Three Questions To Communist Friends: By Revolutionary Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar delivering his historic speech “Buddha or Karl Marx”

There are two or three questions which I have always asked my Communist friends to answer and which, I must frankly say, they have not been able to answer. They establish by means of violence what they call the dictatorship of the proletariat. They deprive all people who have property, of their political rights. They cannot have right to vote, they must remain what they call second grade subjects of the state, the ruled, not sharing authority or power. When I asked them, "Do you agree that the dictatorship is a good method of governing people" ? They say, "No, we don't like dictatorship". Then we say, "How do you allow it" ? But they say, "This is an interim period in which dictatorship must be there." You proceed further and ask them, "What is the duration of this interim period" ? How long ? Twenty years ? Forty years ? Fifty years ?" No answer. They only repeat that the proletarian dictatorship will vanish, somehow automatically.

Very well, let us talk the thing as it is that dictatorship will vanish. Well, I ask the question, "What will happen when dictatorship disappears ? What will take its place ? Will men not need Government of sort ?" They have no answer. Then we go back to the Buddha and ask this question in relation to his Dhamma. What does he say ? The greatest thing that the Buddha has done is to tell the world that the world can not be reformed except by the reformation of the mind of the man, and the mind of the world. If the mind is changed, If the mind accepts the communist system and loves it loyalty and carries it out, it is a permanent thing, it does not require a soldier or a police officer to keep a man in order. Why ? The answer is: The Buddha has energized your conscience itself that is acting as a sentinel in order to keep you on your path. There is no trouble when the mind is converted the thing is permanent.

The Communist system is based in force......... Such a system can take no root, and therefore in my judgement unless the communist are able to answer these questions, what would happen to their system ? When force disappears, there is no use pursuing it. Because, If the mind is not converted, force will always be necessary, and this is what I want to say in conclusion that one of the greatest things I find in Buddhism is that its system is a democratic system.

~ Revolutionary Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Source:

* Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, English Volume 17, Part Three, ( Extracted from 'Buddha or Karl Marx') (Page: 554 - 556).

My Special Thanks To: Videesha Umare [For the aforementioned book].