Ambedkar, an Untouchable, dared to challenge a deified Gandhi

Evidence

This is the man, or, if you are so inclined, the Saint, that Doctor Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, born in 1891 into an Untouchable Mahar family, presumed to argue with. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 289

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Sets up the asymmetry at the heart of Annihilation of Caste: the Untouchable presuming to debate the Mahatma, a core theme of the whole book.

Related

• Gandhi’s demeaning views of Untouchables remained consistent across his adult life. (similarity 0.85)
• Ambedkar and Gandhi’s conflict remains irreconcilable and each is inseparable from the other’s story (similarity 0.84)
• Ambedkar saw religion and caste as inseparable, unlike Gandhi (similarity 0.83)
• Gandhi’s untouchability reform fails for leaving shastra sanctity unquestioned. (similarity 0.83)
• Ambedkar insisted Untouchables would choose political power over Hindu faith (similarity 0.83)
• Ambedkar saw caste itself, not just untouchability, as the target of annihilation. (similarity 0.82)
• Gandhi saw Untouchables only as victims, not agents needing awakening (similarity 0.82)
• Ambedkar built his indictment on inauthentic texts and degraded practitioners (similarity 0.82)
• Ambedkar denied feeling any patriotic bond to India as an Untouchable. (similarity 0.81)
• Untouchable anticaste thought predates Ambedkar by decades in low-caste schools. (similarity 0.81)
• Gandhi claimed a sainthood equal to the British imperial mandate (similarity 0.81)
• Gandhi’s lieutenant publicly told caste Hindus caste itself need not go (similarity 0.81)
• Gandhi’s Mahatma status authorized his self-appointed representation of the Untouchables (similarity 0.81)
• Ambedkar frames belief in the shastras and liberalism as contradictory (similarity 0.81)
• Gandhi championed separate electorates for Muslims and Sikhs but refused them for Untouchables. (similarity 0.81)