Ambedkar and Gandhi

In his article “Ethics in Ambedkar’s Critique of Gandhi” (EPW, 15 April 2017), Gopal Guru questions the hitherto unexamined and largely accepted antagonism between Ambedkar and Gandhi on the problem of untouchability. Those who take rigid positions, for or against the two leaders, fail to locate the space in which the “inclusive discourse of emancipation” is possible. For this reason, the tone of Guru’s article is reconciliatory as he finds Gandhi involved in the emancipatory struggle of Dalits, just as Ambedkar makes efforts to involve Gandhi and the caste Hindus in the interlocutory framework of conversation.

The question of untouchability can be properly understood and resolved if the approaches of the two leaders are taken together. Gandhi mainly looked at the problem of untouchability from a moral standpoint, whereas Ambedkar looked at it from a rational, intellectual and political point of view.