Ambedkar’s own protectionist logic toward Adivasis mirrored Gandhi’s paternalism toward Untouchables.

Evidence

Ambedkar’s views on Adivasis—officially classified as Scheduled Tribes—are problematic. Even as he appears well intentioned and protectionist, he argues for “civilising the savages” and looks at them as leading the life of “hereditary animals”, and even warns “the Hindus” that the “aborigines are a source of potential danger”. … Ironically, Gandhi used a similar logic to argue that the Untouchables had not yet developed the political sense to use the vote, let alone make use of separate electorates that Ambedkar had championed and won for the Untouchables in the 1931 Round Table Conferences. … In contrast, the Adivasi leader from Jharkhand and member of the Constitutent Assembly (CA), Jaipal Singh, had argued on 19 December 1946: “What my people require, Sir, is not adequate safeguards … We do not ask for any special protection. We want to be treated like every other Indian.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1088

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how did Ambedkar’s stance on Adivasis reconcile with his own critique of paternalistic protection for Untouchables? This tension complicates the clean narrative of the caste-annihilation project.
• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s core project and to the earlier chapters of AoC where Ambedkar attacks Gandhi’s ‘political sense’ argument against separate electorates.