Ambedkar described Adivasis using colonial terms like savage and hereditary criminals

Evidence

Thirteen million people living in the midst of civilisation are still in a savage state, and are leading the life of hereditary criminals … The Hindus will probably seek to account for this savage state of the aborigines by attributing to them congenital stupidity. They will probably not admit that the aborigines have remained savages because they made no effort to civilise them, to give them medical aid, to reform them, to make them good citizens … Civilising the aborigines means adopting them as your own, living in their midst, and cultivating fellow-feeling—in short, loving them … — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 362

Categorization

• XREF: The editor’s framing that Ambedkar ‘adds his own touch of Brahminism’ here is central to the reader’s interest in how even caste-annihilation advocates reproduced exclusions. — connects to: Western liberal assumptions date Ambedkar’s otherwise relevant Adivasi analysis — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 364
• DEEPTHINKING: A founder of Dalit liberation repeating missionary-colonial language about Adivasis reveals how anti-caste critique could itself reproduce internal hierarchies - dense material for understanding the limits of the movement.