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The Vedasarea worthlesssetof i books Thereisnoreasoneither , : tocall them sacredor infallible' i 'Asearingchallenge totheentire intellectualorder' PRATAPBHANUMEHTA RIDDLES IN HINDUISM THEANNOTATEDCRITICALSELECTION it i B.R. AMBEDKAR t s WITHTHERIDDLEOFAMBEDKAR' ANINTRODUCTIONBYKanchallaiah !f 'O'- navayana Praiseforthebook RiddlesofHinduismisasearingchallengetotheentireintellectual order. The neglect of this text has itself become a metaphor for the ways in which the privileged have avoided a serious and honest engagement with Ambedkar. It is an important event that this text is finally being published with proper annotations and scholarly apparatus. The editors have done a wonderful act of recovery. Ambedkar was always meant to disconcert, and to shake our very foundations. This is a text that shows him at his forensic best. Whether you agree or disagree, this text should startan honestconversation.Wecannotcontinuetohidebehind the platitudes that Ambedkarso effectively pierces. —Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centrefor PolicyResearch There is not a shadow of doubt that B.R. Ambedkar’s Riddles in Hinduism has been annotated with both love and care. The punctiliousness with which the notes have been written will certainly make the riddles less riddle-like to lay as well as informed readers. Decidedly, this edition, aided by Kancha Ilaiah’s lucid and pointed introduction, will go a long way in dispellingsomeofthe viewsapropos tradition that have become (cid:127).* commonsensical by the act ofconstant repetition. Passionate yet scholarly,confrontationalyetfortifiedbyastrongsenseoftextual integrity, Riddles in Hinduism, composed almostsixty yearsfrom today, once again offers us the chance to engage in meaningful andsanedialogues. —Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, author of Three Essays on the Maha- bharata: Exercisesin Literary Hermeneutics r t Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in 1891 into an Riddles in Hinduism ‘Untouchable’ family of modest means. One of India’s most radicalthinkers,hetransformedthesocialandpoliticallandscape An exposition to enlighten themasses in the struggle against British colonialism. He was a prolific writer who oversaw the drafting of the Indian Constitution B.R. Ambedkar and served as India’s first Law Minister. In 1935, he publicly The annotatedcritical selection declared that thoughhewas bornaHindu, hewould not dieas one. Ambedkar eventually embraced Buddhism, afew months editedandannotatedby before hisdeath in1956. S.ANANDandSHOBHNAIYER Kancha Ilaiah is Director, Centre for the Study of Social IntroducedbyKANCHAILAIAHwiththeessay Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu TheRiddleof Ambedkar: University, Hyderabad. He is best known for his work, Why I WhydidhesayhewasbornaHindu? am Not a Hindu: A Sudra CritiqueoJHindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy. He has authored several books including Buffalo Nationalism:ACritiqueofSpiritual Fascismand Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution. S. Anand is the publisher of Navayana. He is the co-author of Bhimayana,agraphicbiographyofAmbedkar,andhasannotated thecritical edition ofAmbedkar’sclassic AnnihilationofCaste. Shobhna Iyer studied ancient history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Unnamati Syama Sundar is doing his doctoral research at Jawaharlal Nehru University on the art and visuals used in navayana the popular Telugu children’s magazine, Chandamama. He is currently teachinghistoryatSRR College, Vijayawada. rr \\ Contents RiddlesinHinduism:AnExpositionto Enlightenthe Masses TheAnnotated Critical Selection Preface 7 10867911 IntroductionbyKanchallaiah TheRiddleofAmbedkar:WhydidhesayhewasbornaHindu? 17 ISBN9788189059774 ©“TheRiddleofAmbedkar”,Kancha llaiahShepherd RiddlesinHinduism ©Annotationsand thisedition, Navayana PublishingPvtLtd B.R.Ambedkar 47 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,stored Introduction 49 in a retrievalsystem, or transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, PartI—Religious without thepriorpermission ofthepublisher. RiddleNo.1/TheDifficultyofKnowingWhyOneisaHindu 58 RiddleNo.6/TheContentsoftheVedas: NavayanaPublishingPvtLtd HavetheyanyMoralorSpiritualValue? 66 1552ndFloor RiddleNo.13/TheRiddleofAhimsa 85 ShahpurJat, NewDelhi110049 RiddleNo.14/FromAhimsabacktoHimsa 98 navayana.org PARTII—Social TypesetinBemboandOptima at Navayana RiddleNo.16/TheFourVarnas: PrintedbySanjivPalliwalatParamOffset, NewDelhi AretheBrahmansSureoftheirOrigin? 105 Subscribe to updatesat navayana.org/subscribe RiddleNo.17/TheFourAshramas:TheWhyandHowaboutthem 129 Followonfacebook.com/Navayana RiddleNo.18/Manu'sMadnessortheBrahmanicExplanation oftheOriginoftheMixedCastes 139 RiddleNo.19/TheChangefromPaternitytoMaternity: WhatdidtheBrahmansWishtoGainbyit? 155 PARTIll-Political RiddleNo.22/BrahmaisNotDharma:WhatGoodisBrahma? 166 RiddleNo.23/KaliYuga:WhyHavetheBrahmansmadeitUnending? 180 AppendixI/TheRiddleofRamaandKrishna 217 ListofalltheRiddlesfromtheBAWSedition 247 AppendixII/"TheTowel,theTarBrushandtheHammer" ArchivalcartoonscuratedbyUnnamatiSyamaSundar 249 Bibliography 256 Acknowledgements 272 Index 273 9 Preface Riddles in Hinduism is one of his many works B.R. Ambedkar did not get to publishin hislifetime.Aswe began the processof selectingandannotatingthe Riddles,thebookitselfposedamajor riddle. While the first and second editions of an iconic work like Annihilation of Caste (1936, 1944) that Ambedkar oversaw to the last detail could be traced, we had no choice but to base our edition of Riddles on the version that appears in Volume 4 of the ongoing multi-volume series called ‘Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches’, known by the acronym BAWS, produced by the Maharashtra government’s education department.Allthat theeditorssayofRiddlesinHinduismisthis: Themanuscriptsof“RiddlesofHinduism” have beenfound in separate chapters bundled together in one file. These chapterscontain corrections, erasures,alterations,etc. bythe handsofDrAmbedkarhimself.Fortunately,theintroduction by Dr Ambedkarisalso availablefor this book. We, however, regret that the final manuscript of this volume has not been found. TheCommitteehasacceptedthetitle“RiddlesinHinduism”, given by Dr Ambedkar in his Introduction to the Book.... TheEditorialCommitteehasfoundachapteron“Riddlesof RamaandKrishna” whichmighthavebeenintendedforthe volume “Riddles in Hinduism”.The 24 riddles as proposed in his original plan were changed often in blue-prints. The seriatim of the contents and chapters and the arrangement of the file do not synchronize. The chapter on Rama and Krishna did not find a place in the listing of the contents of the book. However, we are including it in the volume on Riddles (BAWSVol4,1987a,xiv-xv, emphasisadded). 8 Preface Preface 9 How the Ambedkar papers came into the possession of the the AdditionalRentControllerservedheranoticeon17January state of Maharashtra and how the state was literally forced into 1967.On20January,SavitaAmbedkarleftforAlwar(Rajasthan), publishinghisworksmakesforaninterestingandsadstory.After perhaps in the hope that nothing would happen in her absence. he resigned from Nehru’s cabinet in September 1951 following (Rattu, in his account, sounds paranoid and suspicious ofSavita the impasse over the Hindu Code Bill (which Kancha Ilaiah Ambedkar and her motives, even implying that she saw to it discusses in hisintroduction), Ambedkar’sspent hislast yearsin that an ailing Ambedkar did not get the right kind of medical Delhiat26,AlipurRoad,abungalowherentedfromtheformer treatment in theyearsleading to hisdeath.) Raja of Sirohi (a princely state in southern Rajasthan). He With Mrs Ambedkar away,Jain and his son-in-law entered lived here with his wife Savita Ambedkar, a Saraswat Brahman the premises with three bailiffs and twenty musclemen and medical doctor he’d married in 1948 in his fifty-sixth year (a forcibly opened the rooms, wresting the keys from Mrs marriage the New York Timesdescribed as moresignificant than Ambedkar’s servant Mohan Singh. Jain and his men removed theweddingofa royalty toa commoner). all the papers that had been neatlyarranged inseveral racksin a Once he resigned, Ambedkar did not have any official bigstoreroom. These were recklessly dumped in an open yard. secretarial staff to help him. At this point, he asked Nanak The room contained several ofAmbedkar’s “countless precious Chand Rattu, a Punjabi Ad-Dharmi Dalit who had expressed documents and important papers, nicely kept in several racks... his keenness to assist Ambedkar since their first meeting in and manuscripts of his several writings” (Rattu 1997, 202). January 1940 and who now worked as a typist in a central Luck wassuchit rained that night.SeveralofAmbedkar’spapers government office, if he would help him with secretarial work were irrevocably destroyed. That for over ten years Ambedkar’s and be his factotum. Rattu readily agreed and would show papershadremained unexaminedand untouchedinastoreroom — up at Ambedkar’s house every evening after office hours and in Delhi even if Rattu says he dusted them on and off and — work till well past midnight. From October 1951 to December fumigated them is tragedy enough. They should have been 1956, he typed out almost all of Ambedkar’slettersand papers. partofthe National ArchivesofIndia. Ambedkar diedon 6December1956,intestate. Rattu published UponherreturnfromAlwar,MrsAmbedkarsoughtthehelp — two worshipful memoirs about his time with Ambedkar of Home Minister Y.B. Chavan and the Lt Governor of Delhi Reminiscencesand Remembrancesof Dr B.R. Ambedkarin 1995and A.N. Jha to access the premises and excavate her belongings. Last Few Years of Dr Ambedkarin 1997.Thefollowingaccount is Soon, the building where Ambedkar lived was brought down, based on these books. and thepropertychanged hands.Thoughthesequenceofevents AccordingtoRattu,in1966,tenyearsafterAmbedkar’sdeath, fromhereon isnotclear, thecustodiansoftheDelhiHighCourt oneMadanLaiJaincametopurchasetheten-roomAlipurRoad took possessionofwhat remainedoftheAmbedkarpapers.The bungalow in 1966.Jain allowed Savita Ambedkar, who’d been BAWS editors narrate the story thereafter, without thinking it living there, to retain two rooms. He gave one portion to his necessary to accordfor thelost time: son-in-law, and rented one part of the building to an additional Later, these papers were transferred to the Administrator sessionsjudge. But soon, hesought to evict Mrs Ambedkar and General of the Government of Maharashtra. Since then, * Preface11 10 Preface — the boxes containing the unpublished manuscripts of Dr Milind College, on behalf of People’s Education Society in Ambedkar and several other papers were in the custody Aurangabad, the administrative headquarters ofMarathwada. A of the Administrator General. It was learned that ShriJ.B. caste war broke out, lasting67 days. About 1,200 villages were Bansod,anAdvocatefromNagpur,hadfiledasuitagainstthe affected in three districts, nineteen Dalits were killed, Dalit Governmentin the High CourtBench at Nagpur which was women were molested and raped, and Dalit homes were burnt later transferred to the High Court ofJudicature at Bombay. andpillaged.Itwasonlyin1994that theuniversitywasrenamed The petitioner had made a simple request seeking permission Babasaheb AmbedkarMarathwada University (BAMU)—butit fromthecourttoeitherallowhimtopublishtheunpublished writings of Dr Ambedkar or to direct the Government to isstillcalledMarathwadaUniversityinadministrativespeakand publish the same as they had assumed national significance. town parlance. — Thislitigation was pending before the Bombay High Court It was against this background that in 1976 twenty years forseveral years (BAWSVol 4,1987a,xi-xii, emphasesadded). after Ambedkar’s death—the state government formed the Dr In other words, the Maharashtra government was asked by Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee, a Dalit advocate, representing the aspirations of several Dalits appointing Vasant Moon as Officer on Special Duty. The first (unfortunately but unsurprisingly not shared by non-Dalits) volume was published in 1979 and subsequently twenty-two to explain why it was sitting on Ambedkar’s papers (or what volumes of speeches and writings have been printed, volumes remainedofthem),foryears,virtuallydoingnothing.Meanwhile, thatarealmostimpossible tofindin regularbookstores. the already published writings ofAmbedkar were kept in print The question before us now is which version of Riddles in byDalitactivistsacrossIndia.TouchableIndiadidnotquitecare Hinduism are we reading, especially since the BAWS editors for this Untouchable who constantly and relentlessly questioned “regret that the final manuscript of this volume has not been — Brahmanism and Hinduism till his last breath and Riddles in found”? Why did Ambedkar not publish this work in his own Hinduism is testimony, as you will see. lifetime?Whenexactlydidheworkonthismammothexegetical The 1970s also saw great political ferment. The radical exercise that runs to ground everything people with caste hold Dalit Panthers was formed in Bombay in 1972. Inspired dear? by the Black Panther Party, it explored the convergence of Rattu records that Ambedkar began writing Riddles in Ambedkarism, Marxism and Buddhism. In 1978, the issue Hinduism in the first week ofJanuary 1954 and completed it by of renaming the Marathwada University in Aurangabad the end of November 1955. He made “four press copies” that after Babasaheb Ambedkar—what could have been a benign Rattutypedout“onafinestrongpaper”.WhenRattusubmitted gesture of symbolism—ran aground with the Shiv Sena and that making four typed copies of the same manuscript seemed the Maratha community vehemently opposing the move. The unnecessary,Ambedkar responded“with asmile”: Shiv Sena chief Bal Keshav Thackeray had responded with this “Look,” he said, “what is the title of the book—Riddles — infamous statement: “Gharaat nahi peeth, magtaay vidyapeethr in Hinduism which is itself a reply.I haven’t got my own “They’ve no bread to eat but demand a university.” The fact is, press and naturally it has to be given to some Hindu press for — printing.Itcanbelost,burntordestroyedandmyseveralyears in 1950, Ambedkar had started the first ever degree college 12 Preface Preface 13 — ofhardlabourwillthusgowaste.Doesn’t matterwhat thecost Pnwwfc ,WSi involved.I must have asparecopywith me”(1997,63). . SAM RAJXAAT"LAST / Rattu says the book was complete in all respects, but W its publication was held up as Ambedkar wanted to add two \AMAPAHOir important photographs. The first was of Dr Rajendra Prasad, * YOUitoBKAOI MUSMMS the first president of the republic, visiting Benares in 1952, TOOomtM worshipping Brahmans, washing their feet and drinking the water.ThesecondphotorelatedtoPanditJawaharlalNehruwho on 15 August 1947sat at the yagna performed by the Brahmans of Benares to celebrate the event of a Brahman becoming the first prime ministeroffreeandindependent India. Nehru issaid tohaveworntheRajaDandagiventohimbytheBrahmansand drank thewateroftheGanga broughtbythem.Rattu notesthat 2f0o0rehSeaandssk.riftuPlmanddeidtstwhietmh,wgaotev*r,tfhUetmt tswmMeltpaansdteRosn.thIte/ir- while “DrRajendraPrasad’sphoto hadbecomeavailable,search Banaras,N^ovember16,1952. was on for the photo of Nehru.” The December 1952 issue of Filmindia, founded and edited since 1935 by Baburao Ambedkartoomakesnoteofthesetwoincidentsin hiswork Patel,featuredthiscartoon.Twoprominentcartoonistsusedtodrawforthismagazine— 'Thoughts on Linguistic States (a critique ofthe report oftheStates Earan and B.K. Thackeray (Bal Keshav Thackeray). Filmindia used to publish highly controversial cartoons attacking religious fundamentalism,both Hindu and Islamic. Reorganization Commission) completed in December1955: Cartooniststhereforerarelysignedtheircartoons.Basedonstyleonecaninferthatthis Did notPrimeMinister Nehru on the15thofAugust1947sit isbyEaran.Source:NationalFilmArchiveLibrary,Pune.AscessedinFebruary2013by at theyajnaperformedbytheBrahminsofBenarestocelebrate UnnamatiSyamaSundar. the event of a Brahmin becoming the first Prime Minister of Krishna, (vi) Riddle of Trimurti and (vii) Riddle of Woman. free and independent India and wear the RajaDandagiven — Of these, he gave priority to The Buddha and His Dhamma to him by these Brahmins and drink the water of the Ganges brought by them? How many women have been forced to an unfair but tactical choice he was forced to make. Even to goSatiin recent days and immolate themselveson thefuneral publish this opus, he wrote out several letters seeking financial pyre of their dead husbands.Did not the President [Rajendra assistance including a few to M.R. Masani, Chairman of Tata Prasad] recentlygotoBenaresandworshiptheBrahmins,wash IndustriesLtd. Ina reminderon17March1956,Ambedkarsays, their toesand drink thewater? (BAWSVol1,1979,149). “I’mdreadfully in a hurry and ifMr Tata refuses my request I’d Through the 1950s, Ambedkar was under tremendous like to go with my bowl to another door” (cited in Rattu 1997, financial stress and in a hurry to publish as many books as 60).Afterassuringthemselvesthat a book on theBuddha might he could, given his failing health. Rattu lists (1997, 59) the not be “controversial”, on 1 May 1956, the Sir Dorabji Tata following titles: (i) Buddha and His Dhamma, (ii) Buddha and TrustsanctionedRs3,000. NeedinganotherRs20,000 tocover Karl Marx, (iii) Revolution and Counter-revolution in Ancient printing expenses, Ambedkar then abjectly wrote to Nehru on India, (iv) Riddles in Hinduism, (v) Riddle of Rama and 15 September 1956, asking “if the Government of India could 14 Preface Preface 15 purchase 500 copiesfor distribution among the variouslibraries and only Dalits embraced his re-invented Navayana Buddhism, and among the many scholars whom it is inviting during the which was premised on the negation of Brahmanic Hinduism. course of this year for the celebration of Buddha’s 2,500 years’ This explains India’s collective neglect of the nonviolent anniversary”(BAWSVol17,Part1,2003,444-5).Hewasturned egalitarian revolution he charted, and the Prabuddha Bharat he down, politelyofcourse. (The proposedAmbedkarmemorialat sought to usher. Indu Millsin Mumbai hasa budget ofRs 425 core.) Riddles in Hinduism as published under BAWS Volume 4 While The Buddha and His Dhammawas publishedsoon after features twenty-four riddles and eight appendices classified Ambedkar’sdeath, Riddlesin Hinduism (andseveralotherworks) under three heads: Religious, Social and Political. Several of had to wait for three decades before being exhumed. When it Ambedkar’s notes are incomplete and sometimes even chapters was finally published in 1987 under BAWS Volume 4, copies of end with the BAWS editors saying, “Incomplete. Further text thebookwereburntpubliclyataMarathaMahamandalmeeting missing.” in Amravati in January 1988. The state government withdrew The work runs to over 170,000 words and reissuing it in the book when theShivSena rioted in Bombay for the removal its entirety, with annotations, would have made for a bulky of the chapter, “The Riddle of Rama and Krishna”. When book ofat least eight hundred pages. Therefore, ten riddles and thousands of Dalits staged counter-protests across Maharashtra, one addendum have been selected from Ambedkar’s fifteen thechapter wasreinstatedbutwithacaveat that thegovernment religious, five social and four political quandaries. These better did not “concur with views expressed in this chapter”. The represent thesocial and political charades thatBuddhismsought government edition carries this disclaimer till date. to uproot but textual Hinduism, as Ambedkar argues, made Ambedkar’sfearsthatthebookcouldwellbelostordestroyed possible. By attacking the abstractions that ironically form the — by the Hindus is not unfounded. It has a historical basis. After ‘Sanatan’ bedrock of Brahmanic theology like varnashrama, all, scholars acknowledge that most Buddhist manuscripts from Vedic scriptural authority, the appropriation of ahimsa, the the subcontinent that have survived were found outside the shifting sacrality of Hindu gods, the laws of Manu, and the — subcontinent, owing to the efforts of Buddhist missionaries enduring Kali Yuga these questions and their answers are to find a safe place for them: the Brahmans sought to destroy stellarexamplesofAmbedkar’sscholarship that go astep beyond whatever they could lay their hands on. If The Buddha and His cataloguing inequality to also asking the difficult, but ethical, DhammawasAmbedkar’sgospel, Riddles in Hinduismis the kind question of justice. Primarily, they mount a moral critique on ofcritique that issimilar to what the Buddha himselfand other Hindu ‘spirituality’orrather theabsenceofit.Theriddlesinthis Sramanic traditionssuch as the Lokayata school undertook. edition comprise the moreidentifiable‘tenets’of Hinduism that When theBuddha went about callingBrahmans to dialogue continue to be milked for theirprofitability today. with him, they came forward. He defeated them in intellectual This editorial intervention was needed keeping in mind debates and even won some of them over to his Sangha. But issuesofspace,relevanceandaccessibilitywhilealsoundertaking Ambedkar did not'enjoy that luxury. Unlike Siddhartha who the(cid:127)debatable, but ultimately contingent, task of introducing wasaKshatriyaprince,BhimraoAmbedkarwasanUntouchable, Ambedkar’s sustained tirade on Hinduism to as wide and 16 Preface uninitiated an audience as possible. This is by no means a comprehensive or definitive selection; it is at best an indicative one, andwhatwas possible givenourlimitations. Ambedkaroftenpresumesaminimalfamiliaritywithtextual debates and knowledge of Brahmanic theology and mythology in his readers. We therefore set ourselves two tasks: to go back to the primary sources Ambedkar refers to, and to find out what thelatest availablescholarship says on this.What was most Introduction fulfilling about this exercise was to realize that the questions The Riddleof Ambedkar: — Ambedkar raises be it on the suspicious interpolation of the Whydidhesayhe wasborna Hindu? Purusha Sukta hymn into the Rig Veda or the gobbledygook around Varna and ashrama and the collapsing of the two at a Kancha llaiah — historical juncture have been echoed and validated in later scholarship.Oneofthemostchallengingyetenjoyableaspectsof crafting theannotations was parsing through Ambedkar’s notes where he refers to several texts on a single topic. Considering how long it took us to verify each source and make corrections where needed,itisawe-inspiringtoconsiderthat Ambedkar did thissomesixty years ago, all by himself. Given the ironyofboth theannotators beingbornBrahman, this exercise in writing a commentary on Ambedkar’s text t made us self-conscious about following what ultimately seems a Brahmanical bhashya tradition. But truth be told, reading Ambedkar’s work only exposed our own profound ignorance of the texts and theology he so consummately discusses and demolishes. And how else is one to join Ambedkar’s Sangha than byaidingandabettinghim? Isredemptioneverpossiblefor aBrahman may well be anotherlost riddle. S.Anand 30 March 2016 New Delhi ^rr-exf

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.