Very few leaders have condemned Hinduism in such strong terms as Dr B.R. Ambedkar. He called it “a veritable chamber of horrors” – and set up a ‘Manu Smruti Dahan Din’ (Manusmriti Burning Day) on December 25, where copies of the ancient legal texts were set alight in a pit along the sea.
It’s difficult to imagine such acts being tolerated today by the Hindutva, so one can imagine the audacity of doing it in 1927. But there was a reason Ambedkar chose to take on Hinduism in such strong terms. His lived experience, and those of the Dalits he led, all confirmed that caste was so much bigger than just a practice to be outlawed – it was inbuilt into the system around them. For many Dalits, Hinduism mandated that they were somehow to be treated as impure humans, solely by virtue of their birth.
Perspective is everything. Hinduism is often called a way of life. Much like life, your experience with it can vary depending on your position at birth. The caste system as laid out by Manu, grades society into four varnas – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra – and one avarna (Untouchables, today identifying themselves as “Dalit” or “Trampled Upon”).
B.R. Ambedkar chose not to mince his words for a reason. As an ‘Untouchable’, his experience with Hinduism had been nothing short of a nightmare – one that started generations before his birth. As a child, he was segregated at school, not allowed to fetch his own water and made to sit on a jute sack which he had to carry home. A simple cart ride with his family could quickly turn into an interrogation of caste by the cart puller – and when the Ambedkars revealed theirs, they saw how fast the inherent kindness of strangers could disappear. This is why he would later write:
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