thus, Ambedkarism and his essential principles became a significant solution to uproot Brahminism, to annihilate the Caste system, and to emancipate the downtrodden through politically and psychologically from the caste Hindus.

Author – Sridhar Jeripothula