Ambedkar’s Dhamma: A Counter-theology of Law for Indian Political Thought

This paper will argue that B.R. Ambedkar attacked the social law of Hindu dharma for legalizing and legitimizing Brahminical sovereignty in the form of a birth-based caste order centred around the ambivalent sacrality of untouchability. Although Ambedkar inaugurated postcolonial India’s transformati...

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Auteur principal: Tundawala, Moiz (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group 2022
Dans: Political theology
Année: 2022, Volume: 23, Numéro: 1/2, Pages: 59-74
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji 1891-1956 / Hindouisme / Buddhisme / Caste / Souveraineté / Droit / Théologie
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
BK Hindouisme
BL Bouddhisme
FD Théologie contextuelle
KBM Asie
TK Époque contemporaine
XA Droit
Sujets non-standardisés:B Sovereignty
B untouchability
B Law
B Buddhism
B Fraternity
B Caste
B Ambedkar
B Constitution
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Description
Résumé:This paper will argue that B.R. Ambedkar attacked the social law of Hindu dharma for legalizing and legitimizing Brahminical sovereignty in the form of a birth-based caste order centred around the ambivalent sacrality of untouchability. Although Ambedkar inaugurated postcolonial India’s transformative constitutional project, its juridical language of secular legality was not powerful enough an antidote against the social customs of caste and untouchability. Since these practices were ultimately grounded in a Hindu theology imputing responsibility for action to a fixed immutable being, Ambedkar sought to unsettle and destabilize it by proffering a counter-theology of Buddhism that delinked action from any substantial being, and thereby opened up sovereignty as an empty place of political power. His Buddhism though, was less a religion of selfless renunciation, and more a religion of rupture mediated by the political law of fraternal freedom, actualized in the excessive subjectivity of the Dalit community of converted Buddhists.
ISSN:1743-1719
Contient:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.2014033