Social Democracy: The Tenet of Dr Ambedkar’s Philosophy

Political democracy becomes meaningful only with social democracy. India, one of the largest democracies in the world, has not attained social democracy. Indian society is pluralistic in nature, with various castes, tribes, cultures, languages and religions. The claim for hierarchy in this diversity often results in conflict and thus witnesses the violation of human rights. Unless social equality is achieved, there will be continuous caste violence, communal riots and religious atrocities. With this disturbance and disorder, there will not be peace and progress for the nation.

Dr Ambedkar tries to deconstruct the traditional social philosophy and manifest and reconstruct the modern social philosophy along new lines. He argues that major sections of our citizens should not be prevented from contributing to the total development of our society, nation and our institutions. As India is socially divided, advancement is possible only if human equality is accepted as a social value and human inequality is damned as an anti-value.

Breaking caste-based barriers and achieving attitudinal change are essential for social democracy in India. Social democracy strives for a peaceful and healthy society.