Sign in with your pod

Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina

B. R. Ambedkar

94 quotes

• “Nothing is infallible. Nothing is binding forever. Everything is Subject to inquiry and examination.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: B. R. Ambedkar quoted from Indigenous Indians, Elst K. , 1993:390

• “It is an incontrovertible fact that Christianity was not enough to end the slavery of the Negroes in the United States. A civil war was necessary to give the Negro the freedom which was denied to him by the Christians. The dependence of those in charge of Christian endeavour to make the parties move on? A consideration of this question will enable us to understand why Christianity has failed to raise the status of the untouchable convert.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Communists say that there are the only two means of establishing communism. The first is violence. Nothing short of it will suffice to break up the existing system. The other is dictatorship of the proletariat. Nothing short of it will suffice to continue the new system.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the Hindu religion, one can[not] have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men.He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Not only this, but the Hindus have no sense of bortherhood towards you. You are treated by them worse than foreigners. If one looks at the relations of the neighbouring Hindus and the Untouchables of the village, no one can say that they are brothers. They can rather be called two opposite armies in warring camps.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Hindus have not the slightest affinity towards you, as they have towards Muslims. They consider Muslims closer than you. Hindus and Muslims are helpful to each other in local boards, in legislative councils, and in business. But is there a single instance of such sympathetic consideration shown towards you by the caste Hindus? On the contrary: they always cultivate hatred against you in their minds. What dreadful effects this hatred has produced, can be heard from those who have had occasion to go to the court for justice or to the police for help.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The principle of equality as taught in Christianity and Islam has no concern whatsoever with knowledge, wealth, or dress, as outward aspects. Both these religions consider a sense of humanity as the mean feature of religion. They preach that the sense of humanity should be respected by all; and none should disrespect others, none should treat others as unequals. These teachings are completely wanting in the Hindu religion. What is the use of such a religion, in which man's sense of humanity has no value? And what is the good in clinging to it?”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is no place for an individual in Hindu society. The Hindu religion is constituted on the class concept. The Hindu religion does not teach as to how an individual should behave with another individual.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If the depressed classes join Islam or Christianity, they not only go out of the Hindu religion, but they also go out of the Hindu culture…What the consequences of conversion will do to the country as a whole is well worth bearing in mind. Conversion to Islam or Christianity will denationalize the depressed classes.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The application of the Hindu Code to Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains was a historical development, and it would be too late, sociologically, to object to it. When the Buddha differed from the Vedic Brahmins, he did so only in matters of creed, but left the Hindu legal framework intact. He did not propound a separate law for his followers. The same was the case with Mahavir and the ten Sikh Gurus”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You must not only discard the Shastras, you must deny their authority, as did Buddha and Nanak. You must have courage to tell the Hindus that what is wrong with them is their religion—the religion which has produced in them this notion of the sacredness of Caste. Will you show that courage?”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Every progress has its bill of costs and only those who pay for it will have that progress.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I was born a Hindu but will not die one.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "The bogey of forced conversions", in The Hindu (26 October 2008)

• “The history of India is a history of mortal conflict between Buddhism and Brahmanism.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I prefer Buddhism because it gives three principles in combination, which no other religion does. Buddhism teaches prajna (understanding as against superstition and supernaturalism), karuna (love), and samara (equality). This is what man wants for a good and happy life. Neither god nor soul can save society.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Why I like Buddhism and how it is useful to the world in its present circumstances", BBC (May 1956). As quoted in "Why Dr. Ambedkar renounced Hinduism?

• “Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Mussalman invaders sacked the Buddhist universities of Nalanda, Vikramshila, Jagaddala, Odantapuri to name only a few. They razed to the ground Buddhist monasteries with which the country was studded. The monks fled away in thousands to Nepal, Tibet and other places outside India. A very large number were killed outright by the Muslim commanders. How the Buddhist priesthood perished by the sword of the Muslim invaders has been recorded by the Muslim historians themselves.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Decline and Fall of Buddhism", in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. III (1987), Government of Maharashtr­a, p. 238

• “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I will choose only the least harmful way for the country. And that is the greatest benefit I am conferring on the country by embracing Buddhism; for Buddhism is a part and parcel of Bhâratîya culture. I have taken care that my conversion will not harm the tradition of the culture and history of this land.'”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Dhananjay Keer: Ambedkar, p.498. (Dr. Ambedkar, Life and Mission. Popular Prakashan, Bombay 1987 (1962).)

• “[W]hat should be the policy of the State, how the Society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself because that is destroying democracy altogether.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in "Secularism: Why Nehru dropped and Indira inserted the S-word in the Constitution" by Adrija Roychowdhury, New Delhi, August 5, 2018.

• “The Prime Minister has practically helped the Chinese to bring their border down to the Indian border. Looking at all these things, it would be an act of levity not to believe that India, if it is not exposed to aggression right now, is exposed to aggression and that aggression might well be committed by people who are always in the habit of committing aggression.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: in D. Keer, Ambedkar, p. 453-5. Dhananjay Keer: Ambedkar, (Dr. Ambedkar, Life and Mission. Popular Prakashan, Bombay 1987 (1962).) and quoted in Indigenous Indians, Elst K. , 1993:391

• “Nehru's foreign policy had made India a friendless country, that Nehru had bungled the Kashmir issue and had sheltered men who were dishonest, and that India was encircled by a kind of United States of Islam on one side and on the other side Russia and China in a combination for the conquest of Asia.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: D. Keer, Ambedkar, p. 453-5. quoted in Indigenous Indians, Elst K. , 1993:391

• “If anthropometry is a science which can be depended upon to determine the race of a people ... [then its] measurements establish that the Brahmins and the Untouchables belong to the same race. From this it follows that if the Brahmins are Aryans the Untouchables are also Aryans. If the Brahmins are Dravidians, the Untouchables are also Dravidians”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: B.R. Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches (Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1986-1990), Vol. 7, p.85 and 302-303 quoted in Koenraad Elst’s Indigenous Indians — Agastya to Ambedkar (New Delhi: Voice of…

• “So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech delivered to the Bombay Presidency Mahar Conference (31 May 1936)

• “The theory of invasion is an invention. This invention is necessary because of a gratuitous assumption which underlies the Western theory. The assumption is that the Indo-Germanic people are the purest of the modem representatives of the original Aryan race.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. Regarding slavery nothing needs to be said. It stands abolished now by law. But while it existed much of its support was derived from Islam and Islamic countries. (228-230)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thus the Koran, in this matter of slavery, is the enemy of mankind ... While the prescriptions by the Prophet regarding the just and humane treatment of slaves contained in the Koran are praiseworthy, there is nothing whatever in Islam that lends support to the abolition of this curse. (p. 228)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “…the Hindus are right when they say that it is not possible to establish social contact between Hindus and Muslims because such contact can only mean contact between women from one side and men from the other.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To the Muslims, a Hindu (and any non-Muslim) is a Kafir. A Kafir (non-believer in Islam) is not worthy of respect. He is a low born and without status. That is why a country ruled by the kafir (non-muslim) is a ‘Dar ul harb’ (i.e. the land of war) to a Muslim, which must be conquered, by any means for the Muslims and turned into ‘Dar ul Islam’ (i.e., land of Muslims alone). Given this, not further evidence seems necessary to prove that the Muslims will not obey a Hindu (or for that matter any non-Muslim) government. (p. 301)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For Islam divides as inexorably as it binds. Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive and very alienating distinction. The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is the brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is fraternity but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity. (pp. 330-331)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In other words, Islam can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his motherland and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin. That is probably the reason why Maulana Mahomed Ali, a great Indian but a true Muslim, preferred to be buried in Jerusalem rather than in India. (pp. 330-331)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Seven of these 22 riots, or roughly one-third of them, occurred on the day of the celebration of the annual Muslim festival of Bakr-i-Id at the end of May. The celebration of this festival is always a dangerous time in Hindu-Muslim relations. The Muslim regard it as a day of animal sacrifice, and as the animal chosen is almost always a cow the slightest tension between the two communities is apt to produce an explosion. (Chapter 7)”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If Hindu Raj becomes a reality then it would be greatest menace to this country. Whatever may Hindus say, actually it does not make a difference that Hinduism is a danger to Independence, Equality and Brotherhood. Thus it is an enemy of democracy. We should make all out efforts to stop Hindu Raj from becoming a reality.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Even a superficial observer cannot fail to notice that a spirit of aggression underlies the Hindu attitude towards the Muslim and the Muslim attitude towards the Hindu. The Hindu's spirit of aggression is a new phase which he has just begun to cultivate. The Muslim's spirit of aggression is his native endowment, and is ancient as compared with that of the Hindu. It is not that the Hindu, if given time, will not pick up and overtake the Muslim. But as matters stand to-day, the Muslim in this exhibition of the spirit of aggression leaves the Hindu far behind.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In the first place, it should be admitted that every possible attempt to bring about union between Hindus and Muslims has been made and that all of them have failed.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Like the Christians and Muslims in the Turkish Empire, the Hindus and Muslims of India have met as enemies on many fields, and the result of the struggle has often brought them into the relation of conquerors and conquered.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The second thing that is noticeable among the Muslims is the spirit of exploiting the weaknesses of the Hindus. If the Hindus object to anything, the Muslim policy seems to be to insist upon it and give it up only when the Hindus show themselves ready to offer a price for it by giving the Muslims some other concessions.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But Mr Gandhi has never protested against such murders. Not only have the Musalmans not condemned these outrages but even Mr Gandhi has never called upon the leading Muslims to condemn them. He has kept silent over them. Such an attitude can be explained only on the ground that Mr Gandhi was anxious to preserve Hindu-Moslem unity and did not mind the murders of a few Hindus if it could be achieved by sacrificing their lives. This attitude to excuse the Muslims any wrong, lest it should injure the cause of unity, is well illustrated by what Mr Gandhi had to say in the matter of the Mopla riots.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The realist must take note of the fact that the Musalmans look upon the Hindus as Kaffirs, who deserves more to be exterminated than protected. The realist must take note of the fact that while the Musalman accepts the European as his superior, he looks upon the Hindu as his inferior.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He has never called the Muslims to account even when they have been guilty of gross crimes against Hindus.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Gandhi. (Thoughts on Pakistan by Dr BR Ambedkar, Bombay, 1941).

• “The unity between India and Burma was not less fundamental. If unity is to be of an abiding character, it must be founded on a sense of kinship, in the feeling of being kindred. In short, it must be spiritual. Judged in the light of these considerations, the unity between Pakistan and Hindustan is a myth. Indeed, there is more spiritual unity between Hindustan and Burma than there is between Pakistan and Hindustan.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “But I always say that as I met Mr Gandhi in the capacity of an opponent I have a feeling that I know him better than most other people, because he had opened his real fangs to me, I could see the inside of the man, you see while others who generally went there as devotees, saw nothing of him, except the external appearance, which he had put as Mahatma. But I saw him in his human capacity, the bare men in him, and so I say that I understand him better than most of the people who have associated themselves with him, you can say.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s Interview to BBC in 1955- Dr. Ambedkar Speaks on M.K. Gandhi and Poona Pact (BBC Radio) – 1955

• “Every man who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country must admit that a class is not fit to rule another class.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For a successful revolution, it is not enough that there is enough discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vs vested interests have never been be known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In Hinduism, conscience, reason, and independent thinking have no scope for development.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Indians today are governed by different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the Preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I was born a Hindu because I had no control over this, but I shall not die a Hindu.”

  B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

More