NOTES

Tracing Ambedkar in
Dalit Capitalism
Swamy Kalva

Dalit capitalists who assert that

capitalism is the best means for
Dalit emancipation ignore
B R Ambedkars views on it and
his emphasis on social reforms
and an attitudinal revolution
before aiming at political or
economic reforms.

Swamy Kalva (klvswamy89@gmail.com) is a

doctoral research scholar at the University of
Hyderabad, Hyderabad.
Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

NOVEMBER 19, 2016

he recent developments in and

around the issue of neo-liberalism
and its capability towards ensuring
the inclusive development of the marginalised sections attracted an overwhelming debate in India. The initiation of the
Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (DICCI) in 2005 also spearheaded
the capitalist schools arguments modified according to the needs of the Dalit
movement in India. The belief in capitalism and its associate concepts such as
globalisation and neo-liberalisation in
developing the marginalised sections of
the country created doubts and arguments
within the Dalit movement. This article
fundamentally evaluates the issues raised
and proposed by the DICCI and its chief
mentor Chandrabhan Prasad. To enchance
its arguments, the DICCI fell back on the
thought and theory of the messiah of
Dalit emancipation Babasaheb Ambedkar.
The new agenda backed by neo-liberal
policies is the invitation to multinational
corporations (MNCs) to Make in India.1
There would be many hidden agendas
behind this programme but it is quite
clear and certain that the capital-less
non-market friendly2 or non-consumers
are going to be the sufferers like their fathers and forefathers.
Prasad as the chief mentor of the
DICCI has tried to understand Ambedkars
thoughts in relation to contemporary
sociopolitical and economic developments
in India. He believes that the economic
liberation of Dalits can lead them towards
sociopolitical emancipation thus completing Ambedkars dream of casteless India
and thus strongly calls for a more liberalised market where the traditional trade
and social barriers which kept Dalits
away from money-making businesses
for so many years are overcome. The
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by
Narendra Modi responded by allocating
vol lI no 47

some amount of funds to encourage Dalit

entrepreneurs3 and according to the union
governments new procurement policy it
is mandatory for all ministries and public
sector undertakings (PSUs) to ensure
that 4% of their total purchases are from
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST)
entrepreneurs. Liberating capital from
the bounds of caste and making it touchable and available for the lower caste and
Dalit entrepreneurs would be considered
a success for the chairman and mentor
of the DICCI.4 This article makes an
attempt to look into the claims, demands
and assertions of this two key protagonists of Dalit capitalism that are
promising to deliver the much anticipated
sociopolitical, economic and cultural
emancipation of the lower castes.
It mainly concentrates on the critical
propositions made by Prasad in relation
to Dalit capitalism and to evaluate his
stand from Ambedkars ideas as he claims
to be a follower of the Ambedkar movement. This article attempts to show how
Prasad and the DICCI have drifted away
from their masters theory and practice.
Gopal Guru (2012) in his article on Dalit
capitalism used Guy Debords theory of
spectacle to outline the Dalit millionaires
emergence as a low intense spectacle. He
concludes that the money-minting business was never part of the Ambedkar
movement and that Dalits must stay
aloof from celebrating the individuals
monetary success.
Anand Teltumbde (2011) pointed out
that Ambedkar never subscribed to ideas
of profit-making and stood firmly against
capitalism. The odds have thus multiplied
against the vast majority (more than
90%) of dalits, with caste neatly enmeshed
in modern secular institutions. In the face
of this pathetic dalit reality, citing stray
examples of dalit petty capitalists as the
marker of progress is nothing short of a
cruel joke, he adds.
The Inseparable Elements
According to Prasad (2013), democracy
is the only form of government that can
distribute capital among citizens and under
the capitalistic regime there will be corporations and MNCs with a wide range of
79

NOTES

stakeholders investing in it in the form

of shares and debentures (Prasad 2014).
Every single rupee invested by individuals
and families whether rich or poor would
be accountable. The annual general body
meetings where the common stakeholder
will be part of the decision-making process and the regular release of the balance
and profit sheets by these corporations
would make them more democratic in
nature. Thus he says that the democracy
and capitalism are inseparable wherein
ownership of the corporations is mostly
social and the poor can be part of that
corporation. According to him (2014) it
was the rise of capitalism in democratic
nations that led to loosening of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a
few families.
A Threat to the Marginalised
In this the DICCI chief clearly contradicts
Ambedkars views. The latter was against
capitalism which caused wide-ranging
inequalities and it should be a warning
to Indians (Ambedkar 2014a).
Ambedkar explaining the essence of
fundamental rights in relation to individual
liberty in an economic structure says that
political democracy needs four prerequisites to be sustainable: (i) the individual is
the end rather than the means, (ii) the individual has certain constitutionally inalienable rights, (iii) to receive any privilege from the state that individual should
not be made to relinquish any of the constitutionally guaranteed rights, and (iv) the
state should not delegate powers to private
persons to govern others (Ambedkar 2014a).
He adds that the last two key prerequisites would be threatened by private
enterprise and the pursuit of personal
gain would challenge them. Ambedkar
questions the supporters of capitalism as
to how many people have to surrender
their constitutionally guaranteed rights
to make a living and how many have to
subject themselves to be governed by
private employers (Ambedkar 2014b).
Freedom of Contract
Prasad, while praising the inbuilt capabilities of capitalism says that it has the unique
feature of social and economic mobility
through sheer hard work and not birth. He
says that capitalism does not recognise
80

the caste system and its practices and

hence the upper as well as lower castes
have to work under the same roof to gain
bread (http://www.acenetwork.asia/video-capitalism-class-the-upliftment-dalits).
According to him capitalism replaces
social markers like caste and birth with
material markers. He strongly asserts
that economic development or material
markers and possessions can evade longlasting caste barriers links to the exuntouchable castes. Prasads notional
understanding of social democracy is a
dubious proposition as Ambedkar clearly
showed that parliamentary democracy
in India failed to notice the economic
inequalities among individuals and it did
not even care to examine the results of the
freedom of contract which according to
him was sanctified and was upheld in the
name of liberty. He obser ved that freedom of contract had many provisions to
deceive the weak and marginalised
(Ambedkar 2014c). Thus, we can see the
idea of freedom of contract in the neoliberalists complaint that the states interventions in social and market aspects
curtail liberty. His proposition aptly suits
the present situation where the Dalits with
no capital to invest were induced to chase
capitalism and consumerism thus making
them compete with strong capitalists from
the upper castes. Dalits with no capital to
invest never had an opportunity to rise
above the level of the untouchable toiling
mass against the neo-liberals who had
state-sanctified libertarian rights to exploit the poor. In the name of liberty and
the states stand on market neutrality,
Prasad seems to have fallen for the freedom of contract which Ambedkar said
was the means to defraud the weak.
Adam Smith vs Manu
For Prasad (2009), capitalism is better than
the feudalism which India cherishes now
with its subsidies to the farm sector in the
form of low-cost fertilisers, seeds and the
public distribution system (PDS) which
makes the state feudal in content and
socialist in appearance. He says that the
agrarian caste feudal state which runs on
the principles of Manu dharma is getting a
fitting retaliation from globalisation in a
case of Adam Smith fighting Manu. He
says that the caste system never allowed

Dalits to earn any wealth even as it kept

them outside the village boundaries in
the name of purity. Now with capitalism,
Dalits are fighting for their share. He
strongly asserts that Dalits want a bourgeoisie from within the Dalit community.
For him, it is better to be exploited at the
hands of the Dalit bourgeoisie rather
than the upper-caste bourgeoisie. He
strongly believes that
A few dalits as billionaires, a few hundred as
multi-millionaires and a few thousands as
millionaires would democratise and de-Indianise capitalism. A few dozen dalits as market
speculators, a few dalit-owned corporations
traded on stock exchanges, a few dalits with
private jets, and a few of them with golf caps
would make democratic capitalism lovable.
(Menon and Nigam 2007: 96)

Prasads assertion for wealth acquisition

and well-being of a few Dalit individuals
can be countered by Ambedkars priority to
social reforms over economic and political
ones (Ambedkar 2014d). Criticising Indian
socialists who, following their European
counterparts, try to interpret everything
from the economic standpoint and thus
believe that man is an economic creature
and property is the only source of power.
Ambedkar states that socialists look upon
social and political reforms as massive
illusions and that the equalisation of
property has to precede every other
reform (2014e). He makes it clear that it
is not only the economic motive which
drives human beings but a number of
others too such as the socio-religious and
political ones. The social status of an
individual can be a source of power and
authority over common people as can
be seen in the case of the mahatmas.
And religion too acts as a source of power
where the penniless Sadhus and Fakirs
have more power than the millionaires
(Ambedkar 2014f).
Like the socialists struggle for equalisation of property without any consideration for social issues which is a fallacious
contention, the Dalit capitalists struggle
to incorporate capitalism into the Dalit
movement and aim towards a lovable
capitalism is also fallacious. These two
groups have one common feature in that
they overlook the social set-up in India.
Like the socialists of Ambedkars time,
Dalit capitalism of contemporary times
does not recognise the importance of

NOVEMBER 19, 2016

vol lI no 47

EPW

Economic & Political Weekly

NOTES
democracy. The politicals never realised that
democracy was not a form of Government. It
was essentially a form of society. It may not
be necessary for a democratic society to be
marked by unity, by community of purpose,
by loyalty to public ends and by mutuality of
sympathy. But it does unmistakably involve
two things. The first is an attitude of mind,
an attitude of respect and equality towards
their fellows. The second is a social organisation free from rigid social barriers. Democracy is incompatible and inconsistent
with isolation and exclusiveness, resulting
in the distinction bet ween the privileged
and the unprivileged. (2014h)

realising social democracy. It is not possible to emancipate Dalit communities

without addressing caste issues and concentrating only on economic or wealth
equalisation. As Ambedkar points out:
How can you achieve economic progress so
long as you have the stigma of being an Untouchable. If any one of you opens a shop, as
soon as it is known that the shopkeeper is an
Untouchable, nobody will purchase articles
from you. If any one of you applies for a job,
and it is disclosed that the applicant is an
Untouchable, he will not get the job. If anyone intends to sell his land, and one of you
proposes to purchase it, once it has been
known that the purchaser is an Untouchable,
nobody will sell the land. Whatever methods
you may adopt for your own economic progress, your efforts will be frustrated due to
untouchability. Untouchability is a permanent handicap on your path of progress. And
unless you remove it, your path cannot be
safe. (Ambedkar 2014g)

The Dalit small entrepreneurs failure

stories show that their caste excluded
them from the market and they failed to
get support from state mechanisms such
as banks and other funding bodies because of this (Prakash 2015). Similarly,
job applicants with names similar to
Dalit names got rejected while that of
applicants with names similar to that
of the upper-caste ones were called for
interviews even though their qualifications were much lower (Jodhka and
Newman 2009). The Dalit capitalists
method of taking the help of capitalism
to counter inequalities and exclusions is
doomed to failure as Ambedkar said,
without removing the social handicaps.
Prasad conceives economic democracy
as
In the pre-globalisation economic regime,
there was no way a Dalit would make trucks
or cars. Today, a Dalit industrialist in Uttarakhand manufactures silencers for the Nano
car and parts for Hero Honda bikes. Another
Dalit in Pune manufactures engine parts for
Tatas Indigo car. This is a new democracy
the Economic Democracy. (2011)

Ambedkars understanding of democracy differs very much from that of

Prasads where the latter sees it as an
equalisation of property making capitalism
lovable to all. For Ambedkar
A democratic form of Government presupposes
a democratic form of society. The formal
framework of democracy is of no value and
would indeed be a misfit if there was no social
Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

NOVEMBER 19, 2016

For Ambedkar, democracy is a living

condition in a society where there should
be equality, liberty and fraternity in
practice for all. Because the accumulation
of the property in capitalism involves the
exploitation, Palshikar (1996) points out
that he was aware of the threat to liberty,
equality and fraternity not only from
Brahmanism but from capitalism also.
Way Ahead
Ambedkar recalls the examples of the
religious reform movement started by Luther in Europe which led to political emancipation there, the Puritan movement
which established political liberty in
England and the same Puritan religious
movement which won the American
independence war. Ambedkar also says
that Prophet Mohammed led a religious
revolution before the Arabs got political
power. Ambedkar quotes from Indian
history to show that Chandraguptas
political revolution was preceded by the
Buddhas social revolution, and Shivajis
political revolution by the social and religious revolutions led by numerous saints
in Maharashtra. This critical understanding of Ambedkar has been ignored by
Prasad and those Dalit capitalists who believe in the emancipatory promises of
neo-liberalism.
Notes
1

An investment programme initiated by the

present NDA government appealing to global
citizens of India to invest in their motherland.
Half of the citizens of the country were not
even considered as consumers and most of
their daily incomes are less than one dollar.
The finance minister during the union budget
speech 201415 on 18 July 2014 had announced
that a sum of `200 crore will be allocated
towards credit enhancement facility for young
and start-up entrepreneurs, belonging to Scheduled Castes, who aspire to be part of neo middle
class category with an objective to encourage

vol lI no 47

entrepreneurship in the lower strata of the

society resulting in job creation besides creating confidence in Scheduled Castes.
`200 crore Venture Capital fund for Scheduled
Castes.
`100 crore Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana for
Scheduled Tribe.
Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency
(MUDRA) Bankto provide refinance facilities
for loans up to `10 lakh for small entrepreneurs.
See the official website of DICCI for further
details, http://www.dicci.org/images/DICCI_presentation.pdf.

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