1

And religion have been adversaries and hostile to each other which makes the unhappy
choice of title, Philosophy of religion confusing. Ambedkar,in his The bhudda and His
Dhamma describes the accepted perception of religion held by common people and
advocated by European theologies,who hold Religion that connatesbelif in god,belif in
soul,worship of god,curing of erring soul,propitiating god by
prayers,ceremonies,sacrifices,etc.1He shows that the origin of Religion was nevere
fixed.from time to time the word,religion,is an imprecise word with no unchanging
meaning:It is a word with many meanings.This is because religion has accepted through
many stages.The impression has not had the same meaning which it had at the prior stage
or is likely to have at the succeeding stage.2
Ambedkar gives an historical account of the evolution of the concept of the religion in
the three stages from the primitive to the present from of religion.In the first stage of
hunting,rain and floodsa and the events in which the primitive man couldnot explain.any
strange performance done to control the observable facts was called magic.In the second
stage,the progression of religion came to identified with
beliefs,riyuals,ceremonies,prayers and sacrifices.The outset of religion is imitative.The
essential point in the religion starts with the belif that there exista some power,which
causes the phenomenon which primal man dinot know and couldnot understand.Magic
lost its place at this stage.This power was originally malicious .But later it was felt that it
could also be compassionate.Belifs,rites,ceremonies and sacrifices were necessary to both
propitiate a benevolent power and also to placate an angry power.In the historical
process, the power was called god or the creator.The last and third stage saw this strong
belif that man has a soul and the soul is perpetual and is answerable to god all the mans
actions in the world.3
Pringle-pattinsons definition of philosophy of religion is,in fact more pertinent for
comparitive reliogion whose endeavor is to discover the commom principle in the
varied manifestations of religion4differing in the sense and aim of philosophy of religion
as outlined by pringle-pattison,Ambedkar gives his own explanation and the goals of the
philosophy of religion.Ambedkar viewed the philosophy in its innovative sense which
was a dual nature.It mean the teachings like that of philosophy of Socrates or the
philosophy of the plato.In other sense,it meant that the critical base as used in passing
judgements upon various things and different events.Proceeding on this basis,philosophy
of religion appears not mearly a descriptive science.He regarded it as living being both
descriptive as well as normative one.As long as it deals with the teachings of a
religion,philosophy of the religion becomes a descriptive science.In the same way,so long
as it involves the use of critical reason for passing judgement on those teachings,the
philosophy of religion becomes a normative science5
1

Ambedkar B.R, The BhuddaandHis Dhamma, , Siddharth Publications,Bombay

(1957),1991,p 226
2
Ibid,p 225
3
Ibip,p 2226
4
Ibid,p 5.
5
Moon Vasanth,ed.Dr.B.R.Amedkar,writings and speeches,volIII, Govt of
Maharastra,Bombay,1989,p.5.

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For Ambedkar,philosophy of religion is both a descriptive study as well as normative
study judging the value of meticulous religion.each religion promotes goodand
advocates a particular philosophy of life.That is why he states I do not think there can be
such a thing as a general philosophy of Religion.I belive that each Religion has its
particular philosophy.To meet there is no philosophy of Religion.there is a philosophy of
a religion 6 the social order on which a particular religion
sanctifies,legitimies,spiritualizes,promotes and sets up as a sacred ideal which should not
be deabated ,being the norm of the divine ascendancy is the essence,the main purpouse of
the religion.For Ambedkar,the aim set of goals or value-system which he calls the ideal
scheme.held up by a pernickety religion,governs people through its institutions
influencing the political structures more powerful than often law and Government of a
society
Ambedkar clearly emphasizes that the main aspect of normative account and its critical
nature.The philosophy of religion of Ambedkar is one of the best that we have in
India.He has made it clear that a philosophy of religion shouldnot only be descriptive but
also be critical.7 The experts in the phenomenology of religion,sociology of Religion and
even the Comparitive Religion and History of Religions donot go beyond the description
of religion .This couldnot be due to their objectives and methodology.But the
Philosophers and theologians of religion have no excuse not to be critical of religious .
They often turn opologists than critical thinkers.The insistence of Ambedkar is that the
religion is basically a social phenomenon and that humans may not need a religion if they
were to exxixt individually is also to be noted8 Many religious leaders and priests,Who
overemphasise only the individual salvation of soul ,of personality mukti and nirvana are
only exploiting religion for their interests.Any religion that fails to emphasise the social
dimension,the social responsibility and the need of social commitment,according to
Ambedkar,is false religion
The divine governance of people through religion is also affected by the ontrol of the
religion ideals that exercise over the minds of the people,who are thus motivated to obey
or submnit to scared principles more than the practical secular principles or their
instinctual desires.Ambedkar defines religion in a brief statement,that which governs
people is religion9For the same reason, Ambedkar considers the ascertainment and
examination of the ideal scheme of a particular religion.according to Ambedkar three
proportions are involved in the study of philosophy of Religion.whose proper
definition ,ascertainment and assessment are necessary for this science. They are:the
Explanation of religion,the ideal scheme for which religion stands and,the criterion to
be adapted for judging the value of the ideal scheme of divine governance for which a
given religion stands10
Another facet of philosophy of religion is that to know the ideal scheme for which a
religion standswhich follow logically from Ambedkars eludication of religion.todefine
6

Ibid.
Ambedkar B.R,The budda and Hs Dhamma,Siddharth
Publications,Bombay,1991,section,2.,p 226.
8
Ibid,section 2.4.2,p 226
9
MoonVasanth,Why Go for conversion?Dalit Sahitya Akademy,Banglore,1987,p-16.
10
Ibip,p 8
7

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what isfixed,everlasting and foremost part in the religion of any society and to separate
its essential character from those, which is expandable,is often very
complex.distinguishing between the primitive religious and the positive religious,he
adjudicates that the task is not so difficult in case of the later .The primary characteristic
of positive religious is that they have not grown up like primitive religiou under the
action of cataleptic forces operating silently from age top age,but trace there derivation to
the teaching of great religious innovators who wrangle as the organs of a devine
revelation.being the result of conscious formulations, of the philosophy of a religion
which is positive is unchallenging to find and easy to state11
Argued for the reorganization of hind religion, and listed out the following the necessary
items.According to him , there should be one and only one standard book of Hindu
religion ,acceptable to allHindus and recognized by all Hindus.this of course means that
all other books of hindu religion such as Vedas ,shastras and puranas,which are treated as
sacred and authoritative,should end to be so,and the preaching of any doctrine,religious
or social thjat are restricted in these books should be penalized.
No ceremony performed by a priest who does not hols a sunad shall be deemed to be
valid in law and it should he made penal for a person who has no sunad to officiate as a
priest .A priest should be the servent of the state and should be subject to the disciplinary
action by the state in the matter of his morals ,belifs and worship, in addition to his being
subject along with other citizens to the ordinary law of the land.the numeral of priests
should be limited by law according to the requirements of the state as is done in the case
of Christianity12Ambedkar required Hinduism was bassed on a set of moral
principles,which are appropriate equally to all the participants of the society and only
these morals principles would sustain the society
The criticism that leveled by ambedkar on Hinduism was not accepted by M.K
Gandhi,even though he accepted some weakness in Hinduism and he claimed that
Hindusim had not only bad elements,it also had some good elements and criticisms
should be on thebest sideAmbedkar, in response o Gandhis commentys,says
that,religion must be judged not by the matter?I say it does not .the question still
remains-why the worst numbers are many and the best so few?13Ambedkar tried to
explain the various reasons for considering Hinduism as a false religion
According to ambedkar, thus hindu society,introduced the caste systems and permeated it
deeper and deeper.the upper class is considered sacred and divine where as the lower
class is considered polluted and supposed to serve these upper classes.as a net result the
society had gradations:those who were in higher positions command due respect where as
those at the bottom lived under the mercy of the top line people .Manus code of conduct
is taken into concept of dharma.it advocated the compulsory duties and obligations of the
laborers and labour.those who did mental jobs were not even regarde as citizens and they
were not allowed to come up in the life by the religious doctrines.there are some groups
with in the society hat could enjoy all the facilities, and can develop themselves,and some
groups who are not entitild to use that opportunity because of religious
sansactions.Ambedkar attacked the caste system based on occupation and said that,the
11

Ibip,p 7.
Moon vasanth,ed,Babasaheb Ambedkars Writings and speeches,vol I,Govt.of
Maharastra,Bombay,1989,p-76-77
13
Ibip,p.88
12

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4
hindu social order is an order based on classes and not on individuals.it is a command in
which classs are determined and fixed14
Ambedkar argues that the Hindu religion,its concept of god and its allied religious
principles and customs that tend to preserve the caste system intact.Religious doctrine
made the untocuhables,presently called as Dalits to belive that they are born to be slaves
and that they are fit only to the mental jobs.for him ,a hindu means a caste and his
responsibility and loyality is restricted only to his caste.The virtue and moralities have
become caste bound and there is no possibility for sympathy,charity and appreciation of
the deserving.the untocuhabled of dalits were not allowed to get the same satayus with
others in the hindu religion .Ambedkar finds siginifices

14

Gore M.S.Gore M>S,The social context of an ideology-Ambdekars political and

social Thought,
Sage publications,Newdelhi.1993,p 262

This Fleeting World by David Christian (Berkshire 2007)