Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Quotes

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For a successful revolution, it is not enough that there is enough discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Democracy is not merely a form of Government.
It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.
It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
I was born a Hindu because I had no control over this, but I shall not die a Hindu.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Indians today are governed by 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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Every man who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country must admit that a class is not fit to rule another class.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
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.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Equality may be a fiction but nonetheless one must accept it as governing principle.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
It was not enough that India should get Swaraj. It was more important in whose hands the Swaraj would be.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
According to Muslim cannon Law the world is divided into two camps, Dar-ul-Islam (abode of Islam) and Dar-ul-Harb (abode of war). A country is Dar-ul-Islam when it is ruled by Muslims. A country is Dar-ul-Harb when Muslims only reside in it but are not rulers of it. That being the Cannon Law of the Muslims, India cannot be the common motherland of the Hindus and the Musalmans-but it cannot be the land of the ' Hindus and Musalmans living as equals'. Further, it can be the land of the Musalmans only when it is governed by the Muslims. The moment the land become subject to the authority of a non-Muslims power, it ceases to be the land of the Muslims. Instead of being Dar-ul-Islam it becomes Dar-ul-Harb.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
... we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic rights, we will have inequality.... We must remove this contradiction or else who suffer from this inequality will blow up the structure....

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive and very alienating distinction. The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is the brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is fraternity but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning if religion is held to be necessary good for the well-being of the people.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. Regarding slavery nothing needs to be said. It stands abolished now by law. But while it existed much of its support was derived from Islam and Islamic countries.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Majorities are of two sorts: (1) Communal majority and (ii) 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 in a communal majority is closed. The politics of political majority are free to all to make and unmake. The politics of community majority are made by its own members born in it.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
The question is not whether a community lives or dies, the question is on what plane does it live? There are different modes of survival. But all are not equally honorable.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
In Hinduism, conscience, reason, and independent thinking have no scope for development.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
To the Muslims, a Hindu (and any non-Muslim) is a Kafir. A Kafir (non-believer in Islam) is not worthy of respect. He is a low born and without status. That is why a country ruled by the kafir (non-muslim) is a 'Dar ul harb' (i. e. the land of war) to a Muslim, which must be conquered, by any means for the Muslims and turned into 'Dar ul Islam' (i. e., land of Muslims alone). Given this, not further evidence seems necessary to prove that the Muslims will not obey a Hindu (or for that matter any non-Muslim) government.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar