(iii)
because of the limited goods of existence, out of which they can be satisfied, disturbs this balance. In order to maintain the balance men have relied upon religion and upon reason.” (Pound - jurisprudence Vol. III). For the Indian historical content Dr. Ambedkar shows how the desire for monopoly of social control made the priest the most powerful factor in social control. The caste as a sociological institution resembles a Corporation in which the Board of Directors never changed. It was the law of status which classified men according to their birth and it was fixed and static; ability was not recognised as the means to cross the class-barriers. In theory and in practice the caste is the opposite of liberty, anti-thesis of equality and negation of humanity as it postulates the capacity for thinking incidental to the gift of reason for the chosen few distinguished by the marks of their pedigrees and not by the degrees of excellence evidenced in the free exercise of reason or conscience. The philosophy of the sacred texts in general discouraged the free exercise of reason with the result that the authority of the sacred texts became unquestioned and Truth became a datum and not a problem. This was the cause of intellectual atrophy and social stagnation. One is reminded of the words of Milton :
“Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in Scripture to a streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in perpetual succession, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man may be heretic in the truth and if he believes things only because his Pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.”
It is in this context that the works of Dr. Ambedkar will prove to be a frank assessment and a candid critique of the societal norms requiring revision and reformulation which he himself did when the opportunity presented in the Constituent Assembly which framed the noble Constitution in which fundamental rights protect the individual against despotism whether it comes from the State or Society.
‘The Untouchables’ is a sequel to the work on Shudras. Dr. Ambedkar has in his usual critical style assessed the Indian social system. He is critical of the Indian social system because it did not foster the spirit of critical inquiry. It is, indeed, a matter of regret that Indians could not produce a Voltaire or Milton or Victor Hugo because as a class they did not approve of it. The spirit of inquiry is the sine-qua-non of progress. The larger the area of inquiry, the