by JEAN DREZE
Dr. Ambedkar’s vision of democracy was closely related to his ideal of a “good society”. He did not leave room for any ambiguity regarding the nature of this ideal. On many occasions, he stated that he envisaged a good society as one based on “liberty, equality and fraternity”. Democracy, as he saw it, was both the end and the means of this ideal. It was the end because he ultimately considered democracy as coterminous with the realisation of liberty, equality and fraternity. At the same time, democracy was also the means through which this ideal was to be attained.
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There is a view that reason and science are “western” notions, alien to the people of India, who have their own “modes of knowledge”. This view is bound to astonish anyone who has cared to read the Buddha’s teachings. Many centuries before Descartes, Buddha urged his followers to use their reason and not to believe anything without proof. In “Buddha or Karl Marx”, one of his last speeches, Dr. Ambedkar includes the following in his summary of the essential teachings of the Buddha: “Everyone has a right to learn. Learning is as necessary for man to live as food is… Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is subject to inquiry and examination.”
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(Thanks to Mukul Dube)