B. R. Ambedkar Quotes

Nothing can be more repugnant to the individualism and love of freedom of the British race than the Hindu caste system, under which every man is born into a particular water-tight compartment from which he cannot emerge except through death and rebirth …

The idea of the nation [India] itself is incompatible with the institution of caste.

Caste hasn't been a part of creative thoughts and it never will be.

Ideas are fatal to caste.

India's rigid social structure limits intergenerational economic mobility and fosters acceptance of vast wealth disparities.

I think there's really strong social stratification in South Asia.

I cannot believe there is caste system in society; I cannot believe people are judged on the basis of their prosperity.

The old world of England was picturesque and safe in a way that L.A. wasn't, but it was so amazingly socially cruel. I had never experienced that in America - never in school, nowhere.

There is no caste in blood.

A Brahmana shall be compelled to pay a fine of one thousand panas if he has intercourse with … females of those two lower castes; for offending with a … Sudra female a fine of one thousand.

A once-born man (a Sudra), who insults a twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin. If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty, the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into his ears

Untouchables are treated as if less than beasts …. Untouchability for me is more insufferable than British rule. If Hinduism hugs Untouchability, then Hinduism is dead and gone.

In a superior civilization, as, for example, that of the Indo-Aryans, the being who is without a characteristic form or caste... would emerge as a pariah. In this respect America is a society of pariahs. There is a role for pariahs. It is to be subjected to beings whose form and internal laws are precisely defined. Instead the modern pariahs seek to become dominant themselves and to exercise their dominion over all the world.

I cannot become a Chowkidar because I am Brahmin. Brahmins can't be Chowkidars. It's a fact.

We can't deny the existence of caste in India. We have to live with it.

The caste system may be more highly developed in countries like India or England, but every tier of society in almost every culture tries to dominate a group it perceives as beneath it.

India will have to hang down her head in shame if even one person is left who is said in any way to be untouchable.

If everyone simply ignores the caste system, it will go away overnight.

I am from a very vague caste. I don't belong to any of the four. I am kayastha. They are well read, largely clerks so they get treated respectfully.

When one English person speaks, another one immediately classifies him. No class system in the world is so audible, which is also why it is so pernicious and enduring.

Untouchability is a hydra-headed monster.

You have countries like India that have tried to help untouchables, with essentially affirmative-action programs, but it hasn't fundamentally changed the structure of their societies.

Caste is a state of mind. It is a disease of mind. The teachings of the Hindu religion are the root cause of this disease. We practice casteism and we observe Untouchability because we are enjoined to do so by the Hindu religion. A bitter thing cannot be made sweet. The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar.

To say that a single human being, because of his birth, becomes an untouchable, unapproachable or invisible is to deny God.

Untouchability is a many-headed monster and forms, some of them so subtle as not to be easily detected.