Annihilation of Caste

Annihilation of Caste was originally a speech written for an anti-caste convention organized by Hindu reformers in Lahore, only for the organizers to withdraw his invitation over his refusal to alter the length and contents of his keynote address. Ambedkar self-published the speech in 1936 and the thinking outlined herein shaped the breadth of his politics. He supported the 1947 Partition of India and rejected Communism outrightly as another system built to exploit the powerless, one that pursued revolution over reform. To Ambedkar, India’s exploitation was never purely economic, but cultural and religious. He argued that a genuinely casteless society demanded a completed rejection of the Shastras, the scriptures responsible for creating the distinctions in the first place. With a sharp rebuke of Gandhi along the way, it remains a historical document and an open argument, all at once.