554 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
any youngsters are attracted by the rule contained in the Communist system of rules that there shall be no private property, they can find it here. The only question is, to what extent can this rule of denial of private property be applied to society as a whole ? That is a matter of expediency, time, circumstances, development of human society. But, so far as theory is concerned whether there is anything wrong in abolishing private property, Buddhism will not stand in the way of anybody who wants to do it; because it has already made this concession in the organisation of the Buddhist Sangha.
Now, we come to another aspect of the matter, and that aspect is - what is the ways and means which Karl Marx or the Communists wish to adopt in order to bring about Communism? This is the important question. The means that the Communists wish to adopt in order to bring about Communism, by which I mean the recognition of Dukkha, and abolition of property, is violence and killing of the opposed. There lies the fundamental difference between the Buddha and Karl Marx. The Buddha’s means of persuading people to adopt the principles is by persuasion, by moral teaching, by love. He wants to conquer the opponent by inculcating in him the doctrine that love and not power can conquer anything. That is where the fundamental difference lies - that the Buddha would not allow violence, and the Communists do. No doubt the Communists get quick results ; because when you adopt the means of anihilating men, they do not remain to oppose you.
You go on with your ideology, you go on with your ways of doing things. The Buddha’s way, as I said, is a long way, perhaps some people may say, a tedious way. But I have no doubt about it that it is the surest way.
There are two or three questions which I have always asked my communist friends to answer and which, I must frankly say they have not been able to answer. They establish by means of violence what they call the dictatorship of the proletariat. They deprive all people who have property, of their political rights. They cannot have representation in the legislature. They cannot have right to vote, they must remain what they call second grade subjects of the State, the ruled, not