Interregnum periods breed morbid symptoms when the old dies before the new is born.

Evidence

This idea is also echoed by the Italian political thinker Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), a contemporary of Ambedkar: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear” (1971, 276). — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1291

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s interregnum concept defined via the Arnoldian crisis of values Ambedkar aligns himself with.
• XREF: Gramsci interregnum vs. Ambedkar’s diagnosis of caste-era India; both describe transitional diagnoses of social rot.
• DEEPTHINKING: The interregnum frame could do heavy lifting in thinking about Ambedkar’s moment — and about any period of caste or social transformation.