Quotes by B. R. Ambedkar - Page 2 | QuoteForever

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Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Religion
Essence
Matter
Principles
Religious
Responsibility
Rules
Act
True
Cannot
Ceases
Mainly
Moment
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History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
History
Conflict
Economics
Ethics
Force
Shows
Sufficient
Vested Interests
Victory
History Always Where
Come
Been
Compel
Interests
Themselves
Unless
Vested
Where
Willingly
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Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Equality
Religion
Constitution
Fraternity
Liberty
Political
Preamble
Social
Today
Two
Denies
Set
Embodied
Governed
Ideal
Ideologies
Indians
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The Touchables, whether they are vegetarians or flesh-eaters, are united in their objection to eat cow's flesh. As against them stand the Untouchables, who eat cow's flesh without compunction and as a matter of course and habit.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Flesh
Habit
Cow
Objection
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The food habits of the different classes of Hindus have been as fixed and stratified as their cults. Just as Hindus can be classified on their basis of their cults, so also they can be classified on the basis of their habits of food.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Fixed
Basis
Classes
Cults
Habits
Hindus
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For an individual as well as a society, there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily. To fight in a battle and live in glory is one mode. To beat a retreat, to surrender and to live the life of a captive is also a mode of survival.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Inspirational
Life
Fighting
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One can quite understand vegetarianism. One can quite understand meat-eating. But it is difficult to understand why a person who is a flesh-eater should object to one kind of flesh, namely cow's flesh. This is an anomaly which call for explanation.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Difficult
Explanation
Flesh
Vegetarianism
Understand
Anomaly
Quite
Call
Cow
Namely
Object
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Indeed, the Muslims have all the social evils of the Hindus and something more. That something more is the compulsory system of purdah for Muslim women. These burka women walking in the streets is one of the most hideous sights one can witness in India.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Compulsory
Hideous
Streets
Walking
Witness
Evils
Indeed
Muslim
Muslims
Sights
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Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Ocean
Alone
Independence
Men
Society
Born
Development
Identity
Independent
Loses
Self
Water
Being
Man
Does
He
Drop
Unlike
His
Lose
Which
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Some men say that they should be satisfied with the abolition of untouchability only, leaving the caste system alone. The aim of abolition of untouchability alone without trying to abolish the inequalities inherent in the caste system is a rather low aim.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Abolish
Abolition
Aim
Inherent
Leaving
Satisfied
Caste
Inequalities
Low
Some Men
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Caste may be bad. Caste may lead to conduct so gross as to be called man's inhumanity to man. All the same, it must be recognized that the Hindus observe Caste not because they are inhuman or wrong-headed. They observe Caste because they are deeply religious.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Gross
Inhuman
Religious
Man Must May
Caste
Conduct
Man May Must
Deeply
Lead
Hindus
Observe
Recognized
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The reason why Broken Men only became Untouchables was because in addition to being Buddhists, they retained their habit of beef-eating, which gave additional ground for offence to the Brahmins to carry their new-found love and reverence to the cow to its logical conclusion.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Broken
Conclusion
Habit
Logical
Offence
Reverence
Addition
Became
Buddhists
Carry
Cow
Gave
Ground
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No Hindu community, however low, will touch cow's flesh. On the other hand, there is no community which is really an Untouchable community which has not something to do with the dead cow. Some eat her flesh, some remove the skin, some manufacture articles out of her skin and bones.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Articles
Bones
Community
Flesh
Remove
Touch
Skin
Hindu
Dead
Cow
Untouchable
Hand
However
Low
Manufacture
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Man is mortal. Everyone has to die some day or the other. But one must resolve to lay down one's life in enriching the noble ideals of self-respect and in bettering one's human life. We are not slaves. Nothing is more disgraceful for a brave man than to live life devoid of self-respect.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Men
Live Life
Self
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People are not wrong in observing Caste. In my view, what is wrong is their religion, which has inculcated this notion of Caste. If this is correct, then obviously the enemy, you must grapple with is not the people who observe Caste, but the Shastras which teach them this religion of Caste.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Religion
Enemy
Notion
Teach
Caste
Correct
Wrong
Inculcated
Observe
Obviously
View
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Why is it that a large majority of Hindus do not inter-dine and do not inter-marry? Why is it that your cause is not popular? There can be only one answer to this question, and it is that inter-dining and inter-marriage are repugnant to the beliefs and dogmas which the Hindus regard as sacred.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Majority
Regard
Sacred
Beliefs
Hindus
Large
Popular
Repugnant
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My definition of democracy is - A form and a method of Government whereby revolutionary changes in the social life are brought about without bloodshed. That is the real test. It is perhaps the severest test. But when you are judging the quality of the material you must put it to the severest test.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Government
Judging
Real
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It is disgraceful to live at the cost of one's self-respect. Self-respect is the most vital factor in life. Without it, man is a cipher. To live worthily with self-respect, one has to overcome difficulties. It is out of hard and ceaseless struggle alone that one derives strength, confidence and recognition.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Men
Self
Struggle
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I feel that the constitution is workable, it is flexible and it is strong enough to hold the country together both in peacetime and in wartime. Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution, the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say is that Man was vile.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Men
Country
Strong
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My social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: liberty, equality and fraternity. Let no one, however, say that I have borrowed by philosophy from the French Revolution. I have not. My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my Master, the Buddha.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Equality
Religion
Science
Borrowed
Fraternity
French Revolution
Liberty
Philosophy
Political
Political Science
Revolution
Roots
Said
Social
Three
Words
French
Derived
Master
Enshrined
However
Teachings
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That the caste system must be abolished if the Hindu society is to be reconstructed on the basis of equality, goes without saying. Untouchability has its roots in the caste system. They cannot expect the Brahmins to rise in revolt against the caste system. Also we cannot rely upon the non-Brahmins and ask them to fight our battle.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Equality
Abolish
Battle
Rely
Revolt
Roots
Rise
Basis
Hindu
Caste
Fight
Expect
Goes
Saying
System
We Cannot
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Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Men
Mind
Real
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Caste is a state of mind. It is a disease of mind. The teachings of the Hindu religion are the root cause of this disease. We practice casteism and we observe Untouchability because we are enjoined to do so by the Hindu religion. A bitter thing cannot be made sweet. The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Practice
Sweet
Teaching
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We must begin by acknowledging that there is a complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane we have an India based on the principles of graded inequality, which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Mean
Poverty
Two
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My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can loose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Advice
Justice
Spiritual
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Majorities are of two sorts: (1) communal majority and (2) political majority. A political majority is changeable in its class composition. A political majority grows. A communal majority is born. The admission to a political majority is open. The door to a communal majority is closed. The politics of political majority are free to all to make and unmake. The politics of communal majority are made by its own members born in it.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Communication
Class
Doors
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It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.
B. R. Ambedkar / Indian Politician
Anarchy
Mean
Way
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