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Dr.B.R Ambedkar

Dr.Ambedkar stressed on self-awakening of depressed classes, as he believed that self-awakening will provide them the strength to fight against the evils in the society. He described himself as a progressive radical and occasionally as progressive conservative which distinguish him from the liberals and communists. His idea on caste underwent changes with his writings. He pointed out that the characteristic of caste was endogamy superimposed by the cultural sphere. He focused on the endogamous nature of caste but later added other features like division of labor, absence of inter relations and principle of birth. He proposed complete annihilation of caste as a solution to injustice perpetrated by it on weaker sections.

He suggested inter caste marriages and inter sharing of meals, Dr Ambedkar sought to build a separate identity of shudras during the second half of the 1940s.His work mentions discussion on primitive tribes and what were called criminal tribes. He saw them to reside outside the purview of civilization and held Hinduism responsible for confining them to sub human level. He felt that untouchables and tribes face common issues and therefore they formed a common constituency. Dr. Ambedkar portrayed the exploitative nature of company’s rule in India in a dissertation Ancient Indian Commerce that he eventually did not submit. He provided a clear account of organization of East India Company up to 1857 in his work ‘The Administration and Finance of East India Company”. His work The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India builds on Ranade’s work.

He subscribes to financial decentralization on principle that power and responsibility should be present at that level which could make optimum use of in. He demanded policy intervention in agriculture that was abolition of intermediaries between the producer and state, nationalism of agriculture and distribution of all surplus land to scheduled castes etc. Dr Ambedkar believed that democracy is aligned to culture and beliefs of majority. This is regarded as normal and expected from the citizens. Hence it was important to adopt proper safe guard measures towards the minority communities.