DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF DR. AMBEDKAR'S NATIONALISM

Abstract

‘Nation’ represents a spirit of homogeneity towards fellow inhabitants sharing a common culture, ethnicity, race, religion and language or any one of these. One of the nation builders of New India, Dr Ambedkar's nationalism is not only in the form of struggle against colonial authority but also against the nefarious concept of exploitation of ‘Dalits’ and ‘untouchability’ in the social structure in the Indian environment. An important element of Ambedkar's nationalism is the unified common interest among the Indian citizens, which would not have been possible without ‘Social Identity, Economic Redistribution and Political Representation’ of the downtrodden-exploited class in the archaic social structure. Against the excellence based nationalism of western modern nationalism, Dr. Ambedkar has given importance to awakening and collective inclusion of enlightened India based on History of Ideas. Thus, for Dr. Ambedkar, nationalism means - the right to civil life and the sense of duty to be tied in the thread of unity.