82 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
system in India, the difference between the high and the low, between the Brahmins and the Non-Brahmins has lasted for centuries and bids fare to last for many more centuries, it is due to the educational disparity between the Brahmins and the Non-Brahmins. This disparity is not going to be removed by the spread of Primary education. The disparity in social position between Brahmin and Non-Brahmin can be removed only by adopting a policy of education whereby some NonBrahmins will be so highly educated that they will destroy the monopoly of strategic posts which the Brahmins now have. I am of opinion that this duty of educating Non-Brahmins upto the stage necessary to qualify them for strategic posts, should be undertaken by the State. If the State does not do it, the Maratha Mandir should.
There is another point I like to mention. The middle class as compared with the aristocracy and the lower classes have certain faults which are the faults of that class all over the world. The middle class has not the generosity of the aristocracy to tolerate the advance of the lower classes. And it does not possess the idealism of the lower classes. This makes the middle class the enemy of both the classes. It hates the aristocracy because of its superior status. It hates the lower classes because it does not like it to rise equal to itself. The Maratha are the middle class of India and any one who has worked with them, will know that they have the faults of the middle class outlined above. There are two ways for the Marathas to proceed : one to join their superiors and to prevent the lower classes rising to the level or to join with the lower classes and destroy to those who are the superiors of both. There was a time when they joined the lower classes. Recently they have joined the higher classes. It is not for me to say which is the right path for them to follow. There is no doubt about it that the destiny of not only of others but of the Marathas themselves must depend upon which of the two roads they will choose. That must be left to the wisdom of the Leaders of the Marathas of which there appears to be great dearth.
(Sd.)
B. R. Ambedkar . [1]
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1 Magazine Maratha Mandir’s special Number, March 23, 1947.