Hindu ‘religion’ is really law that reduces moral life to servile conformity.

Evidence

To put it in plain language, what the Hindus call religion is really law, or at best legalised class-ethics. Frankly, I refuse to call this code of ordinances as religion. The first evil of such a code of ordinances, misrepresented to the people as religion, is that it tends to deprive moral life of freedom and spontaneity, and to reduce it (for the conscientious, at any rate) to a more or less anxious and servile conformity to externally imposed rules. Under it, there is no loyalty to ideals; there is only conformity to commands. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 996

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• XREF: The claim that a religion of rules reduces moral life to anxious conformity aligns with the reader’s broader interest in how caste structures annihilate individual responsibility.

Related

• Dharma-as-law reduces moral life to servile conformity rather than freedom. (similarity 0.90)
• Hinduism’s pervasiveness makes renouncing caste seem impracticable to many (similarity 0.81)
• Reframing Hindu ordinances as law rather than religion makes reform conceivable. (similarity 0.81)
• Only destroying shastra-based religion can break the caste system. (similarity 0.81)
• Hindu dharma in the Vedas and smritis means commands and prohibitions, not universal principles. (similarity 0.81)
• Calling dharma law instead of religion makes people accept that it can change (similarity 0.80)
• Scriptures provided actual sanction for caste-based inhuman conduct (similarity 0.80)
• Ambedkar’s quarrel with Hinduism is over ideals, not conduct (similarity 0.79)
• Caste can only be destroyed by attacking its religious foundations (similarity 0.79)
• Ambedkar rejected any religion that legitimizes existing social inequities. (similarity 0.79)
• Moral systems are judged by survival value, not by preference (similarity 0.79)
• Caste observance stems from religious belief, not human malice. (similarity 0.79)
• Ambedkar proposed outlawing the Vedas, shastras, and puranas by law (similarity 0.79)
• Ambedkar’s objection to Hindu society targets its ideals, not conduct flaws (similarity 0.79)
• Reframing dharma as changeable law rather than religion enables its reform. (similarity 0.79)