Ambedkar’s refusal to flatter power earned him relentless national abuse
Evidence
I have to confess that this address has become too lengthy. Whether this fault is compensated to any extent by breadth or depth is a matter for you to judge. All I claim is to have told you candidly my views. I have little to recommend them but some study and a deep concern in your destiny. If you will allow me to say it, these views are the views of a man who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness. They come from one, almost the whole of whose public exertion has been one continuous struggle for liberty for the poor and for the oppressed, and whose only reward has been a continuous shower of calumny and abuse from national journals and national leaders, for no other reason except that I refuse to join with them in performing the miracle—I will not say trick—of liberating the oppressed with the gold of the tyrant, and raising the poor with the cash of the rich. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1024
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
Related
- Ambedkar’s reformist stance drew continuous calumny from national leaders (similarity 0.93)
- Ambedkar deliberately distanced himself from the Mandal to retain full freedom of expression (similarity 0.79)
- Ambedkar declared caste inequality must be rooted out, not merely untouchability (similarity 0.79)