24 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
A Real Service to the Nation
Ours is a movement which aims at not only removing our own disabilities, but also at bringing about a social revolution, a revolution that will remove all man-made barriers of caste by providing equal opportunities to all to rise to the highest position and making no distinction between man and man so far as civic rights are concerned. If we achieve success in our movement to unite all the Hindus in a single caste we shall have rendered the greatest service to the Indian nation in general and to the Hindu community in particular. The present caste-system with its invidious distinction and unjust dispensations is one of the greatest sources of our communal and National weakness. Our movement stands for strength and solidarity; for equality, liberty and fraternity. We wish to carry on our movement as peaceful as we can. However, our determination to remain non-violent will to a large extent depend upon the attitude of our opponents. We are not the aggressors and our oppressors for generations should accuse us of aggression a strange thing. We refuse to be controlled and bound by the ‘Shastras’ and ‘Smrities’ composed in the dark ages and base our claims on justice and humanity.” [1]
Thereafter “Mr. G. N. Sahastrabuddhe, a Brahmin, read extracts from Manusmriti those portions which related to the treatement to be meted out to the Sudras.
Burn Manusmriti
The first resolution passed ran as follows :—
Taking into consideration, the remarks in the Manusmriti and such other books which are most vulgar and which most flagrantly violate the human rights, this meeting condemns them emphatically and as an expression of that condemnation resolves to burn them and makes the following declaration of rights to form the basis of reconstruction of Hindu Society.
The declaration stated that all Hindus should be considered as one of varna and should be recognised and called as such and law should be enacted prohibiting the use of class words as Brahmin, Kshatriya etc.
1 : The Indian National Herald, dated 28th December 1927.