Why Ambedkar Liked Religion of Islam? | Ambedkar on Islam & Muhammad

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) also known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer, who inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement and campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables (Dalits). He was the chief architect of the Constitution of India, and a founding father of the Republic of India.

Ambedkar was much fed up with the blatant discrimination, injustice and inhuman treatment against the lower castes Hindus at the hands of upper caste Hindus.

He was looking to improve the degraded social and economic conditions of Dalits (untouchables) in India and was quite impressed with principles of equality and brotherhood in Islam.

Here we are quoting from works of Dr. Ambedkar what he thought about Islam.

Ambedkar on Religious Revolution of Muhammad

Dr. Ambedkar acknowledges the role of religious revolution brought about by Prophet Muhammad and its impact on the subsequent political power gained by Arabs. He says:

“Before the Arabs became a political power they had undergone a thorough religious revolution started by the Prophet Mohammad.”¹

Why Ambedkar Thinks Muslims are Better than Hindus?

Comparing the two communities viz. Hindus and Muslims, Dr. Ambedkar says:

“The Hindus criticize the Mohammedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the inquisition.

But really speaking who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mohammedans and Christians who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as necessary for their salvation or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own make-up?

I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mohammedan (Muslim) has been cruel the Hindu has been mean and meanness is worse than cruelty.“²

Ambedkar Likes Brotherhood among Muslims and Sikhs

What is the basic difference between Islam and Hinduism regarding human relationships? Dr. B. R. Ambedkar says:

“From where does the Sikh or the Mohammedan derive his strength which makes him brave and fearless? I am sure it is not due to relative superiority of physical strength, diet or drill.

It is due to the strength arising out of the feeling that all Sikhs will come to the rescue of a Sikh when he is in danger and that all Mohammedans will rush to save a Muslim if he is attacked.

The Hindu can derive no such strength. He cannot feel assured that his fellows will come to his help. Being one and fated to be alone he remains powerless, develops timidity and cowardice and in a fight surrenders or runs away.

If you pursue this matter further and ask what is it that enables the Sikh and the Mohammedan to feel so assured and why is the Hindu filled with such despair in the matter of help and assistance you will find that the reasons for this difference lie in the difference in their associated mode of living.

The associated mode of life practised by the Sikhs and the Mohammedans produces fellow-feeling. The associated mode of life of the Hindus does not.

Among Sikhs and Muslims there is a social cement which makes them Bhais. Among Hindus there is no such cement and one Hindu does not regard another Hindu as his Bhai.

This explains why one Mohammedan is equal to a crowd of Hindus.“³

Related: What is Islam?

Ambedkar on Caste System: Islam vs Hinduism

Commenting on caste system prevalent in Hinduism, Ambedkar says:

“Ask Mohammedan or a Sikh, who he is? He tells you that he is a Mohammedan or a Sikh as the case may be. He does not tell you his caste although he has one and you are satisfied with his answer.

When he tells you that he is a Muslim, you do not proceed to ask him whether he is a Shiya or a Sunni; Sheikh or Saiyad; Khatik or Pinjari.

When he tells you he is a Sikh, you do not ask him whether he is Jat or Roda; Mazbi or Ramdasi.

But you are not satisfied, if a person tells you that he is a Hindu. You feel bound to inquire into his caste.

Why?

Because so essential is caste in the case of a Hindu that without knowing it you do not feel sure what sort of a being he is.

There may be castes among Sikhs and Mohammedans but the Sikhs and the Mohammedans will not outcast a Sikh or a Mohammedan if he broke his caste.

Indeed, the very idea of excommunication is foreign to the Sikhs and the Mohammedans. But with the Hindus the case is entirely different. He is sure to be outcasted if he broke caste.”⁴

Buddhists Accepted Islam on Arrival of Islam in India

When Islam came to India a large number of Buddhists accepted Islam to escape the tyranny of Brahminism. Ambedkar says:

“As to the conversion to the faith of Islam by the Buddhist population as a cause of the fall of Buddhism, there can hardly be much doubt.

In his Presidential address to the early Medieval and Rajput section of the Indian History Congress held at Allahabad in 1938, Prof. Surendra Nath Sen very rightly observed that there were two problems relating to the Medieval History of India for which no satisfactory answers were forthcoming as yet.

He mentioned two: one connected with the origin of the Rajputs and the other to the distribution of the Muslim population in India.

Referring to the second, he said:

“But I may be permitted to deal with one question that is not wholly of antiquarian interest today. The distribution of Muslim population in India demands some explanation. It is commonly believed that Islam followed the route of conquest and the subjugated people were forced to accept the faith of their rulers.

The predominance of the Muslims in the Frontier Province and the Punjab lends some colour to this contention. But this theory cannot explain an overwhelming Muslim majority in Eastern Bengal.

It is quite likely that the North Western Frontier Province was peopled by Turkish folks during the Kushan days, and their easy conversion to Islam may be explained by racial affinity with the new conquerors;

but the Muslims of Eastern Bengal are certainly not racially akin to the Turks and the Afghans, and the conversion of the Hindus of that region must have been due to other reasons.”

What are these other reasons? Prof. Sen then proceeds to lay bare these reasons which are found in Muslim Chronicles. He takes the case of Sind for which there is direct testimony and says:

“According to the Chachnama, the Buddhists of Sind suffered all sorts of indignities and humiliations under their Brahman rulers, and when the Arabs invaded their country, the Buddhists lent their whole hearted suport to them.

Later on, when Dahir was slain and a Muslim Government was firmly established in his country, the Buddhists found to their dismay that, so far as their rights and privileges were concerned, the Arabs were prepared to restore status quo ante bellum and even under the new order the Hindus received a preferential treatment.

The only way out of this difficulty was to accept Islam because the converts were entitled to all the privileges reserved for the ruling classes. So the Buddhists of Sind joined the Muslim fold in large numbers.”

Prof. Sen then adds this significant passage:

“It cannot be an accident that the Punjab, Kashmir, the district around Behar Sharif, North-East Bengal where Muslims now predominate, were all strong Buddhist Centres in the pre-Muslim days.

It will not be fair to suggest that the Buddhists succumbed more easily to political temptations than the Hindus and the change of religion was due to the prospects of the improvement of their political status.”

There is therefore nothing to vitiate the conclusion that the fall of Buddhism was due to the Buddhist becoming converts to Islam as a way of escaping the tyranny of Brahmanism.“⁵

Ambedkar Quotes Mahabharat: Whole World will become Islamic

Quoting a passage from popular Hindu Scripture Mahabharat about future, Dr. Ambedkar said:

“The Mahabharat refers to the Mlechhas or the Muslims. In the 190th Adhyaya of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharat there is a verse 29 wherein the author says that “the whole world will be Islamic. All Yadnas, rites and ceremonies and religious celebrations will cease”.⁶

Ambedkar-More and More Hindus will Accept Islam

Ambedkar says:

“Fortunately for the Muslims there is a large mass of non-descript population numbering about seven crores which is classed as Hindus but which has no particular affinity to the Hindu faith and whose position is made so intolerable by that faith that they can be easily induced to embrace Islam. Some of these are going over to Islam and yet more may go.”⁷

Ambedkar-Growth of Islam under Muslim Rule in India

Writing on the topic of legacy of Muslim rulers, Ambedkar says:

“They did a positive act, namely, to plant the seed of Islam. The growth of this plant is remarkable. It is not a summer sapling. It is as great and as strong as an oak. Its growth is the thickest in Northern India.

The successive invasions have deposited their ‘silt’ more there than anywhere else, and have served as watering exercises of devoted gardeners.

Its growth is so thick in Northern India that the remnants of Hindu and Buddhist culture are just shrubs. Even the Sikh axe could not fell this oak.”⁸

Ambedkar accepts Islam is the Greatest Bond in Humanity

Commenting on the great principle in Islam of brotherhood, Ambedkar says:

“The religious tie of Islam is the strongest known to humanity. No social confederacy can claim to rival the Islamic brotherhood in point of solidarity.”⁹

Ambedkar Acknowledges Revolt of 1857 as Islamic Jihad against British

The first war of Independence of India in 1857 was really an Islamic Jihad against the Britishers. Ambedkar says:

“The curious may examine the history of the Mutiny of 1857 and if he does, he will find that, in part, at any rate, it was really a Jihad proclaimed by the Muslims against the British, and that the Mutiny so far as the Muslims were concerned was a recrudescence of revolt which had been fostered by Sayyed Ahmad who preached to the Musalmans for several decades.”¹⁰

Ambedkar Accepts Greatness of Prophet Muhammad

Commenting on the unparalleled and extraordinary success of Prophet Muhammad, Ambedkar says:

“No man ever arrogated to himself the virtue of being a Prophet with so little equipment, but he made bold and the faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction. “That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God.”¹¹

Ambedkar says Islam will give everything to Dalits

What is the future of Dalits? Where is the solution for the problems of Dalits and Oppressed Classes? Dr. Ambedkar says:

“It seems very unlikely that the Depressed Classes will formulate a new religion. Most probably, they will embrace one of the existing faiths. At any rate the Hindus can well proceed on that assumption.

The first question is what is the faith that the Depressed Classes are likely to embrace? Obviously, the one most advantageous to them.

There are three faiths from among which the Depressed Classes can choose.

(l) Islam

(2) Christianity and

(3) Sikhism

Comparing these three, Islam seems to give the Depressed Classes all that they need.

Financially, the resources behind Islam are boundless.

Socially, the Mohammedans are spread all over India.

There are Mohammedans in every Province and they can take care of the new converts from the Depressed Classes and render them all help.

Politically the Depressed Classes will get all the rights which Mohammedans are entitled to.

Conversion to Islam does not involve loss of such political rights as the right to special representation in the Legislatures, right to services, etc.”¹²

Recommended Reading:

References:

1. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 1

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 3

6. Ibid.

7. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 5

8. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 8

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 12

12. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches Vol. 17a