Vivekananda Meets Ambedkar: Five Fundamental Themes They Would Agree On

Swami Vivekananda, the monk who preached practical Vedanta, and B R Ambedkar, hailed as the modern Bodhisattva, represent the transition of Indic spirituality into a tool for social transformation in the modern times. It is interesting to see how these two great architects of modern India, who laid the spiritual foundations of social emancipation, converged in cardinal points of national resurgence.

1. The Spiritual Unity of India

The very idea of India as a nation goes against the Western concept of nation-state, as the latter is built on the idea of racially and linguistically homogenous people. Both Swami Vivekananda and Ambedkar envision India’s unity as something that transcends race and language. They see it as cultural and spiritual. For Swami Vivekananda, India is “the Aryan, the Dravidian, the Tartar, the Turk, the Mogul, the European – all the nations of the world, as it were, pouring their blood into this land”, and there is also “the most wonderful conglomeration” of languages. Vivekananda acknowledges that there is more difference between two Indian races than between the European and the Eastern races.” But there is “one common ground”, which is “our sacred tradition, our religion”. So the religion in this nation (by which he means no sectarian creed) is the basic substratum that binds Indians beyond the racial and linguistic difference. To Swami Vivekananda, the “national union in India” has to “be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces”. He said, “A nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.”

Ambedkar independently came to the same conclusion. In his paper presented at the Colombia University, he analysed in detail the nature of national unity in India. Unlike the one-race, one-language unity in the West, India possessed, according to him, “a deeper and a much more fundamental unity”:

Interestingly, unlike the Indian Left today, Ambedkar did not consider geographical nationalism as a good basis for defining nationhood. Discussing the problem of nationhood in his seminal work ‘Thoughts on Pakistan’, he considered the binding fibres of a nation to be spiritual:

2. The Aryan Race Theory

Intimately connected to the question of national unity of India and her society is the vexed question of Aryan race and invasion theory (now revised to “migration” theory by Marxist historians). One should remember that race concepts in general and Aryan race theory in particular were accepted as axiomatic during the times of both Swami Vivekananda and Ambedkar. Nobody questions the veracity of these theories on the basis of indigenous reading of Indic texts. Jawaharlal Nehru, despite all his bravado about “scientific temper”, accepted the Aryan race theory as the revealed truth. But both Swami Vivekananda and Ambedkar valiantly wrestled with the Aryan race/invasion theory. In both, one finds passages where they seemed to have accepted the Aryan as a race to begin with. But as they dwelt more into the subject, they rejected the Aryan race as well as the invasion theory. The Swami rejects Aryan race theory with contemptuous sarcasm:

In a remarkable statement, Vivekananda considered “the great Tamilians” as “one of the great ancestors of the Aryan race”. He further asked the proponents of Aryan invasion theory, “in what Veda, what Sukta” they discovered that “the Aryans came to India from a foreign country” and where they “got the idea that they slaughtered wild aborigines” from.

Ambedkar studied the Vedas for understanding the reason behind the emergence of caste system. With the objectivity of a good social scientist he studied every existing framework regarding the ancient Indian society. He naturally had to deal with the racial interpretation of the emergence of caste system. And now his much oft-quoted conclusions remarkably gel with that of Swami Vivekananda:

1. The Vedas do not know any such race as the Aryan race.
2. There is no evidence in the Vedas of any invasion of India by the Aryan race and it having conquered the Dasas and Dasyus supposed to be the natives of India.
3. There is no evidence to show that the distinction between Aryans, Dasas and Dasyus was a racial distinction.
4. The Vedas do not support the contention that the Aryans were different in colour from the Dasas and Dasyus.

Ambedkar also saw Rig Veda (except Purusha Suktha) as having “a sense of unity and a consciousness” of merging heterogeneous tribes to form an Indo-Aryan nation. Essentially it was this ‘sense of unity and consciousness’ that he sought for the entire Hindu society. In his analysis of the emergence of untouchability (Untouchables: Who were they?), he considered entire India as being populated by Tamil or proto-Tamil speakers who got diversified into diverse cultural groups rather than different races. Even here he did not connect this to the origin of untouchability or caste:

3. The Importance And Utility Of Sanskrit

As a modern nation building process started churning, both Swami Vivekananda and Ambedkar started exploring in their own ways the cultural and social integration of the Indian masses. To spiritually and culturally empower the masses and remove the birth-based disabilities and discriminations that the social stagnation had created, they advocated Sanskrit as an ideal tool of emancipation. Vivekananda saw a social mission in Sanskrit education:

Ambedkar seemed to have taken the cue from Swami Vivekananda. In Babasaheb’s opinion, Persian stands no comparison with Sanskrit as the latter is according to him “the golden treasure of epics, the cradle of grammar, politics and philosophy and the home of logic, dramas and criticism”. Author Makarand Paranjape observes that the idea of making Sanskrit…

4. Conversions
Religious conversions have always created hot debates in India. While the agents of proselytising Abrahamic religions have claimed that the conversions happen because people want to escape the tyranny of caste system, Ambedkar took the question of conversion head on. Conversions need to be resorted to if Hindu society is to get rid of the evil of untouchability and casteism. But Ambedkar warned that in conversion for social emancipation, national security should take precedence. In his words:

One cannot but see this statement of Ambedkar as a commentary over the cryptic remark of Swami Vivekananda that “every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more”. Both Swami Viveakananda and Ambedkar also felt that it would be better for Hinduism to be a missionary religion than a socially stagnant one. Swami Vivekananda too pointed to his disciples that “born aliens have been converted in the past”.

Ambedkar believed that it was when Hinduism ceased to be a missionary religion that caste system and social stagnation became entrenched in the society. In a metaphor, that would alarm many today and cheer the proponents of Ghar Wapasi. Ambedkar considered Hindu culture as one’s own home. Rejecting the idea of conversion to Christianity, he explained that converting to Buddhism was like moving from one room to another in one’s own home. But converting to Christianity was like moving to another house, certainly more difficult [Dr Ambedkar to Swami Dharma Teertha quoted by G Aloysius].

5. An Indian Spiritual Basis For Freedom And Equality

Swami Vivekananda saw in all democratic movements the spirit of Advaita — inherent human spiritual impulse towards unity:

And he considered Advaitic experience the basis of all ethical systems:

The same ethical and social impact of the Brahman being the essence of every human being — and all humanity as part of the same Brahman — did not escape the notice of Babasaheb Ambedkar, who found in it the spiritual basis for social democracy. He calls the concept of Brahman “Brahmaism”. (He had borrowed the term from the work The Great Epic of India: Character and Origin of the Mahabharata by Edward Washburn Hopkins.) Rejecting the criticism of Christian theologians that the Mahavakya “Aham Brahmasmi” was arrogant and impudent, Ambedkar puts forth a staunch defence of the Mahavakya:

However, caustically Ambedkar adds to this:

Back in time, Swami Vivekananda echoes Ambedkar in a way we can exchange their quotes mutually:

Thus we find the practical Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda and the Navyana Buddhism of Ambedkar converge at the cardinal points of nation building: Spiritual basis of national unity, rejection of racial interpretation of Indian social structure, importance of Sanskrit in empowering Indians, rejection of religious conversion to Abrahamic religions for the sake of social emancipation, and most importantly creating and implementing a social life based on the true spiritual values of India – as enshrined in the Upanishads and Buddha. The clarion call was made by Swami Vivekananda and the framework was given by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. The onus is upon the Indians – that is us.