Ideological Convergence or Political Overtures: Hindu Nationalists’ Engagement with Ambedkar

The dominant political discourse in India situates Ambedkar in opposition to the ideology of Hindutva. Ambedkar criticised Hindu religious texts on the ground of sanctioning graded inequality in the Hindu social order. This further gets traction with demands of Ambedkar to treat depressed classes as non-Hindus or protestant Hindus. The twenty-one commandants read out at the time of his conversion also denounced key Hindu gods and goddesses. All this goes against the basic tenets of Hindutva ideology. Therefore, any overtures by Hindutva protagonists in favour of Ambedkar are interpreted as attempts to appropriate him for electoral reasons. This article counters this narrative and argues that there are several political and ideological issues on which both Ambedkar and Hindu nationalists converge. The author has used the discourse analysis method to identify those issues that bring Ambedkar close to Hindu nationalists.