What is annihilation of caste?

Annihilation of Caste is a prolific work by Dr. Ambedkar. It encapsulates the ideas of a rebel of how caste and religion oppresses people – socially, morally and economically. Originally conceived as a speech for Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal, an organization of Caste Hindu Social Reformers, it was later published by Ambedkar himself, for the organization refused to allow him to give his speech in the original form.

Turn any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill the monster,” wrote B R Ambedkar in his celebrated work, “The Annihilation of Caste.”

Ambedkar’s analysis of cause and impacts of caste system in amazing every time one read it. His ability to dissect the wheat from the chaff shows his ability to think rationally.

As he explained it, Caste system was

Not spontaneous
Not based on natural aptitudes
Not on the basis of trained original capacities, but that of the social status of the parents
Not permit readjustment of occupations
Not based on choice, individual preference or sentiment
Based on dogma of predestination

He argued that such a system leads to

Aversion
Inefficiency (as result of aversion)
Evasion
Unemployment

Ambedkar made that remarks because the basic premise of his argument against caste was

Based on birth and Based on exclusive access to opportunities of

Education (limited by caste)
Capital (limited by inheritance)
Power (limited to aristocracy)

And the above are not based on abilities.

Here below is the original text.

Ambedkar’s original words

Caste is not just a division of labour, it is a division of labourers.

It is a pity that Caste even today has its defenders. The defences are many. It is defended on the ground that the Caste System is but another name for division of labour; and if division of labour is a necessary feature of every civilized society, then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the Caste System. Now the first thing that is to be urged against this view is that the Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers. Civilized society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilized society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments. The Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite different from division of labour—it is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour accompanied by this gradation of labourers.
There is also a third point of criticism against this view of the Caste System. This division of labour is not spontaneous, it is not based on natural aptitudes. Social and individual efficiency requires us to develop the capacity of an individual to the point of competency to choose and to make his own career. This principle is violated in the Caste System, in so far as it involves an attempt to appoint tasks to individuals in advance—selected not on the basis of trained original capacities, but on that of the social status of the parents.
Looked at from another point of view, this stratification of occupations which is the result of the Caste System is positively pernicious. Industry is never static. It undergoes rapid and abrupt changes. With such changes, an individual must be free to change his occupation. Without such freedom to adjust himself to changing circumstances, it would be impossible for him to gain his livelihood. Now the Caste System will not allow Hindus to take to occupations where they are wanted, if they do not belong to them by heredity. If a Hindu is seen to starve rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste, the reason is to be found in the Caste System. By not permitting readjustment of occupations, Caste becomes a direct cause of much of the unemployment we see in the country.
As a form of division of labor, the Caste system suffers from another serious defect. The division of labor brought about by the Caste System is not a division based on choice it is Individual sentiment, individual preference, has no place in it. It is based on the dogma of predestination. Considering social efficiency would compel us to recognize that the greatest evil in the industrial system has nothing to do with poverty and the suffering that it involves, as the fact that so many persons have callings [=occupations] which make no appeal to those who are engaged in them. Such callings constantly provoke one to aversion, ill will, and the desire to evade.
There are many occupations in India which, on account of the fact that they are regarded as degraded by the Hindus, provoke those who are engaged in them to aversion. There is a constant desire to evade and escape from such occupations, which arises solely because of the blighting effect which they produce upon those who follow them, owing to the slight and stigma cast upon them by the Hindu religion. What efficiency can there be in a system under which neither men’s hearts nor their minds are in their work? As an economic organization Caste is therefore a harmful institution, in as much as it involves the subordination of man’s natural powers and inclinations to the exigencies of social rules.