In India’s long and complex social history, few figures have had as enduring and
transformative an impact as Jyotirao Phule and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Their tireless efforts to
dismantle caste-based oppression, promote education, and build a more egalitarian society
remain deeply relevant today. In a world still grappling with inequality, systemic injustice,
and social stratification, the legacies of Phule and Ambedkar offer not only insight but also a
blueprint for resistance and reform.Their work uncovered the deep roots of Brahmanical
patriarchy and caste and offered emancipatory alternatives based on rationality, rights, and
social transformation. Their thought holds global relevance today, not just for Dalits and
Bahujans in India, but for all oppressed people resisting systems of exclusion.
Ambedkar: Architect of Equality
Ambedkar’s insights are especially vital today. In “Castes in India: Their Mechanism,
Genesis and Development” (1916), Ambedkar argued that caste was sustained through
endogamy—the prohibition of inter-caste marriage—which ensured caste rigidity across
generations. This, he asserted, was the mechanism that enabled caste to persist even in
culturally homogenous societies. Endogamy not only preserved caste but also led to severe
restrictions on women. Surplus women within castes were subjected to practices like sati,
child marriage, and enforced widowhood, while surplus men were allowed to marry down the
hierarchy. Thus, Ambedkar exposed caste as a gendered system that violently regulated
reproduction and sexuality.
In “The Rise and Fall of the Hindu Woman” (1951), Ambedkar demolished the myth that the
Vedic era was a golden age for women. He exposed how Manu Smriti codified the
subordination of women and institutionalized Brahmanical patriarchy. According to
Ambedkar, Manu’s laws were a counter-revolution to the relative freedom women enjoyed
during the Buddhist period. By turning Brahmanical norms into state law, Manu transformed
misogyny into governance, ensuring that women remained subordinated within both family
and society.
Ambedkar’s personal struggle and public life remain instructive for Dalit-Bahujan assertion
in contemporary India. His founding of the Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha in 1924 marked the
beginning of organized efforts to empower the oppressed through education, agitation, and
organization—a slogan borrowed from the Fabian Society and repurposed for a mass
anti-caste movement.
Ambedkar’s radical reinterpretation of both caste and gender has enduring global relevance.
Today’s struggles against racism, patriarchy, and economic injustice echo the structures he
critiqued. Importantly, Ambedkar did not separate social from economic inequality. He was
perhaps the only major figure of his time to link the rights of Dalits with the rights of the
oppressed classes more broadly. For him, the conditions of the poor were not due to
individual failings but the result of unjust social systems. This systemic view makes his work
foundational not only to Dalit rights but also to global movements for social and economic
justice.
Ambedkar also insisted that caste was not a religious matter to be addressed by reform alone,
but a political and legal issue demanding civic and human rights. By moving the discourse on
caste away from religious morality and into the domain of legal justice, he laidthe
groundwork for modern anti-discrimination laws.
Ambedkar approached caste as a systemic issue entrenched in religious, economic, political,
and cultural structures. His writings and speeches examined the roots of casteism and
untouchability in Hindu sacred texts and made a strong case for their deconstruction. He
didn’t just critique caste; he proposed concrete solutions—reservation policies in education
and employment, legal safeguards, and constitutional guarantees of equality and
non-discrimination.
It is the duty of every person with democratic consciousness to resist these attempts to rewrite
history and whitewash injustice. Ambedkar emphasized that the suffering of the poor and
marginalized is systemic, not accidental. Inequality is designed and maintained, not naturally
occurring. And justice demands systemic change, not symbolic gestures.
Phule: A Visionary Ahead of His Time
Jyotirao Phule emerged as a pioneering social reformer in 19th-century India. Deeply
disturbed by the hierarchical and patriarchal structures of Hindu society, he and his wife,
Savitribai Phule, took the radical step of establishing the first school for girls in Pune in 1848.
Phule believed that education was the most powerful tool for social emancipation and made
it accessible to the oppressed castes and women who had long been denied it.
Phule’s contributions align closely with this vision. In “Gulamgiri” (Slavery), Phule
compared caste to slavery and called for the annihilation of Brahmanical control over
knowledge. He recognized that caste and religion were deeply intertwined systems of control.
Phule also founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Truth Seekers) to promote equality
and challenge Brahmanical dominance. Phule’s ideas paved the way for later anti-caste
thinkers and movements, emphasizing the intersectionality of caste, class, and gender long
before the term was coined.
A Continuing Struggle
Although the Indian Constitution abolished untouchability, caste continues to shape access to
opportunities, dignity, and resources. The entrenched presence of caste in political, cultural,
and economic institutions shows how privileges persist under the veneer of modernity. At the
same time, oppositional forces—many inspired by Ambedkarite thought—continue to resist,
mobilize, and challenge the dominance of upper-caste structures.
Today, the caste system’s brutal legacy continues. In 2022, 51,656 cases were registered
under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Uttar
Pradesh, governed by the BJP, accounted for 12,287 cases—23.78% of the national total—yet
claimed no “atrocity-prone areas.” Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh followed with 8,651 and
7,732 cases, respectively. These numbers reveal both the persistence of caste-based violence
and the state’s denial of its existence. The RSS-BJP’s narrative often paints upper castes as
historical victims of “reverse discrimination,” but history reveals the opposite: power,
privilege, and property have long been concentrated in upper-caste hands.
Together, Ambedkar and Phule teach us that the fight against caste and patriarchy is not
merely about inclusion but about structural transformation. It is not enough to share space in
an unjust system; we must dismantle and rebuild that system. Justice is not granted from
above but achieved through organizing from below. This remains true for India—and for the
world.
Their legacy reminds us that the real victims of oppression have historically been Dalits,
Adivasis, and Bahujans—people denied land, education, and dignity for centuries. The future
must not be sacrificed at the altar of manufactured controversies and historical distortions.
Instead, we must forge ahead with truth and solidarity.
Ambedkar said, “We must shape our course ourselves and by ourselves.” In honoring him
and Phule, we commit to shaping a world based on justice, not hierarchy—on freedom, not
fear. That is the future they imagined, and the one we must build.
It is, therefore, our collective moral duty to remember, act, and carry forward their
missions—not through ritual, but through reform. Only then can India and the world truly
claim to be advancing toward social emancipation and true democracy.
