Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-04T10:32:49.260Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ambedkar on the Haughty Face of Dignity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2020

Luis Cabrera Open the ORCID record for Luis Cabrera [Opens in a new window]
Luis Cabrera*
Affiliation:
Griffith University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Luis Cabrera, Griffith Asia Institute/Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia. E-mail: l.cabrera@griffith.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Can a concept such as dignity, with roots in hierarchy and exclusion, serve as the constitutional basis for advancing egalitarian justice within a democratic political community? This article highlights some concerns, via engagement with the work of Indian constitutional architect and anti-caste champion B.R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar strongly associates dignity with upper-caste status in Hinduism, and with dispositions to haughtiness or arrogance toward lower-status persons. His analysis has implications for recent treatments which frame dignity as a property which is possessed equally by all persons and is suitable for grounding egalitarian justice within political communities. In such accounts, dignity is shown to entail a defensive disposition and indignation against others as potential rights violators. This introduces tensions between the dignitarian foundation and in some cases very expansive social justice aims. Ambedkar offers an alternative conception of innate worth or worthiness, entailing dispositions to openness and inclusiveness, rendered as fraternity, Deweyan social endosmosis, and ultimately the Buddhist maitri. Such an approach avoids some tensions between dignity/indignation and egalitarian aims, while also offering a way to conceptualize human and non-human animal relations that avoids simply reinscribing status hierarchies.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 83 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank for their very helpful comments the two anonymous reviewers for this journal, as well as editor Nicholas Tampio. I also thank Haig Patapan, Komal Rajak, Manjunath Hosamani, Rahul Gajbhiye, Richard Shapcott, Manu Bhagavan, and Ferran Martinez i Coma, for their insights and feedback. Any mistakes remaining are my own.

References

BAWS refers to B.R. Ambedkar. 1987–2008. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches. Vasant Moon and Hari Narake, eds. Bombay: Government of Maharashtra. Vols. 1–22.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1979[1919]. “Evidence Before the Southborough Committee.” In Vasant Moon (ed.), BAWS Vol. 1, 247–278.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1987[ca. early 1950s]. “The Hindu Social Order: Its Essential Principles.” BAWS Vol. 3: 95–115.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1987[1955]. Riddles in Hinduism: An Exposition to Enlighten the Masses, BAWS Vol. 4: 21–382.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1989. “The Revolt of the Untouchables.” BAWS Vol. 5: 247–58.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1989[1936]. “Away from the Hindus.” BAWS Vol. 5: 403–21.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1989[1938]. “Civilization or Felony.” BAWS Vol. 5: 127–44.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1989[ca. 1954]. The Untouchables, or Children of India's Ghetto, BAWS Vol. 5: 1–124.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1991[1945]. What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables, In Vasant Moon, ed., BAWS, Vol. 9: 1–429.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1992[1957]. The Buddha and His Dhamma, BAWS, Vol. 17:2, 9–599.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 1993[1936]. “Waiting for a Visa.” BAWS Vol. 12: 661–91.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 2003[1931]. “I Have No Homeland.” BAWS, Vol. 17:1, 51–56.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 2003[1950]. “Buddha and Future of His Religion.” BAWS Vol. 17:2, 97–108.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 2003[1951]. “The Rise and Fall of the Hindu Woman: Who was Responsible for It?” BAWS Vol. 17, Part 2: 109–129.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 2014[1936]. Annihilation of Caste, The Annotated Critical Edition, S. Anand, ed. New Delhi: Navayana.Google Scholar
Ambedkar, B.R. 2016[1955]. Riddles in Hinduism: An Exposition to Enlighten the Masses, The Annotated Critical Selection, S. Anand and Shobhna Iyer, eds. (New Delhi: Navayana, 2016[1955]).Google Scholar
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2010. The Honor Code. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Button, Mark E. 2005. “A Monkish Kind of Virtue’? For and against Humility,” Political Theory 33(6): 840–846.10.1177/0090591705280525CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Button, Mark E. 2016. Political Vices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cabrera, Luis. 2020. The Humble Cosmopolitan: Rights, Diversity, and Trans-State Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780190869502.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Ian. 2011. “Respect and the Basis of Equality,” Ethics 121(3): 538–571.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, B. 2019. The Socio-Political Ideas of B.R. Ambedkar: Liberal Constitutionalism in a Creative Mould. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Choudhury, Soumyabrata. 2018. Ambedkar and Other Immortals: An Untouchable Research Programme. New Delhi: Navayana.Google Scholar
Darwall, Stephen. 2017. “Equal Dignity and Rights.” In Dignity: A History, ed. Debes, Remy. New York: Oxford University Press, 181–201.Google Scholar
Dean, Richard. 2006. The Value of Humanity in Kant's Moral Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press Oxford.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1997[1916]. Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Dimock, Wai Chee. 2012. “High and Low.” In Dignity, Rank, & Rights, eds. Waldron, J. and Dan-Cohen, M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 119–132.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915439.003.0006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ganguly, Debjani. 2002. “History's Implosions: A Benjaminian Reading of Ambedkar.” Journal of Narrative Theory 32 (3): 326–347.10.1353/jnt.2011.0062CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilabert, Pablo. 2018. Human Dignity and Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Herzog, Don. 2012. “Aristocratic Dignity?” In Dignity, Rank, & Rights, eds. Waldron, J. and Dan-Cohen, M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 99–118.Google Scholar
Jaffrelot, Christophe. 2005. Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Analysing and Fighting Caste. New Delhi: Permanent Black.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1998[1785]. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. M. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine M. 2012. “A Kantian Case for Animal Rights.” In Animal Law—Tier and Rect: Developments and Perspectives in the 21st Century, eds. Michael, Margot, Kühne, Daniela and Hänni, Julia. Zurich: Dike Verlag, 3–27.Google Scholar
Kumar, Aishwary. 2015. Radical Equality: Ambedkar, Gandhi and the Risk of Democracy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 2018. “Human Rights Without Human Supremacism.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 48 (6): 763–792.10.1080/00455091.2017.1386481CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maitra, Keya. 2012. “Ambedkar and the Constitution of India: A Deweyan Experiment,” Contemporary Pragmatism 9(2): 301–20.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Arun P. 2009. “B.R. Ambedkar, John Dewey and the Meaning of Democracy.” New Literary History 402: 345–370.10.1353/nlh.0.0083CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2015. “Untouchable: Review of Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition, by B.R. Ambedkar.” The New Rambler, August 19: http://newramblerreview.com/book-reviews/religion/untouchable.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2016. “Ambedkar's Constitution: Promoting Inclusion, Opposing Majority Tyranny.” In Assessing Constitutional Performance, eds. Ginsburg, Tom and Huq, Aziz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 293–336.Google Scholar
Omvedt, Gail. 2003. Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Republican Party of India. 2003[1956]. “Aims and Objects of the Party.” BAWS 17:2, 156.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, Valerian. 2017. “Ambedkar as A Political Philosopher.” Economic & Political Weekly 52 (15): 101–107.Google Scholar
Rosen, Michael. 2012. Dignity: Its History and Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rossello, Diego H. 2017. “All in the Human Family? Species Aristocratism in the Return of Human Dignity.” Political Theory 45 (6): 749–771.Google Scholar
Sensen, Oliver. 2017. “Dignity: Kant’s Revolutionary Conception.” In Dignity: A History, ed. Debes, Remy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 237–261.Google Scholar
Singer, Peter. 2009. “Speciesism and Moral Status.” Metaphilosophy 40 (3/4): 567–581.10.1111/j.1467-9973.2009.01608.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, Aakash. 2012. “The Political Theology of Navayana Buddhism.” In The Future of Political Theology: Religious and Theological Perspectives, eds. Losonczi, Peter, Luoma-aho, Mika and Singh, Aakash. Farnham: Ashgate, 159–172.Google Scholar
Stroud, Scott R. 2017. “What Did Bhimrao Ambedkar Learn from John Dewey's Democracy and Education?” The Pluralist 12 (2): 78–103.10.5406/pluralist.12.2.0078CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations. 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.Google Scholar
Vatter, Miguel. 2019. “Dignity and the Foundation of Human Rights: Toward an Averroist Genealogy.” Politics and Religion, 1–29. doi: 10.1017/S1755048319000336.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy, with Dimock, Wai Chee, Herzog, Don, and Rosen, Michael. 2012a. Dignity, Rank, & Rights, ed. Dan-Cohen, M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2012b. “How Law Protects Dignity.” Cambridge Law Journal 71 (1): 200–222.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2013. “Citizenship and Dignity.” In Understanding Human Dignity, ed. McCrudden, Christopher. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 327–343.Google Scholar
Zelliot, Eleanor. 2001. From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Zene, Cosimo, ed. 2013. The Political Philosophies of Antonio Gramsci and B.R. Ambedkar: Itineraries of Dalits and Subalterns. Abingdon: Routledge.10.4324/9780203762035CrossRefGoogle Scholar