B. R. Ambedkar Quotes

That the caste system must be abolished if the Hindu society is to be reconstructed on the basis of equality, goes without saying. Untouchability has its roots in the caste system. They cannot expect the Brahmins to rise in revolt against the caste system. Also we cannot rely upon the non-Brahmins and ask them to fight our battle.

While all men are born as equals, to say that Brahmins alone are the highest and all others are low as Pariah (the Untouchables) or Panchama is sheer nonsense. It is roguish to say so. It is a big hoax played on us.

The West remains obsessed by the caste system.

Most modern Indians don't stick to their caste jobs any more. There is more inter-caste marriage, more fluidity, more freedom than ever before. But the outcastes are usually still outcastes, because they are still the ones who tan India's animals, burn its dead, and remove its excrement.

Brahmins do not have the right to call themselves Indians … If India has to become a modern nation, … It has to establish an egalitarian relationship between Brahmins and the lower castes.

The purification required is not of untouchables but of the so-called superior castes.

Hinduism dies if untouchability lives, and untouchability has to die if Hinduism is to live.

I was also pained to notice an institution which I certainly did not expect to find in this country – I mean caste. Your rich people are really Brahmins, and your poor people are Sudras.

Traditionally, Indian society was divided into four main castes. At the top, Brahmins, as priests and teachers; second came the Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; third, Vaishyas, who were merchants; last, Shudras, the laborers. And below them all, the Dalits, or untouchables, called Harijans, or “children of God,” by Mahatma Gandhi

We have to eradicate caste.

Untouchability is a hydra-headed monster.

When untouchability is rooted out, these distinctions will vanish and no one will consider himself superior to any other.

To remove untouchability is a penance that caste Hindus owe to Hinduism and to themselves.

No stone should be left unturned to bring home to the family members that untouchability is a sin and a blot on Hinduism.

If untouchability is an integral part of Hinduism, the latter is a spent bullet.

The Pariahs, our fellow beings, ought to be educated by the higher castes.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

There is no caste in blood.

India’s great curse is caste; but English education has already proved a tremendous power in leveled the injurious distinctions of caste

A Sudra [lowest caste untouchable], though emancipated by his master, is not released from servitude; since that is innate in him, who can set him free from it?

There should be no differentiation amongst the people. All should be treated as equals. On this basis the Brahmin must give up his false prestige. In the interest of the society. I say that the blind beliefs should be given up

The idea of the nation [India] itself is incompatible with the institution of caste.

Caste is a delicate issue. It's ubiquitous, and we are full of it. We should start to change things from individual level. But when you go to people and deny caste, they may not react favourably. I think if a decisive percentage of people, especially elites, start marrying out of their caste, we may see a casteless India in a generation's time.

India will have to hang down her head in shame if even one person is left who is said in any way to be untouchable.

I don't even know whether I am a savarna or not, I am a Kayasth, so I am not Brahmin or Kshatriya or Vaishya or Shudra.