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DR. AMBEDKAR’S REPLY TO SIR S. RADHAKRISHNAN
The Survival Theory
“ Professor Radhakrishnan once said that there was one argument to prove the greatness of Hindus and that was : it had survived the shakes of time, it still existed whereas other ancient cults and creeds had been dead long ago.
In reply to this argument Dr. Ambedkar says:—
“I fear that this statement may become the basis of a vicious argument that the part of survival is a proof of fitness to survive. It seems to me that 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 honourable. For an individual as well as for a society there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily. To fight in a battle and to live in glory is one mode. To treat a retreat, to surrender and live the life of a capture is also a mode of survival. It is useless for the Hindus to take comfort in the fact that he and his people have survived. What he must consider is what is the quality of that survival. If he does that, I am sure he will cease to take pride in the mere fact of survival. The Hindus have been living a life of continuous defeat and what appears to them to be life everlasting is not living everlastingly. It is a mode of survival of which every right-minded Hindu, who is not afraid to own up the truth will feel ashamed.” [1]
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1 Published in ‘The Lamp’ dated 25th June 1936; quoted in : Khairmode. Vol. 6. P. 266.