Ambedkar sought to replace caste social morality with cultivated constitutional morality

Evidence

Ambedkar’s main concern was to privilege and legalise “constitutional morality” over the traditional, social morality of the caste system. Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948, he said, “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 109

Ambedkar’s main concern was to privilege and legalise “constitutional morality” over the traditional, social morality of the caste system. Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on 4 November 1948, he said, “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 109

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines “constitutional morality” as a cultivated, non-natural sentiment — key to Ambedkar’s theory.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how caste annihilation was implemented institutionally. — connects to: Ambedkar proposes state-certified, non-hereditary priesthood as a reform.; Ambedkar proposed replacing caste with liberty, equality, and fraternity; Ambedkar extended Dewey’s associated life into a demand that democracy pervade all social spheres (+4 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 109

Broader Connections

• Ambedkar declared the four-caste system itself must be rooted out #expands (0.60)
• Ambedkar rejected any religion that sanctioned caste inequities #expands (0.55)
• Ambedkar read the Gita as a defence of murder and caste hierarchy #responds-to (0.55) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 176
• Caste restricts Hindu moral concern to fellow caste members rather than humanity #complicates (0.50)