Ambedkar and Gandhi- Two Parallels Who Can Never Meet

The Indian polity of late is divided into two political strains: Gandhian Socialism and Ambedkar’s modernity. Ambedkar’s idea of modernity was influenced by Western and Indian thought. In contrast, Gandhi was an ardent Vaishnavite, even though he was educated in the West. Ambedkar and Gandhi are two stalwarts who had not only influenced the Indian Political scene in the last century but when alive were engaged in the most interesting and longest-running debates on the Caste system in India. These two contemporaries who were entirely different and opposed to each other when alive, find themselves in the reconciliatory efforts of the academicians after their death [Guha:2010, Partha Chaterjee:2004]. Ambedkar and Gandhi were not only political opponents of each other but were also methodologically different in their approaches. We can see their religious inclinations were also diagonally opposed to each other as Ambedkar was opposed to Hinduism and finally renounced Hinduism to adopt Buddhism. In contrast, Gandhi was a staunch Hindu who upheld the Brahminical Varna system throughout his life, with a few exceptions found in the last year of his life. In Ambedkar’s words, it was a struggle of two individuals and two traditions—Buddhism and Brahminism.